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An effort by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis’ to overturn the city’s designation of the Drake apartment building as a historic property has been transferred to federal court—even as the organization continues working with city officials on a plan to salvage the building.
The lawsuit, filed Jan. 15, was referred to U.S. District Court on Feb. 12 following the museum’s unsuccessful requests that the city’s Metropolitan Development Commission and the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission withdraw plans to issue the designation for the building.
The Children’s Museum said the commission acted without “proper notice to and participation from” the organization and was denied due process by the two commissions.
In January, when the museum announced it would challenge the city’s designation of the property as historic, officials said the Drake in its current state did little to aid the museum’s mission.
“Historic preservation status for the Drake takes away from the Museum’s long-term flexibility for mission-driven and community-based uses on a property the Museum has owned for nearly eight years,” Jeffrey Patchen, the museum’s CEO, said in an email this week. “It’s important to the Museum, for the long-term, that the Drake’s reuse fulfills the Museum’s mission.”
The museum has also said the pandemic is a hindrance to its ability to absorb revenue losses, adding the Drake’s historical designation could complicate matters.
The museum bought the eight-story building at 3060 N. Meridian St., just north of the museum’s existing complex, in 2012 for $1.25 million. At the time, the building was occupied by tenants and was not designated a historic property.
Tenants moved out in 2016 as the building’s condition continued to deteriorate. Then, in July 2019, the Children’s Museum announced it planned to raze the building, along with the former Salvation Army headquarters building nearby, to make way for new exhibits and parking.
But those plans were thwarted that September, when the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission approved measures to add the Drake building to the Marion County Register of Historic Places and create a historic area plan for the site. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission approved the designation in 2020.
Even as the lawsuit moves forward, museum officials are working with the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development to bring in a private developer to renovate the property.
The firm, Indianapolis-based Van Rooy Properties, was selected by the museum and the city after a lengthy request for inquiry process in September. The firm’s plans for the property are not yet known and a representative did not return calls requesting comment.
In a letter to a museum official dated Feb. 4, provided to IBJ through a public records request, DMD Director Scarlett Martin said the city would be open to paying $1.3 million to secure a leasehold on the property for 99 years—a component that was not in the original RFI but later requested by the museum.
Additionally, she said the city would support tax increment financing and other financing tools, such as a tax abatement, for any deal eventually struck between the museum and Van Rooy. The city is also involved in those discussions, but the letter did not characterize the the status of ongoing conversations.
Patchen said the museum hopes to “reach a mutually satisfying resolution” with the city, including a “viable reuse for the Drake.” But the organization also wants to have more flexibility in what that reuse would look like.
“We are hopeful that resolution with the City includes a viable reuse for the Drake, while also preserving the Museum’s ability to use the property in the best interest of the Museum for the long term,” he said.
That approach, Patchen said, is consistent with the the museum’s other initiatives, including the Riley Children’s Sports Legends Experience, and the low-cost apartments and green space recently built on the former Winona Hospital site.
The city declined to comment on the ongoing dispute with the museum, citing pending litigation.
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I hate the Drake.
How could you not like the Drake?
It never ends, this present stuff! Engagement present! Then they get married, you gonna
have to get them something for that! Then the baby, there’s another present. Then the baby starts
getting their presents. I don’t even like Drake
Look. I drew this triangle free-hand. It’s a doodle. It’s perfect!
That’s a nice triangle.
It’s Isosceles
Ooh, Isosceles. I love the name Isosceles. If I had a kid, I would name him Isosceles.
Isosceles N.
Hey, you know what, maybe we should all chip in for the gift.
You know what, let’s go to that mall in Castleton before we go to the party. We’ll have
to take your car, it’s got the most room
No, no! My car’s not running.
What about your father’s car?
No, no, no. Out of the question. I was over there today. He’s got the good spot in front
of the good building in the good neighborhood. I know he’s not gonna wanna move.
How about this, you put your car in the good spot, that’ll hold the good spot in front of
the good building, and we can get the good car!
Good thinking!
Hit the brakes! Start building a new museum across from the zoo, eventually the CM folk will figure out how much biz they miss in the whole in wall, in the neighborhood, and move it all over there. The city might donate the land since they were willing to do it for a few hundred jobs.
Put up a big ferris wheel and have at it.
If they were smart, they’d get a package from one of the cities north of 96th to relocate there.
Why are IBJ podcasts free and the articles pay for subscription? The world would be a better place if it is the other way around!
Yeah…. It would be just like Facebook.
Just like Newfields, I suspect that the TCM will come to a reckoning someday. TCM is the institution that ate a neighborhood. I know they see their mission as strictly a children’s museum, but at some point they they need to start being a better neighbor. The new BRT Red Line stops at their door and they knew the city has plans and recommendations all along that corridor.
Plus based on how much of the neighborhood they have consumed, I think these guys would be happy if they could have bought everything to the west and north of them, and bulldozed all of it too.
True story! The area is slowly turning over – just wait !
Every neighborhood should be so lucky to have a partner like TCM. Every family in a mile radius has a free pass. They support low income families in educating the whole family, including college. Free days once a month, $2 per person admission for low income families, they house a library branch, facilitate neighborhood meetings and attend neighborhood groups. Love the zoo but no comparison.
+1
I think a lot of people have no clue how engaged TCM is in the health of the neighborhoods around them. This controversy around the future of The Drake is unfortunate and I hope it resolves in some form of reuse, but this doesn’t take away from all the good that TCM does.
This in interesting information. If all of these families have a free pass, it is a very well kept secret.