Westfield starts designing long-awaited downtown

A Westfield family hops onto their golf cart on a summer evening and heads downtown for dinner and a good time. At least, that’s how Scott Willis envisions it.

For years, transforming Westfield’s downtown into a vibrant, happening place has been a much-discussed but never-realized goal. Now, the first-term mayor is pushing to make the redevelopment of downtown more than just a talking point in the fast-growing city.

In Hamilton County, Carmel and Fishers have spent years building gleaming downtowns. And Noblesville is adding modern touches to its historic city center. But in Westfield, the answer to, “Where’s downtown?” remains, “What downtown?”

“We don’t have a downtown,” Willis said.

The lack of action—attributed by some to the community’s rapid growth, city government infighting in recent years and resistance to change—has come into focus as other parts of Westfield have been developed into housing subdivisions and the 400-acre Grand Park Sports Campus.

Westfield is the sixth-fastest-growing city in the United States. Its population has increased from 21,000 in 2008 to nearly 58,000 last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. But the lack of a downtown means the message Willis hears from residents is, there is no place to shop, eat or gather as a community.

“I’m hearing it repeatedly from residents that they’re tired of going to Carmel. They’re tired of going to Fishers and Noblesville,” he said. “They want their own city to have that vibrant gathering area for residents.”

Willis told IBJ his administration is laying the groundwork for a four-phase approach to redeveloping downtown around the intersection of State Road 32 (Main Street) and Union Street.

“That intersection is ground zero,” he said.

The intersection’s southwest quadrant would be the starting point. The southeast quadrant would follow in the second phase, and the northeast and northwest quadrants would be Phases 3 and 4 in the more distant future.

The city has not set a development timeline, but officials are working with Indianapolis-based urban planning firm MKSK to design downtown’s first phase.

Willis expects work there to begin in earnest over the next five years, particularly as the Indiana Department of Transportation continues a $21.7 million reconstruction of S.R. 32 to expand it from two lanes to four from Westfield Boulevard (formerly Poplar Street) to Timberbrook Run. INDOT is overseeing the $80 million project that will also build seven roundabouts for five miles between Westfield and Noblesville.

“It’ll be several billion dollars of investment in the downtown area,” Willis said.

Early progress

Some action is already taking place in the southwest quadrant of S.R. 32 and Union Street.

It’s where the city’s “Restaurant Row” took shape a decade ago when Westfield residents Bob and Michelle Beauchamp began purchasing and renovating houses in the 200 block of Park Street. The homes were converted into what have become some of Westfield’s most well-known eateries, including Nyla’s, The Italian House on Park, Chiba and Greek’s Pizzeria.

“That’s been the only thing that’s drawn me into our downtown,” Willis said. “And if we can just take that and 10-fold it into something really unique, I think that’s something that will really be an attraction for our community.”

A big step toward redeveloping downtown happened in 2021 when the $39 million Grand Junction Plaza opened between Mill and Union streets south of Jersey Street. The six-acre public park features green space, trails, an amphitheater and an ice-skating rink. The park is home to civic events like the Westfield Farmers Market, Movies in the Plaza and the Jams at the Junction concert series.

Carmel-based Old Town Cos. is building Union Square just north of Grand Junction Plaza, on the city block south of S.R. 32. The project is expected to feature an 8,700-square-foot Sun King Brewing Co. taproom and food hall, additional dining options, 196 apartments, a 300-space parking garage, 17,000 square feet of retail space and a 40,000-square-foot office and retail building.

Union Square will really start to create that identity for our downtown that is very much so needed,” City Council member Victor McCarty said. “It will be wonderful once that opens up to have people actually living downtown right next to the plaza.”

Local restaurateur Henri Najem plans to open a $6.4 million, high-end steakhouse early next year at the southwest corner of Jersey and Mill streets. The 9,500-square-foot H Restaurant is expected to have more than 200 seats and a year-round patio.

And adjacent to H Restaurant, Bub’s Burgers and Ice Cream plans to open a 3,900-square-foot restaurant next year. Bub’s, founded in 2003 in Carmel by Matt and Rachel Frey, previously operated a restaurant in Westfield near U.S. 31 and Wheeler Road.

Drawing blueprints

Early planning is also underway on two major mixed-use developments in the southwest quadrant.

The $164 million Park & Poplar project would feature a 560-space parking garage, 60,000 square feet of office and commercial space, 10,000 square feet of retail space, a 90-room boutique hotel, 250 apartments and a public plaza. A component of the plan would turn Park Street, just north of the development into a pedestrian-only path that would also allow for outdoor restaurant seating along Restaurant Row.

Park & Poplar would be built on eight acres along the Midland Trace Trail, south of Park Street and between Mill Street and Westfield Boulevard. The development would be just across Westfield Boulevard from the new $17.7 Westfield-Washington Public Library.

The city is working on a developer agreement for the project with a yet-to-be-announced firm. The development’s construction schedule has not been determined, but the city plans to open the parking garage by spring 2027.

The city plans to purchase two parcels needed for the project by the end of the month and a third parcel in early November. Two existing businesses, My Logo Shop (320 Parkway Circle) and Esler’s Auto Repair Inc. (350 Parkway Circle), plan to move.

A second development, the $100 million Jersey Street project, is planned for 3 acres on the south side of S.R. 32, between Mill Street and Westfield Boulevard.

Preliminary plans for Jersey Street call for a 525-space parking garage, 36,000 square feet of office and commercial space, 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 172 apartments, a public plaza, golf cart parking spots and EV charging stations. A developer has not been selected for the project.

Jersey Street is “is going to be probably the most transformational project we’ve had so far because you’re going to come right off [U.S. 31] into downtown and it’s right there,” Willis said.

The Westfield City Council has not reviewed plans for either Park & Poplar or Jersey Street.

Curt Whitesell, owner of Westfield-based WKRP Real Estate and a member of the Downtown Westfield Association, has focused on selling downtown properties since he opened his firm in 2008. He said bringing people and density to the area will be important.

“Businesses have always said they want to be downtown,” Whitesell said. “There’s no space or location, and so I think it’ll be neat to have an option for these companies to bring their employees into a really cool work environment with restaurants and hotels and a place they can live.”

Willis has looked at local suburban communities for ideas, but he said nobody wants Westfield to become a carbon copy of other places.

“We’re not taking one project and just copying it over here,” Willis said. “We’re taking pieces of the puzzle and putting something unique together here in Westfield.”

He is also studying Peachtree City, Georgia, which has nearly 100 miles of golf cart trails and where he said golf carts are the primary mode of transportation. Golf carts are a major component of his idea for downtown, and he is working through speeches and public outreach to push his idea for Westfield to become a golf cart city.

Willis wants the city’s trail system, aside from the Monon Trail, to open for golf carts, which are currently permitted only on the eastern section of the Midland Trace Trail and streets with a speed limit of 25 miles per hour or less. Residents of the Bridgewater community regularly drive golf carts along the Midland Trace, he said.

People driving golf carts on Westfield’s trails has been a touchy subject. In 2020, a resident started an unsuccessful petition to rescind the city’s golf cart ordinance after her husband had a close call with a golf cart driver while biking.

However, Willis said he thinks expanding the rules around golf carts can help differentiate Westfield from its competitors.

“The people who use golf carts to get around absolutely love it, and I think once we make it accessible for everybody, you’ll see golf cart usage just explode,” he said.

Catching up

Willis worries that if Westfield does not act fast on the city’s core, the area around Grand Park Sports Campus could become the de-facto downtown as it develops.

Last year, Westfield selected a consortium of firms to manage and further develop the sports campus after a search that lasted nearly two years. Under the partnership, plans for Grand Park include a mix of restaurants, hotels, public spaces, a mixed-use complex with residential, office and retail spaces, and a state-of-the-art sports facility.

“My fear is that as we start to redevelop the Grand Park area, it will create better places for residents to be than in our own downtown. We should do both,” Willis said. “We need that place around Grand Park for our visitors and residents, but I’d like to see our downtown be more of a city center for our own residents, and that’s where they want to go on a weekend versus fighting kids in cleats around Grand Park.”

McCarty said he thinks downtown Westfield and Grand Park can become two community hubs that serve separate, but complementary purposes.

“I think as we continue to build complementing gathering spaces, complementing restaurants, complementing entertainment and so forth, that will only provide more opportunity for more distribution between our visitors and residents,” McCarty said.

Whitesell said he is pleased to see the city’s new mayor and completely new seven-member City Council on the same page with the goal of redeveloping downtown, creating an atmosphere of cooperation that was not present over the past four years when former Mayor Andy Cook and members of the previous City Council were often at odds.

Whitesell said he feared Westfield missed its chance to build a downtown when interest rates were lower. But “whether it was a fear or whether it was just impossible, [the city] was not capable of pulling that stuff off 10 years ago,” he said.

Whitesell said Westfield’s relatively new status as a city—the community transitioned from a town in 2008—meant it took time for the community to develop revenue and adopt creative development tactics, like tax-increment financing, that helped Carmel and Fishers grow their downtowns.

“The vision is there, and I can imagine in 10 years from now walking downtown and just saying, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’” Whitesell said. “Starting over now, it’s a lot later than I had expected or hoped, but at least it’s happening. I’m just glad it’s finally happening.”

Bob Beauchamp said the delay in redeveloping Westfield’s downtown was the result of an older generation of residents who were “clinging to memories of how it was and not how it could be” and who “boxed out a lot of development.”

“We went through a bad four-year period where the people that don’t want any change were in control of the City Council,” Beauchamp said. “The new City Council is made up of people who are going to get on top of the change and direct it, and it’s just awesome.”•