Flaherty & Collins Seeks Equity Partner for $85M-Plus Apartment Development

by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Flaherty & Collins Properties has recently completed the first phase of the Axis apartment community in downtown Indianapolis and is currently looking for an equity partner.

According the Indianapolis Business Journal, the company intends to sell a portion of the complex since the project exceeded its $80 million budget by more than $5 million. This increase resulted from higher-than-expected construction costs and other cost overruns.

Bordered by Michigan and Vermont streets and Capitol and Senate avenues, the initial portion of the Axis development features 336 rental units. It is anchored by a 42,000-square-foot Marsh grocery store and is currently 70 percent leased. Flaherty & Collins has appointed CBRE to market the project, which broke ground in February 2013.

Construction on the second phase of Axis, which entails an investment of $35 million, is scheduled to begin within 12 months. It will proceed regardless of whether the company finds a partner for the first phase of the development, CEO David Flaherty told the newspaper.

The new building is slated to rise on a triangle-shaped parcel between Senate and Indiana avenues and will include 160 apartments and up to 10,000 square feet of retail space.

Flaherty & Collins also developed the 218-unit Cosmopolitan on the Canal in downtown Indianapolis, for which it spent $33 million. The company sold a portion of the complex, which is nearly adjacent to Axis, to an out-of-state institutional investor in 2011. Flaherty continues to manage the property and will do the same at the Axis community.

Flaherty & Collins’ search for an investor begins as the company prepares to break ground on its largest development yet–the 28-story 360 Market Square mixed-use tower which will rise on part of the former Market Square Arena site. Upon completion, the $121 million project will bring 292 luxury apartments and a retail portion anchored by a Whole Foods store.

Photo credits: Flaherty & Collins Properties