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Property taxes from downtown developments would help fund pedestrian-focused infrastructure improvements at specific locations under a new proposed city financing plan.
As part of the 2025 city budget package unveiled by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett on Monday evening, the administration is proposing to use about $50 million in tax increment financing bonds from the downtown TIF district to fund infrastructure improvements. The City-County Council’s Administration and Finance Committee unanimously recommended passage of the proposal Tuesday evening.
Ten projects are listed in the proposal as potential uses for the funds, but Hogsett administration leaders highlighted changes to Georgia Street and underpass improvements at Union Station and at Capitol Avenue and Illinois Street. The entire list of projects won’t be completed with the one bond issuance, Brandon Herget, director of the Department of Public Works, told the committee.
The proposed usage of the TIF is expected to take the cost off of the Department of Public Works’ plate and allow for downtown infrastructure improvements at the front door of new developments. The planned 800-room city-owned Signia hotel is set to be built on the west block of Georgia Street. The aim, according to Chief Deputy Mayor Dan Parker, is to have the the Georgia Street and underpass projects complete before the Signia opens.
Georgia Street was redesigned more than decade ago prior to the 2012 Super Bowl, turning a four-lane road into a two-lane, mixed-use event plaza over three downtown blocks between the Indiana Convention Center and Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Plans call for making the plaza even more pedestrian-friendly and reducing vehicle traffic.
Capital Improvement Board Executive Director Andy Mallon told the committee that reinvisioning the area as “no longer a street” will make it a real asset to the convention center. The Signia hotel is part of a larger $750 million expansion of the convention center by the CIB.
Mallon said cities like Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston and Denver have large greenspaces directly adjacent to their convention centers. The Georgia Street redesign is necessary so Indianapolis can continue to compete for bookings, he said.
Additionally, the CIB would be charged with managing the operations of the outdoor space. Conventions using the convention center would have another optional space to book, Mallon said.
While the change to Georgia Street will make it more pedestrian-focused, Parker said one lane of traffic will remain through at least part of the plaza. That’s in part due to the hotel, which emergency vehicles will need access to.
The Georgia Street project’s new design is about 50% completed, according to Department of Metropolitan Development spokesman Lucas González. He said the department aims to have the design finished this fall, but some design items are “still open and in need of further coordination before we can speak to final street layout.”
The Union Station underpass project is expected to go out to bid at the beginning of 2025 with construction starting in spring. Design changes are a major part of the project, but Parker said a large chunk of money, between $12 million and $15 million, will be spent on structural work.
Many of these improvements came out of the The South Downtown Connectivity Vision Plan, Parker told reporters Monday. The plan was created by the city in conjunction with groups such as artist collective GangGang and includes recommendations for other city projects, like the City Market area, the convention center expansion and Bicentennial Unity Plaza.
The bonds could also be used for Market Street, East Washington Street, East Henry Street, Maryland Ave. and Alabama Street, South Capitol Ave., 20th Street and Lewis Street, and Virginia Avenue and Delaware Avenue.
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This is wasted money until we create a 10+ year strategic plan to compete with Nashville or Greenville or even Cincinnati and Louisville.
Just random money being set on fire with no plan for activation long term.
I’d argue there is a plan – we are a convention and sports event city, and our downtown investments and building projects are pointed towards that.
But I think you bring up a good point – Indianapolis is a large city in terms of square miles without the tax base to make a large impact. Throw in a Legislature who would never have allowed projects like the Hoosier Dome again … and what we got is what we got.
Good Lord Indy already beasts those cities, and many others, in competition for convention business.
There IS a long-term plan. It involves maximization of convention center space, combined with required hotel space.
This is far from “random money.”
Being a convention city does literally nothing for the quality of life nor does it activate our downtown.
We have zero people downtown on a Saturday morning.
You take your family downtown on the weekend and show them the tourist investments we made?
Greenville? Seriously?! 😁
Greenville, SC. It’s a top 10 place for Indianapolis residents to retire to apparently.
And Canadians in general.
Place is a utopia
I believe long-term focus should go to a significant Performing Arts Center with an adjacent music-themed area restaurants such as exists in Nashville….sort of “Nashville North”. Indy has deep roots in jazz. So, with focus on Jazz, blues, rock and country, it would go a long way to making Indy a destination beyond just conventions. Of course, the crime and vagrancy problems have to be addressed and I don’t see that happening as long as Democrats control the Mayor’s office and the Marion Co. Prosecutor’s office.
It’s been an issue since lugar moved us to UniGov.
It’s not a political party issue – it’s having 55% of the tax base we need to support this massive foot print of a city.
I agree Hogsett isn’t the answer but until we hire a real city planner that can get us into a strategic plan that brings the Fortune 500 firms into the mix and investment we’re just pretending to have a plan at this point.
Nashville development should definitely NOT be the model Indy follows. Nashville infrastructure is a thing of nightmares.
The city has real city planners on staff already, and has had several particularly talented one on Staff over the years. Every administration chooses to hamstring them or hand out contracts to consultants for substandard work.
Murray that’s no excuse.
We’ve wasted 20 years now and have a bunch of half asses projects to show for it.
Both Republican and Democrat mayors are to blame. It’s a disgrace
It’s not an excuse, but it’s the reason. Also, staff planners can’t execute in a vacuum. They need sign off from their Mayor appointed director.
This all appears as icing on the new city owned hotel project. Hogsett is hoping it’s his lasting legacy, all at the ridiculous expense of the taxes that could and should be used where really needed. Can’t wait for the tax steal for the MLS stadium, if it even happens.
Rebuilding the 12 year old Georgia Street to fit another design firm’s dream is another joke on us all!
Interest rates are already falling, and that hotel will be able to be off-loaded to a private developer at more-favorable mortgage rates.