In February, Urban Indy reported on a new structure in the planning phases that would take the place of a former liquor store at the intersection of Broad Ripple Ave, the Monon Trail and Winthrop Ave.
I am pleased to provide this update showing the progress that has been made towards completing the first addition to Broad Ripple Ave in many years. As you can see from the photo, a tall elevator shaft has been erected and several other supportive pieces are in place.
The IBJ reported in October that Chipotle has filed to take first floor space in this building indicating that the market is responding positively to this new building which was designed to comply with the recently passed Envision Broad Ripple plan.
To date, I have heard no protests to the height of this building nor the fact that a national chain is moving in.
Is that snark I’m detecting?
I like this building. Nice scale, multistory & mixed-use, on the Monon, small parking footprint. Personally I’m not a fan of more chain retail, but to each his own.
The Hinge resulted in The Bureau, Rook. Trail Side (Mass Ave) brought Yats, Homespun, Natural Born Juicers.
Broad Ripple gets Marcos, Orange Leaf, Chipotle, Whole Foods, Firehouse Subs, and a police station. It’s becoming less and less interesting to me every day honestly. I am academically curious though, if any of you happen to have insight, why all the chains in Broad Ripple?
Being a downtown dweller, I tend to do a lot of eye rolling at the Broad Ripplites.
I’m not sure they even know what they are. They think their local, but as you point out, there are chains galore. You also missed BW3s, McDonald’s, Starbuck’s and Einstein Bros. I’m sure there are others. They think they are funky, weird, and laidback, but on a Friday or Saturday night, it is mostly a drunken orgy up there. They think they are Yuppie and cool, but are beating the war drum over a Whole Foods which 99% of the city would be salivating over.
I just find it really strange.
Don’t believe that, ahow628. In about 60% of this city, you don’t dare admit that you shop at Whole Foods. Shopping at Whole Foods is a political and lifestyle statement that only a few are prepared to admit publicly. Shopping at Whole Foods can hurt your career and personal relationships. I imagine it could also help if you’re on the other side of the political divide. Whole Foods is not just a store like Marsh.
Trader Joe’s has a little bit of that same problem, but they try to downplay the weird stuff and make the place more mainstream. Plus, their price are cheap.
Chains are driven by formulas that emphasize traffic counts and median or average resident income within 1, 3, and 5 mile radii.
Broad Ripple Village is in the “easy drive” sweet spot between Meridian Hills, Williams Creek, BR/Canterbury/CTK (54th to 63rd, Monon to Keystone) and Meridian Kessler. The same economic dynamics led to the total revitalization of the Glendale area after it almost died in the late 80s/early 90s.
Further, its choppy parcelization and relative dearth of strip malls (medium sized one next to BRHS and small one at 64th) means that chain competition is limited (except for banks, which prefer free-standing sites).
Finally, its location near an upscale private university insures a constant churn of kids with money who want to have a good time near campus for a few years.
That strip center could be changing soon……..keep an eye out!
Please tell us more!!
Informative, thanks Chris. So you’re saying Mass Ave & Fountain Square don’t quite fall into the sweet spot of traffic & income to be terribly attractive to chains. At least not yet.
I believe it, at least compared to the combination of Meridian Kessler/Butler/Nora/etc neighborhoods that surround Broad Ripple. That’s a lot of residential within a couple miles.
Yeah. Downtowns and near-downtowns are trickier for car-driven suburban chains. And downtown dynamics are different, driven by “daytime population” and tourists. Thus all the chains around Circle Centre.
Another factor in those places, similar to BR Village: the old/historic spaces are non-standard. Another part of the chain formula is standardized footprints and operations. So, like Chipotle in BR, they go into new space where they can.
I’d expect to see some chains in the Mass Ave Fire Station redevelopment, and in any commercial space across the street at the “Barton Wrap”. Note that Qdoba and Orange Leaf are in CityWay…a short walking distance from 10,000+ hungry lunch eaters at Anthem, Lilly, and Rolls.
Huh? Glendale is scary. Nobody in Broad Ripple wants what’s going on in Glendale. People will drive further just to shop at the Nora Target.
If downtowners want a Whole Foods so badly, let them have one down there, or let them drive to the one in Carmel. Broad Ripple doesn’t want to be the shopping center for downtowners, with all the accompanying headaches and congestion.
The last 12 years have been very hard on Broad Ripple. The area is far worse than it was just a few years ago.
Pretty broad statement about the Village. As “Indy’s other downtown” Broad Ripple remains the City’s top destination neighborhood – continuing to draw folks not only from downtown, but from surrounding counties as well as serving adjacent neighborhoods. In the past 6 years alone BRV has added bike and ped enhancements on BRAVE; brought a mixed use parking garage online; pushed for adoption of new Sub Area Plan that lays the groundwork for form-based code; applied Complete Streets principles to Cornell repaving project; got Art2Art trail established; inched closer to Canal Esplanade project; seen classy adaptive reuse of structures on Cornell, Westfield (Rockdale) BRAVE, College & Carrollton helped moved the Midtown TIF forward and promoted projects that would “seed” the TIF. And the best is yet to come!
Everything you describe has been bad for Broad Ripple. BR now rues the day the Monon was built, as crime has increased because of it.
Indy’s biggest non-arena destinations are Castleton, Keystone at the Crossing, Downtown, Broad Ripple, and Washington Square. I’m not sure in what order, but I doubt BR is 2nd.
The “garage” (really shops with upstairs parking) is a scar on Broad Ripple that may mark the precise moment the neighborhood dropped into an unrecoverable dive.
Please, please, please, no more “help” for Broad Ripple. Bring back 1999.
Chains are ordinarily simply better, more consistent, more predictable and less embarrassing than local outfits.
Why risk another uncomfortable experience at some local one-off with weird customs, cramped quarters, and practices known only to locals with many visits under their belts? Pick the chain you like, and you know exactly what you’ll get and how the process will flow. Your experience will be much smoother, and you’ll be back on your way predictably.
A good chain has no embarrassments, no awkward moments, no surprises.
I really like this project. It’s perfect for this location. These small infill projects are so important when it comes to creating walkable, higher density neighborhoods (and w/o TIF money!). I am not that concerned about chains vs. independents. At the end, that’s up to consumers to decide. You can shop (like many of us) at Locally Grown Gardens or Kincaid’s, and there should be enough room for everyone. Once the fire-station project on Mass gets done, you will probalby see a lot more chains move in there as well. Same will happen to Virginia Ave.
I’m curious. Why do you think that higher density neighborhoods are a good thing and/or desirable to the villagers that already live there?
100% of the villagers that own homes that we know (hundreds of them) do not want more density. Nor do they want more low-cost apartment housing like the ilk behind the BR High School that attracts transient dwellers without any invested concern for the health & vitality of the community.
I’m just saying.. It seems like someone is pushing this “more density” thing with an alternate agenda that does nto reflect the vast majority of homeowners.
What do you want then? Do you want everyone to stop investing in Broad Ripple? Do you want blight. These are simply examples of people trying to invest in the area. Everyone loves Broad Ripple as a nice walkable urban neighborhood. That is partially due to its density. Have you seen a commercial district that is decidedly undense (Castelston) it is not exactly all that pretty and you have every fair chance in the world to move there if you would like. Whether you like it or not areas change. A building such as this one is exactly what is needed. Lor, the longtime landowner decided that it would be smart to invest in a new buidling on their own property. Considering that it is a smaller lot locked in by the Monon and Winthrop they would have to fill most of the lot and build a few stories onto it. This is your so called hated density. It is needed to expand in an urban area. The apartments you hate will probably be there much longer because people like you protest the construction of new apartments so nobody will want to take a chance (with their own money) and possibly knock down or renovate the old apartments. People like you who wish Broad Ripple were just single family homes and suburban type business with huge parking lots are going to be the death of Broad Ripple. People will take their money and build elsewhere.
Wow… didn’t expect to be lumped in with an overgeneralized categorization of “people like you” and a whole lot of other assumptions mixed in with the tone. Seriously, I was looking for some dialogue and understanding from someone else’s perspective and thought this site would be hip enough to allow some exchange. I’ll take it this is not the place for such a discussion.
May you have a happy new year!
Didn’t mean to sound combative and accusatory. Sorry, replace “people like you” with just “people”
I’m most curious to know why single-family homeowners seem to think they “own” the whole neighborhood? Don’t apartment owners, condo owners, and commercial property owners get to have a say?
Yes. If no one wanted to move to Broad Ripple, there would be no demand for new housing…or more importantly, for your existing single-family homes. It’s a whole lot better to live in a place where people want to buy your home when you want to sell!
If you don’t believe this, take a field trip south into Center Township, or east along 46th around Arlington HS.
I don’t live in Broad Ripple proper but just outside it – walking distance. I’m a homeowner. FWIW I desperately want more density and prefer mixed incomes.
I want more people with more ideas and diverse backgrounds rubbing elbows on the street. I want to see Broad Ripple be more self-sufficient. I want more pedestrians and cyclists that will calm traffic and create a safer environment for my children. I want improved pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. I want more job opportunities close to home. I want a larger tax base to fund improved city services. I want my property value to rise. I want to spend more of my money closer to home. I want improved transit connectivity. I want to sell my car and have most everything I need in walking/biking/transit distance.
Most of these are not feasible without increased density. This is why I think density is a good thing. Not downtown-level of density, if I wanted that I’d move downtown. A compact and relatively cozy & quiet urban/village center surrounded by safe and walkable neighborhoods not reamed out by interstates or major arterials. This is what Broad Ripple can offer that no place else in the city can (in my opinion).
Reasonable people can disagree. I’m not asking you to want those things. Also don’t take my desire for density as a statement of support for this development – I think it’s mediocre at best.
I’m curious, you say the people you know do not want density. What is it specifically they’re afraid of?
Oops, scratch my comment about not supporting this development. I got carried away and forgot which BR development we were talking about 🙂 Awesome that’s a problem, though, with multiple things happening in Broad Ripple at the moment… love it.
As my original comment far above states, I actually do like this building quite a bit.
The thing is, Broad Ripple was wonderfully walkable, just recently, but they’re fast destroying that, as it’s so hard to get to Broad Ripple and easily find a free and convenient place to park. If you can’t easily and quickly drive in and out of Broad Ripple, you’ve destroyed the neighborhood and its walkability.
With Broad Ripple being such a hassle, they’re going to push the walking trade right out of the neighborhood. We need more developments like Clay Terrace and Hamilton Town Center. Those are nice, clean, safe, accessible and very walkable.
I live in downtown Carmel but ride my bike to businesses in BRV a lot. For the person who said the Monon is a mistake that brings crime to the area: I’d just like to point out that for every crime, the Monon bring gajillions of purchases that feed the businesses and the tax base of Indy via BRV :).
This building has a much more appealing design than the new buildings in downtown Carmel- jealous. It’s also located in a good, high traffic area, isn’t branded or parking-lot bound, and could house a lot of interesting joints over the years.
BTW, I have been wondering about the building just North, across the canal on the Monon (East Side). It has a similar style as this one, but is a rehab of an existing building rather than new construction. I was so impressed to see what a creative designer could do with a one-story cinder block structure. Do you know what’s going in there and who is behind it?
I think you are referring to Rockdale development:
https://urbanindy.com/2012/03/23/rockdal-proposal-in-broad-ripple/
Julia, It’s not an obligation of a resident to endure crime so the city can have higher tax revenues.
Standardized, you seem to be scared out of your mind about the apparent crime at Glendale and the monon around Broad Ripple. While there is crime here (as well as just about everywhere), I live in the area and it has never crossed my mind to go to Nora becasue Glendale is “scary”. Or that the Monon is a terrible idea because of the crime it alone brings. It sounds like its time for you to gather some supplies, pop a xanex, and hole up in the panic room.
I think it is important to keep in mind that a Clay Terrace or Hamilton Town Centre type area is created to be a center point for a suburban style area, like Carmel or Noblesville. Broad Ripple is a section within a city. I’m pretty sure people in Chicago didn’t stop development in Lincoln Park and suggest turning the area into more of a Skokie type area. Because Lincoln Park is not a suburb and likewise, neither is Broad Ripple. This new development, among the other controversial developments popping up in Broad Ripple, will increase the area’s attractiveness to other businesses and help propel Broad Ripple to the next level.
I won’t pass judgement on what is safe and what is not. Perception versus reality can be difficult to make the call on.
However, it is tough to argue that people love Broad Ripple. The place is overflowing with visitors and clearly, will be adding new residents as time goes on. This is a firm validation of the market’s desire to invest there. Perceived crime or not.
Personal attacks will be deleted.
I understand the desire to delete bad posts, but it really makes it hard to follow the thread when multiple people have already responded to it.
Chains can be good or bad. I never have eaten in a chain restaurant that matched a local one. Still chains aren’t the problem. Broad Ripple is becoming too expensive for the little shops that make it a fun place to visit (it should be obvious that I mostly don’t frequent the real attraction – the bars). Renting the entire project to a mega-store is good for the developer, but not necessarily for Broad Ripple. The increased traffic congestion will not help — and they never considered 64th Street in traffic studies.
Mostly though, after giving away the parking meters and having the tax payers pay for a line of store fronts with a rarely used parking garage on top, some people don’t want to give money for a development that should be able to stand on its own financially.