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Multiple retailers, restaurants and other businesses recently opened or are planning new locations in the north suburbs of Indianapolis. Here’s a rundown:
Kittles
Indianapolis-based Kittle’s Furniture plans to build a 50,000-square-foot furniture and design center at the southwest corner of East 141st Street and Cabela Parkway in Noblesville, just west of Hamilton Town Center.
Kittle’s plans to spend $20 million to build the showroom at the 750-acre Saxony development, which straddles Fishers and Noblesville.
The Noblesville City Council on Monday heard an introduction for plans for the new Kittle’s store. Under a proposed economic development agreement, the city would provide Kittle’s with a $1 million loan to help pay for the new facility.
Kittle’s Furniture Chairman Jim Kittle told council members that the new showroom building “is not going to look like a box.” He said he wants to build the facility in Noblesville because he thinks the city is “the epicenter of what’s happening in the state of Indiana” in terms of development and growth.
“We’re probably spending 20% to 25% more than we would have to build a box. And this ain’t a box,” said Kittle, who has worked for his family’s business for more than 50 years. “This is a signature for us, and it’s my swan song, too, a little bit.”
The showroom would employ approximately 15 people who would make an average of $61,500 annually, according to documents submitted to the city.
Additionally, Kittle’s leases 93,500 square feet of warehouse space at 11500 E. 146th St. and plans to make $1 million in improvements at the site to make it a new distribution facility that would employ at least 45 full-time workers who would earn an average salary of $52,300.
The company also plans to make stormwater improvements near the showroom building that would allow about 6.6 acres of land south of the site to be developed in the future.
The Kittle’s projects are expected to be completed by the middle of 2026. Council members are expected to vote on the Kittle’s plan at their next meeting, on Nov. 12.
Kittle’s, founded in 1932, operates seven furniture stores across the state in Indianapolis, Greenwood, Lafayette, Bloomington and Fort Wayne. Its family of stores include Kittle’s Mattress Max, Kittle’s Design Studio and Kittle’s Furniture Outlet.
BJ’s Wholesale Club
BJ’s Wholesale Club will open its second Indiana store on Friday in Carmel.
The Westborough, Massachusetts-based wholesale shopping club is ready to open the 102,000-square-foot store, gas station and parking lot at 14480 Lowes Way in Greyhound Commons. The location is south of the Lowe’s store near West 146th Street and the junction of U.S. 31 and Keystone Parkway.
BJ’s is the third-largest warehouse club chain in the country. It opened a 105,000-square-foot store in 2022 at 13210 Tegler Drive near Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville.
As is common in the warehouse club model, BJ’s customers must purchase annual memberships in order to shop at the store. BJ’s annual membership fees start at $55, but it often offers promotional discounts to reduce membership costs.
The company opened its first location in 1984 and now operates at least 230 warehouse-style stores in 18 states, mostly in the eastern United States.
Stout’s Shoes Carmel
Stout’s Shoes opened a new store Oct. 18 at 1008 W. Main St. in Carmel, more than three years after the footwear retailer closed to make way for new development.
Brad Stout, president of Stout’s Factory Shoe Store Co., told IBJ earlier this year the family-owned company will own a 16,000-square-foot “retail condo” on the first floor of The Signature, a $78 million mixed-use building east of U.S. 31.
The Signature also has eight owner-occupied condominiums, 295 luxury apartments and a 374-space public parking garage. Construction started on the building in November 2021, and residents started moving in this year.
Stout’s Shoes is leasing space to Whitestown-based Moontown Brewing (1,000 square feet), which opened in June, and will also lease space to Harmony Steakhouse (8,500 square feet) and Indie Lux Atelier (3,300 square feet).
Stout is the great-grandnephew of Harry Stout, who opened the Mass Ave location of Stout’s Shoes in Indianapolis in 1886. The Stout family expanded to Carmel after it purchased a Burger Chef building in 1985 on two acres at Old Meridian and Main streets. Shoe stores in Greenwood and Brownsburg followed in 1992 and 2000.
The Carmel store was expanded after about five years in business, and Stout purchased another two acres in 2008. He began thinking about a new development in 2017, nearly a decade after the Great Recession scuttled his plans for a project at the site.
Stout’s Shoes has landlord status within The Signature because the shoe store sold the roughly 4-acre site to Indianapolis-based Tegethoff Development, which built the condominiums and apartments as well as the parking garage.
Bar Ellis
Bar Ellis, owned by Bill Wampler, Lisa Wampler and Chamron Baird, plans to open later this year in a 134-year-old building at 841 Conner St. in Noblesville.
The restaurant will have two bars, a three-season rooftop patio, outdoor alley seating and entertainment nights with comedy shows and live music.
The menu will include “casual yet upscale comfort food,” such as chicken and noodles, pork schnitzel, bacon-wrapped shrimp appetizers, and vegan and vegetarian items.
Graeter’s Ice Cream
Cincinnati-based Graeter’s Inc. has filed plans with the city of Westfield to build its fourth central Indiana ice cream shop, at 303 E. Tournament Trail.
The Westfield Advisory Plan Commission on Oct. 7 approved a detailed development plan for the 3,275-square-foot Graeter’s Ice Cream shop, which will be on the north side of State Road 32, south of Grand Park Sports Campus.
Graeter’s currently has ice cream shops at 864 S. Rangeline Road in Carmel, 5560 N. Illinois St. in Indianapolis and 9367 Ambleside Dr. in Fishers.
An opening date for the Westfield location has not been announced.
Nordstrom Rack
Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. opened a Nordstrom Rack store on Oct. 17 in Noblesville at the Hamilton Town Center shopping center.
The 25,000-square-foot store is open at 14139 Town Center Boulevard, Suite 800. Hamilton Town Center, at Interstate 69 and Campus Parkway, is co-owned and managed by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group.
Nordstrom Rack is the off-price retail division of Nordstrom and carries merchandise from Nordstrom stores and Nordstrom.com at discounted prices.
Nordstrom operates one other Nordstrom Rack in Indianapolis, a Rivers Edge shopping center store that opened at 4036 E. 82nd St. in Indianapolis in 2011. Nordstrom also has a full department store at the Fashion Mall at Keystone, 8702 Keystone Crossing.
Centier Bank
Merrillville-based Centier Bank will open a new, expanded Carmel branch in November at 650 E. Carmel Dr.
Centier will relocate from 568 E. Carmel Dr. to its new 8,895-square-foot first-floor branch. This year, Centier opened new branches in Indianapolis at East 62nd Street and Allisonville Road and West 86th Street and Ditch Road.
The bank is growing its central Indiana presence with eight current locations and more planned.
Drybar
Irvine, California-based haircare company Drybar plans to open its third central Indiana location at the Clay Terrace shopping center in Carmel.
The 1,560-square-foot store at 14400 Clay Terrace Blvd., Suite 150, will feature 10 styling chairs and two mobile stations.
Store owner Sasha Higgins also operates Drybar locations in Indianapolis at the Shops at River Crossing (8691 River Crossing Blvd.) and the Bottleworks District (830 Massachusetts Ave., Suite 1440).
Matt the Miller’s Tavern/MTM Tavern | Steakhouse
Matt the Miller’s Tavern introduced a new name and menu on Oct. 25.
The restaurant, which opened in 2012 at 11 City Center Dr., is now MTM Tavern | Steakhouse and offers an expanded menu of steaks, fish and pasta.
Matt the Miller’s restaurants in Dublin and West Chester, Ohio, have also rebranded as MTM Tavern | Steakhouse.
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I really don’t think that Noblesville is going to grow as much as has been predicted. Boone County, Franklin Township, Hendricks County, Hancock County, Johnson County, and even parts of Madison County have all become increasingly competitive for attracting the type of suburban housing development that Noblesville is banking on. But maybe enough people already live nearby that it won’t matter for Kittles in the long run. And I could obviously be wrong.