Businesses divided on Circle park

For four months, the southwestern quadrant of Monument Circle has been closed to traffic in favor of hosting a temporary park. Nearby business owners are split on whether the park is a good, ongoing idea to bring more people downtown. So are the candidates for mayor.

The project, dubbed “Spark on the Circle,” has the support of Mayor Joe Hogsett and is a partnership of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, Downtown Indy Inc. and Big Car Collaborative, a not-for-profit art and design organization.

The pop-up park sits in front of South Bend Chocolate Co. and Emmis Corp. and offers several places to sit and relax, sip a glass of wine, play chess or pingpong, or watch kids romp and build things from giant foam blocks.

From the park’s July 9 launch to early October, cell-phone tracking data obtained by Downtown Indy Inc. showed a 12% increase in Monument Circle foot traffic over the same period in 2022. The Hogsett administration hopes to use that data and the experience as a whole to influence future decisions about the Circle.

The temporary park is set to close Nov. 3. For now, the project is slated to return for a second year during warm weather and is backed by a $750,000 Capital Improvement Board investment.

But Hogsett’s Republican opponent, Jefferson Shreve, opposes the temporary park and the future closure of any portion of Monument Circle, citing the concerns of some nearby businesses and patrons of attractions such as the Columbia Club, a private club that hosts many social events, and Hilbert Circle Theatre, which is home to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Shreve has said the park concerns him because of the mayor’s “characterization of it as a potential pilot, a precursor to closure of the Monument Circle to vehicular traffic.” Hogsett has described it as a pilot and hasn’t announced any long-term Circle decisions.

Rusty Carr, Hogsett’s director of metropolitan development, has said the city has no plans to close the entire Circle and is just experimenting “one quad at a time and understanding where the demand in the future goes.”

Both the Columbia Club on the northeastern quadrant of the Circle and the Hilbert theater on the southeastern quadrant offer valet parking. The theater often serves older patrons who need to be dropped off for accessibility reasons and schools that need to unload students from buses.

The Columbia Club did not respond to IBJ’s requests for comment. James Johnson, the symphony’s CEO, said Spark has brought some activity and vibrancy to Monument Circle.

“I can appreciate that some motorists have experienced some inconvenience, but I don’t think that’s a reason not to continue with Spark on the Circle,” Johnson said.

While some attendees have had difficulty navigating to the theater, Johnson said, it doesn’t hamper show-goers any more than the frequent construction throughout the city. The theater would have more trouble, though, supporting a complete closure of Monument Circle or a closure directly on its doorstep.

“We’re concerned, of course, that we maintain access to the front of the theater for motorists, because that’s really an accessibility issue for our patrons,” Johnson said. “And being able to have a drop-off in front of the theater, or to have valet parking in front of the theater, it’s really important to our guests.”

Although he did not say he was fully opposed to a future closure in front of the theater, Johnson said the logistics would need to be worked out if that’s something the city decides to pursue.

Business owners generally told IBJ they support the goal of the temporary park and efforts to bring or keep people downtown. Some said they don’t support a potential expansion of the closure or that logistical problems with that would need to be worked out before it become a reality.

Market Tower’s Sun and Moon Café, just off the Circle on Market Street, opened six months ago. The cafe serves boba drinks, grab-and-go sushi, and typical cafe offerings like pastries and coffee. Peter Thawnhmung, leader of the Chin Community of Indiana and owner of Sun and Moon, said the cafe has had trouble taking off.

It sits in a difficult spot. It’s tucked between construction at The InterContinental Hotel to its south, which has closed a segment of West Market Street, and Spark on the Circle to its east.

“Some folks have said, ‘Well, [Spark is] going to draw more people, more family, more activities,’” Thawnhmung said. “Not to us.”

Although he doesn’t have much to compare the current lack of business to, he said the two factors—the hotel construction and the closing of a portion of Monument Circle to vehicular traffic—have prevented his business from gaining traction.

Right now, Thawnhmung said, the cafe is getting by on tenants from Market Tower and some tourism.

Positives and negatives

Kristina Tressler, director of operations for South Bend Chocolate Co., said the park has had both positive and negative effects on the cafe and coffee shop. The business sits right on the sideline of Spark on the Circle.

While there’s less business throughout weekdays and nights—when motorcyclists used to park near the cafe to meet up—she’s seen an increase in weekend business, and sales on Sundays have nearly doubled. This, along with a return to the office for some Emmis building employees, has caused the shop to shift its staffing schedule.

Even though a police officer and vehicle staff Spark around the clock, the park has in some ways lessened previous built-in safety features for shop employees, Tressler said. In an email, she said the motorcycle meet-ups felt almost like a police presence, which made staff feel safe and protected. With the artificial turf and park, employees are unable to park directly on the Circle and instead have to walk to their cars late at night, she said.

Spark also has eliminated the possibility of customers making a “quick pit stop,” where they used to be able to park along the Circle and run in for coffee. The police were accommodating of South Bend Chocolate customers who did this, Tressler said.

But, she added, the benefit of a more attractive Monument Circle might outweigh the negatives of some business loss. She said the setup is inviting and that she appreciates the police presence.

If the city continued to police and clean the area at the current rate, Tressler said, she would be in favor of a closure year-round.

“I think we as downtown businesses have a cloud above us,” Tressler wrote in the email. “The public thinks that downtown is unsafe and not a place for children. This is far beyond the truth. I think the closure creates that safe environment and is more inviting to families to come and walk around without fear.”

Located just south of Monument Circle, Windsor Jewelry owner Greg Bires said he supports the efforts of Spark organizers to bring people downtown, but the park has made it difficult for customers to get to the South Meridian Street store.

The decline in downtown office workers means Windsor’s sales come mostly from people driving to the store, Bires said. Dedicated customers still come, but Bires told IBJ, “I get an earful about how difficult it is” when customers’ drives are impeded by Spark.

“I would hate to see the Circle closed 100%, no traffic,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s the direction we’re headed in, but that’s how I feel.”

He’s optimistic about the future of downtown and supports the effort to bring energy back. But he told IBJ he would be more supportive of programming like previous iterations of Spark that took up sidewalks instead of the roadway.

East Market businesses

Two business owners on East Market Street have been mostly unaffected by Spark. They told IBJ they’re supportive of a continuation of the program.

Downtown Comics owner Doug Stephenson told IBJ he was skeptical when he first heard about this year’s iteration of Spark on the Circle. He thought it would be an attempt to create a “hangout spot” to rival The Stutz, Mass Ave, or The Garage Food Hall at Bottleworks District.

He said he’s been pleasantly surprised to see the artificial-turf green space include families and children gathering in an area that’s also free. He said it hasn’t affected the revenue of Downtown Comics, and it provides a place for residents and convention visitors to relax.

“We don’t have a lot of green space down here, so even plastic green spaces are a little bit better,” Stephenson said.

Ten years ago, he said, he would have been adamantly opposed to the idea of any portion of Monument Circle being closed. But after the pandemic, he said, it’s clear to him that the Circle isn’t “a useful conduit of traffic at any time of the day,” because most commuters rely on the city’s main one-way thoroughfares in the Mile Square.

The downtown tenant of 30 years said he believes the city could consider making the western half of Monument Circle fully pedestrianized, but that the eastern half is impractical due to the needs of the Hilbert Circle Theatre and the Columbia Club.

At Small Batch Soups by Soupremacy, owner Danielle Cooney said the business has been mostly unaffected—positively or negatively—by Spark. Because people associate soup with colder seasons, the park hasn’t been a draw or a detractor for the eatery.

But she has seen personally how it can cause navigation concerns. Cooney’s mother, who grew up in Indianapolis but has since moved, had a difficult time finding her way to the restaurant due to the roundabout closure.

“It just takes a lot more finagling than most people understand if you’re not down here every day,” Cooney said.

The public space likely has succeeded in keeping people downtown longer, she said.

Spencer Funk, a 28-year-old senior talent specialist at Salesforce, enjoyed eating lunch there this week.

“It’d be cool if they blocked off the whole Circle and made it all similar,” Funk told IBJ.

Looking ahead

Taylor Schaffer, CEO of Downtown Indy Inc. and former chief of staff for Hogsett, said discussions about closing all or part of Monument Circle to vehicular traffic have ebbed and flowed for decades.

She said Spark has been a success and serves as a “proof of concept.” What makes the park different from other public spaces is that it feels constantly active, Schaffer said.

In order to make any public spaces after Spark feel the same, they need the same level of programming, cleaning and policing, she added.

At the June announcement of Spark, Hogsett described the concept as “a road map for investment in infrastructure, public spaces, and Indianapolis’ most valuable asset: our residents.”

In a September interview, Hogsett told IBJ the city needs to create more public spaces to accommodate the growing number of downtown residents and to maintain a vibrant downtown.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the future of downtown,” Hogsett said.

But if Republican candidate Shreve wins the Nov. 7 election, he’s adamant that there be no further closures of even a segment of Monument Circle. He’s opposed to the pocket park, saying the pay going toward maintaining a police officer at Spark on the Circle isn’t sustainable during IMPD’s current police shortage.

Shreve told IBJ the Circle is “our original roundabout.”

“Carmel may have more of them, but we had the first, and we have the best,” he added. “I think we have to have that central node of vehicular connectivity, because the reality is, most of us still move around by vehicles.”•