Owner of former Anthem HQ lists building on Monument Circle for sale

The former headquarters of Anthem Inc. on Monument Circle. (IBJ file photo)

The longtime owner of the former Anthem Inc. headquarters on the northwest segment of Monument Circle has listed the vacant building for sale.

Boston-based Franklin Street Properties, which spent $42 million to buy the building in 2010, has not disclosed an asking price for the property, as it hopes to cast as wide a net as possible for potential future uses of the property.

Dan Richardson, a broker with the Indianapolis office of Dallas firm CBRE who is representing Franklin Street, said the company remains most interested in finding an office user for the balance of the 213,600-square-foot building at 120 Monument Circle. However, it also is open to selling the building to a developer with plans for a different type of use—say, a hotel or apartments—even if that meant it couldn’t afford to pay as much for the building.

Franklin Street has been seeking a user for the building since Anthem, which was rebranded in 2022 as Elevance Health Inc., completed relocation to its new headquarters on Virginia Avenue in late 2018. Listing the property for sale is a marked change from a years-long strategy of only looking for tenants to lease a portion or all of the property.

“Post-pandemic, I don’t think it’s news to anyone that the office market has been adjusting to the new work-from-home environment. … So after four years, they’ve decided to open it up to other options,” Richardson said of the firm.

“They have us out marketing the property now for sale. Ideally, that would still be an office tenant. … But they’re also looking at other alternatives, meaning investors that might want to come in and do an alternative use. We still would love to do a lease deal, as we’ve wanted to do all along, but … they’ve decided they want to expand their universe a little bit, expand the possibilities of what might happen there.”

Multiple scenarios have been examined for the property over the years, including the possibility of converting a portion of the four-story building’s basement level into parking. The possibility of adding more retail tenants has also been floated in recent years, as has splitting up the building to accommodate multiple office users. Current storefront tenants include FedEx Office, H&R Block and Forum Credit Union, which collectively occupy a total of about 11,000 square feet.

Richardson said Franklin Street is withholding a specific asking price to encourage consideration from those that might require significant investment to modify the building for non-office uses.

“We’re looking for the best pricing we can get, but not hindering someone by telling them that we they have to achieve a certain price that’s perhaps not in line with a plan for an alternative use,” he said.

In August, Indianapolis Chief Deputy Mayor Dan Parker said the city had pitched Purdue University on occupying a portion of either the former Anthem building or the Emmis Corp. building in the southwest quadrant of the Circle as the university looks to expand its offerings in Indianapolis following the IUPUI split in July.

Purdue officials had abstained from making a commitment, Parker said.

The university already has established footholds outside the former IUPUI campus, agreeing to locate some Purdue Innovates programs inside the High Alpha headquarters at the Bottleworks District and the school’s motorsports program in the Dallara building in downtown Speedway. It also plans to be a partner in the One Health Innovation District at the former General Motors stamping plant site on western bank of the White River downtown.

Marketing of the Emmis building has also continued since it was offered for sale for $35 million last year, after Emmis sold most of its radio station holdings to Urban One.

Jeff Smulyan, Emmis founder and chairman, has said the building will remain fully leased through 2025, when the Urban One stations’ lease concludes. Several other tenants also occupy parts of the building.

CBRE’s Richardson said the Anthem building’s owner is open to local or national buyers.

“They’ve been patient and they have the ability to remain patient,” Richardson said. “That said, our instruction is to go out and and solicit as many offers as we can as quickly as possible, and help them make a decision as to what they want to do next.”