On the agenda earlier today for the Metropolitan Development Commission were two items related to the recently announced Clarian Health projects immediately to the south of Methodist Hospital. One project will be a $100M Clarian-owned Neuroscience Center on a block of land bounded by 16th St., Missouri St., 14th St. and Senate Ave. The other will be a $50M Shiel-Sexton project on land bounded by 16th St., Capitol Ave., 14th St., and Byram Pl. (an alley). Clarian will also be the main tenant in this project, leasing space to consolidate administrative functions currently housed in several locations.
Combined, these two projects will provide a huge economic boost to the near north area — estimates call for approximately 1200 new and 1200 relocated jobs to be housed in the two projects — and also represent a significant win for the 16th St. redevelopment efforts that date back to 2004 when the 16th Street FOCUS Corridor plans were announced. Due to the size of these projects, several more regulatory steps must occur before construction can begin.  Some steps, including vacating streets for the Neuroscience Center, have already been approved. Designs are likely to be made public later this fall once all the hurdles have been cleared. Today’s regulatory steps are listed publicly as follows:
RESOLUTION NO. 2010-R-014 (Public Hearing) Authorizes the DMD to convey the properties located at the Southeast Corner of Fall Creek Parkway E. Drive and W. 16th Street, commonly known as 700 W. 16th Street and the Southeast Corner of Capitol Avenue and 16th Street, commonly known as 155 W. 16th Street, to the Near North Development Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation, at no cost, for inclusion in a neighborhood revitalization project.
RESOLUTION NO. 2010-B-020 Authorizes a Declaratory Resolution amending the original declaratory resolution and plan for the Consolidated Redevelopment Area to add the Clarian Projects to the list of eligible proceeds to be funded with Tax Increment funding from the Consolidated Redevelopment Allocation Area.
The first item relates to an Indianapolis Fire Department firehouse that currently sits on the southeast corner of Capitol Ave. and 16th St.  Shiel-Sexton already owns all the land surrounding that firehouse and the city plans to relocate that firehouse and sell the land to Shiel-Sexton for inclusion in their project. A new firehouse will be built on the southeast corner of Fall Creek Parkway E. Dr. and 16th St.  Ceding the properties to the Near North Development Corporation at no cost is a step in the process of transferring the current firehouse land to Shiel-Sexton. The following map shows the relative locations of the firehouses (click for a larger version).
The second item relates to unlocking funds from a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) zone created in the 1980s. Â From a Department of Metropolitan Development planning document released in 1993, “the MDC established the Near North Industrial Park Redevelopment District for the area generally bounded by Methodist Hospital, Illinois, and I65 which is directed to assist expansion by Methodist and area businesses and attracting new medical technology research and development businesses.” Â The planned redevelopments clearly fall within the original goals of this zone, so the language of this Resolution appears to simply identify the Clarian project as a recipient of funds. Â The exact use of TIF funds isn’t clear yet but typically includes infrastructure work.
More details are sure to follow on this project and we’ll do our best to keep you updated.
1. This is HUGE.
2. This is transformative. The project will leave just a block of unrelated buildings along the monorail between the expanded Methodist campus and the Clarian Lab and Clarian/IU buildings adjacent to Buggs Temple at the head of the canal. Coupled with the forthcoming IU School of Public Health (many departments of which occupy quarters in office buildings further south along the canal), there is an almost unbroken/continuous “eds and meds” complex wrapping around the west and northwest sides of downtown Indianapolis, from White River east and north to 21st and Capitol.
3. This illustrates how long it takes (and how quietly things proceed) to put together major redevelopment. The 16th Street FOCUS plan was published in 2004.
Cant wait til the public gets a look at the lay of the land!
There ya go, Curt. 🙂