Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
City officials have struck a deal with the state to trade local properties, giving Indianapolis possession of the 15-acre former Indiana Women’s Prison site on the city’s east side.
According to the deal announced Wednesday afternoon, Indianapolis will take control of the former prison property at 401 N. Randolph Street in exchange for the following sites:
- The 8.4-acre parcel at 2600 S. Harding Street that is currently home to the Indianapolis Animal Care Services municipal animal shelter. City officials plan to relocate operations at the site to a new shelter facility in 2026. The state will take “full possession” of the property after the move.
- A 7.7-acre segment of Sherman Park at 710 Sherman Ave. The vacant plot formerly housed an RCA/Thomson Consumer Electronics plant that was demolished in 2017. The city’s Department of Metropolitan Development owns a total of 22.21 acres at Sherman Park.
The deal should be finalized by November, officials said. It puts into motion a potential redevelopment of a long-vacant east-side property.
“The upcoming exchange will pave the way for future redevelopment and revitalization of the historic site, contributing to the city’s long-term growth plans,” city spokeswoman Aliya Wishner said in written comments.
Wishner told IBJ that the Department of Metropolitan Development will work with neighbors on the redevelopment process, much like the city’s work to redevelop the Twin Aire Plaza.
The Indiana Women’s Prison was the first separate prison for female inmates when it was established in 1873. More than a century later, in 2009, the prison relocated to 2596 Girls School Road. The Indianapolis Re-Entry Educational Facility opened on Randolph Street in its place and operated there until 2017.
In 2022, the Indiana Department of Administration demolished most of the buildings and boarded up the rest. Local officials say state ownership of the former prison property has been a hurdle to redevelopment.
The soon-to-be state owned portion of Sherman Park is near the RecycleForce facility at 816 N. Sherman Drive, according to Wishner.
At one point, the city planned to move the municipal animal shelter to Sherman Park before choosing a different location: 5001 E. Raymond St., on the southeast side. Slow-moving remediation efforts at the former industrial site and the need to remove a large concrete pad stalled the project and caused the city to switch gears last year.
Wishner said the Sherman Park parcel being traded to the state is different than the location formerly proposed for the animal shelter.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
How is it any better for the Near Eastside for the State to control redevelopment at Sherman Park vs. the Women’s Prison? (I’m imagining a state highway department depot, complete with salt barn, not unlike the mess where Delaware splits off from Madison under I-70 by Lilly.)
Sherman Park would have been a great place for the new soccer stadium and help revitalize the area.
It would not have been a good site for that at all lol.
Sherman Park should have a WalMart, possibly a Lowes or similar, and a smattering of mixed retail/residential. Put in a community services center for the city, a police sub-station, all of which would help the local residents and help revitalize and bring up tax revenue.
Those big stores locate on major roads. Neither Michigan nor Sherman qualifies.
The best reuse for the site is probably commericial/light industrial (i.e. small warehouse/manufacturing/contractors /service businesses) since there are contamination issues that prevent residential.
Not unlike Keystone Park, but without the heavy trucking needs, since access to/from interstates is not great.