Developer pitching $17.5M project in downtown Fishers

A development group that includes local office suite operator Yeager Properties is working on plans for a $17.5 million mixed-use building and parking garage in downtown Fishers.

Fishers Urban Development LLC is negotiating a project agreement with the town, which owns the targeted property—a shuttered KFC at 116th Street and Lantern Road next door to Yeager’s Fishers Office Suites.

Plans call for a three-story, 50,000-square-foot building with retail on the first floor and medical-office uses above, said partner Scott Baldwin of residential brokerage Baldwin Cos. The attached parking garage would replace an existing surface lot south of the office suites and be shared by tenants in both buildings.

Fishers’ Town Council is expected to vote Monday on a proposal that calls for the town to contribute the KFC property and $6 million for the 330-space garage, which likely also would be available for public parking.

The site is just a few blocks east of The Depot at Nickel Plate, a $42 million apartment-and-retail project that Flaherty & Collins Properties is building with help from the town. Fishers contributed land in its municipal complex and about $11 million in tax-increment financing toward a 430-space garage there.

Parking is a key component in town leaders’ effort to build a bustling downtown that will draw residents and businesses alike, creating an identity for the community and diversifying its tax base.

"The consideration of this proposal is exciting to the town because it confirms that momentum is building for our vision of a great downtown in our community," Town Manager Scott Fadness said in an email.

Indeed, economic development leaders have said for months that several such deals are in the works.

As IBJ reported in September, officials have been working on plans to redevelop the Fishers Train Station site, and the town already has lined up a tenant for a future office building there. Digital marketing firm BlastMedia is expected to occupy 10,000 square feet on its third floor if the building is complete within two years.

And in December, Fishers-based construction firm Meyer Najem said it would move its headquarters into a $5.5 million office building it’s planning on town-owned land across the railroad tracks from the Fishers Public Library. The town promised to lease the top floor and sublease the space to high-potential companies that need flexible lease terms.

Town leaders have been assembling small parcels of land in the heart of downtown for more than a year in hopes of spurring development.

Baldwin, who is working with Yeager Properties President Scott Yeager and local land-use attorney Steve Hardin on the new mixed-use project, said Fishers Urban Development already has lined up tenants for the building.

“I can’t say who they are yet, but the majority of the building is leased,” he said. “It’s a spectacular location.”
 
The former KFC site downtown has a lot of potential, agreed Ashlee Boyd, senior vice president at Terre Haute-based Thompson Thrift Development Inc., which is working on the 104-acre Fishers Marketplace project a few miles north along State Road 37.

“It’s got all the key ingredients to make something like that successful,” he said, ticking off advantages such as its proximity to heavily traveled Interstate 69 (and its busy Exit 205).

Indeed, Fishers’ economic development officials tout daily traffic of about 40,000 vehicles along that stretch of 116th Street and 3,000 rooftops within a mile of downtown.

“It’s a very well-located piece of property, so it’s just a matter of getting the right project in there,” said Boyd, who was not familiar with Fishers Urban Development’s plans. “The residents of Fishers certainly are ready and eager for that type of project.”