Developer seeks rezoning for Canal apartments

A Valparaiso developer that wants to build a 150-unit apartment complex along the Central Canal in downtown Indianapolis is seeking to get the property rezoned to allow for mixed-use development.

Owners of Investment Property Advisors LLC were set to appear at a city Division of Planning meeting Thursday afternoon to get the 1.2-acre parcel’s current industrial zoning status changed.

The developer is interested in the site, at 335 W. Ninth St., where the offices and warehouse of B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co. are located.

Investment Property Advisors plans to market the apartments to IUPUI students. The building also would include about 4,000 square feet of canal-level space that could house a few tenants such as a restaurant and coffee shop, said Chase Sorrick, co-owner of the development firm.

“I know the canal area is a popular place for students to live,” he said. “With that target market, it [should be a] real good location for us.”

Locally based Acorn Group Inc. is listing the 52,000-square-foot building occupied by Kirkbride for $3.8 million. Investment Property Advisors would tear down the building to make room for its development.

Investment Property Advisors has the property under contract and is expected to close on the sale once the project receives city approval.

If rezoning is granted, the Metropolitan Development Commission could grant final approval in October. Construction would start next year, with an occupancy date of summer 2012, Sorrick said.

The owner of the property and building is Canal Partners Association, controlled by J. Marshall Gage of Indianapolis. His son, Michael, is president of Kirkbride, which publishes the popular Thompson study Bible.

Kirkbride would move its offices and warehouse, if the property is sold, and is looking at space closer to its bindery near Shelby and Washington streets, Michael Gage said. Kirkbride has roughly a dozen employees and has used the building since 1984.

The canal project would be Investment Property Advisors’ first in Indianapolis. It has a similar development in Valparaiso and broke ground on another in Louisville earlier this month. The two projects in total have about 4,000 apartment units.

Sorrick and a partner formed the company in 2005 to focus on residential, mixed-used projects geared toward college students.