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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Zionsville-based developer plans to build a 262-acre housing, commercial and retail development over the next decade on the north side of Whitestown.
Braun Property Development LLC wants to build Beckman Park on agricultural land on the north side of East County Road 200 South. The development would be bounded by South County Road 650 East to the east and South County Road 575 East to the west, while South County Road 600 East would run through the middle of the community.
Beckman Park would feature four districts: the Sub-Urban District with single-family houses; the General Urban District with single-family houses and duplexes; the Urban Center District with higher density residential buildings with town houses and multifamily housing, and 30,000 square feet of commercial, office, restaurant and retail space; and the Public Park District with about 70 acres of open space, including a 27-acre park.
The General Urban and Sub-Urban districts would be divided between the east and west sides of Beckman Park, while the Urban Center and Public Park districts would be built in the center of the development.
Jonathon Braun, president of commercial development for Braun Property Development, told members of the Whitestown Plan Commission last month that construction of the 10-phase Beckman Park would take place over the course of seven to 10 years.
Construction would begin on the east side of Beckman Park with parts of the General Urban and Sub-Urban districts and move west over time.
“We see this varying mix of uses as a unique offering within Whitestown,” Jonathon Braun said. “It gives residents the ability to relocate within the community as their needs changes in different stages of life.”
On Monday, members of the Whitestown Town Council voted unanimously to annex the territory into the town and to rezone the property from agricultural to the Beckman Park Planned Unit Development.
Brian Tuohy, an attorney with the Tuohy Bailey and Moore LLP law firm representing Braun Property Group, told Plan Commission members last month that construction would not start in 2025 or 2026. Whitestown utilities will need to be extended to the rural area where some roads, including South County Road 600 East, remain gravel.
Town leaders plan to turn South County Road 575 East into a four-lane, north-south artery through Whitestown that would more easily connect I-65 and new areas of town to downtown, which the town has spent several years reviving.
“It’s going to be a process, seven to 10 years, before this comes to fruition,” Tuohy said. “And, so, in that timeframe, we would respectfully suggest that the infrastructure can catch up, hopefully, with the growth.”
Steve Braun, a former tech entrepreneur, state lawmaker and commissioner of the state’s Department of Workforce Development who died in 2022, launched Braun Property Development in 2020 with the approval of Jackson Run, a 145-single-family neighborhood on 94 acres along the east side of South County Road 700 East, between East Pierce Street and East County Road 225 South.
The family firm is now led by company President Adam Braun.
Whitestown is one of the fastest growing communities in Indiana, and Beckman Park would be the latest large-scale development in the Boone County town.
The community along I-65 has grown from fewer than 500 residents in 2000 to more than 13,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Most of that growth has come in the past decade, and town officials believe the population will reach 25,000 in the next decade.
Residential, retail and industrial growth is most evident near I-65’s Exit 130, in the $1 billion, 1,700-acre Anson mixed-use development that includes the $250 million, 2.7-million-square-foot industrial 65Commerce Park. On the southern edge of Anson, two big-box retailers—Meijer and Lowe’s—have spurred more retail.
Park 130, southwest of Anson, covers 170 acres and includes six industrial facilities ranging from 40,000 square feet to more than 700,000 square feet.
Indianapolis-based New City Development plans to build the $110 million Padgett Commons on 40 acres of undeveloped property east of I-65’s Exit 131 near the intersection of East County Road 550 South and Perry Worth Road.
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Whitestown merchants like the Shoppes at Whitestown and adjacent gas stations need to remove their outdoor garage cans. There’s litter everywhere when you take 65N exit 130.
We can only hope the town of Whitestown and Boone County move forward with the Ronald Reagan parkway contruction extension from Hendricks County to I65 with the proposed interchange. Without that connection to I74, the Airport, and I70, all this new growth will become a congested and isolated traffic jam.