The Ironworks project at 86th and Keystone is in its finishing stages. The mixed-use building will house apartments, along with a Ruth’s Chris Steak House and B Spot. Â It will even house complimentary bikes for residents. Â If I ignored the site plan, this project would look like a huge win. Â Admittedly, a new building off of an interstate exit is notoriously difficult to design for anything other than vehicles, but there may be some missed opportunities here.
I’m not really sure how people would bike or walk to this location. The best option would be to walk from the west from 86th Street, but biking anywhere around here is pretty treacherous. Â As far as walking, think of all of the office workers in the area to the south. Â Ironworks is in the upper right corner of this aerial:
It appears that Ironworks assumes that these workers will want to hop in their cars on to 86th Street or Keystone Avenue, instead of walking to eat lunch in their development. But, there is something interesting in the parking lot just to the southwest of Ironworks:
It is a temporary pedestrian bridge over the creek for construction workers. I have seen no plans to make a permanent bridge here, but if there was, then maybe the Nora-Northside Community Council would have a bit less to fear as far as traffic is concerned. Â It doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective, but the potential to relieve stress from both roadways and office workers lives seems like a win-win idea.
I didn’t realize there was a pedestrian bridge behind the building either. Given, who would see it unless they drove back there. To make that area even slightly more walkable, all the city has to do is put in sidewalks and crosswalks much like what is in place at the 96th street exit going west by the Burger King. Do people necessarily feel safe biking there and having to watch out for cars turning right to go south on I-69? Maybe, maybe not. However, I do see people walking and biking around that area all the time. Why can’t something that simple be done across that stretch of 82nd/86th street? That would provide “easy” (I use that term loosely) for people going from the Ironworks site to areas at Keystone Crossing.
I’m a Nora resident and love this development. I hope more rezoning occurs and more developments like this happen between Keystone and Westfield along 86th street. I would love to ride my bike to the other side of Keystone, but that would be suicide. I tried it once and will never again. The Keystone/86th intersection needs some attention from the city. If there was a pedestrian path under Keystone, I would ride my bike instead of driving to the mall. I can’t help but think I wouldn’t be the only one. If Nora is concerned about traffic, this would be another great opportunity to reduce it. I know, it’s a pipe dream.
Mike – As a resident of the same area. I could not agree more with all of your comments. I would love to see some more interesting developments along 86th street to replace the aging strip malls. And, while I have ridden my bike on 86th across Keystone a quite a few times, I simply won’t do it any more because of a couple close calls. Now, I go up to 106th or down to 62nd to get across Keystone.
“I’m not really sure how people would bike or walk to this location.”
Hopefully, nobody will. Walkers and bicyclists don’t belong on either 86th Street or Keystone. It would be irresponsible to walk or bike to Ironworks.
Well I see people walking to and from the bus stop locations along 82nd/86th street. So what are those people supposed to do?
I suspect that most people taking that bus are workers for Keystone at the Crossing.
Perhaps that is where the majority gets off. But I’ve seen many people getting on and off near Castleton Mall and near the railroad tracks on the 82nd street side, I’ve seen many waiting for the bus at North Central and further west on the 86th street side. The fact of the matter is, is that people need to stop making excuses for the lack of walkable infrastructure in the “suburban” areas of the city. Because it is a city. It’s not a suburb. If there are more plans to increase the density in that area, and if the mayor truly wants to bring higher income residents back into Marion County, he’ll seek to improve the infrastructure in other areas outside of downtown. The 86th/82nd street corridor is the next largest money maker in the city and that’s where this type of attention needs to be. Putting route 86 on that street without accompanying plans for more sidewalks was poor planning, but it’s not too late to rectify the situation.
Standardized. There are sidewalks on both sides of 86th Street, west of Keystone. They just come to a dead end there. My point is that there needs to be a path/walk to the east side of keystone.
Mike, if Nora is opposed to traffic, it can watch Fishers bleed off all its business.
I agree. I’m just offering suggestions to reduce traffic, so that we can have more development without opposition.
I know some people who work in that building just to the southwest of Ironworks.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that it would be much faster and easier for them to walk across the two parking lots to Ironworks, than to walk out halfway in their own lot, get in their car, drive at least a half mile around to 86th and into Ironworks, park, and walk through half a parking lot there into an eating spot. If there isn’t a bridge after construction, I suspect they will improvise.
Chris, my better half works near there as well, hence my inspiration for this post :).
Rumor has it that a permanent bridge is in the works for that location.
Just curious if anyone noticed that the permanent bridge is now open between Woodfield Crossing and Ironworks. Just in time for work to begin on the hotel development at the former La-Z-Boy site.
There was no point to building faux urban by fronting the building in the NE corner of the pic on a highway service drive. It’s acting like this is better design by using terms like mixed use and urban in what’s nothing more than a modern office park.