Construction on 400-unit apartment community finally to begin at former Pittman Farms

A decade after the plans were first unveiled and more than two years after a settlement ended years of legal wrangling, construction is set to begin on the first phase of development at the former site of Pittman Farms in Zionsville.

Town officials say the 48-acre project called The Farm at Zionsville will create a gateway into the Boone County community from the southwest corner of North Michigan Road and Sycamore Street. Mayor Emily Styron called the project “an absolute winner.”

The first phase of construction will include a three-building, 400-unit apartment development, along with land preparation and infrastructure to support the entire project. The initial stage of construction is expected to be completed by 2025.

The high-end, market-rate apartments will have amenities that include a golf simulator, saltwater pool, virtual fitness lab, work-from-home space with conference rooms, pet spa, dog park, bike maintenance room, covered parking and an outdoor pavilion reminiscent of the Pittman Farms barn.

Future construction is expected to add about 155,000 square feet of commercial and retail space that could include a grocery, restaurants and a medical office, according to plans developed by Indianapolis-based Scannell Properties and Zionsville-based Pittman Investors LLC.

“We really want to create a new destination in Zionsville,” Scannell Properties Director Shawn Hitchcock told the Zionsville Plan Commission on Aug. 15. “We think this is a generational site, probably one of the most important corners any of us will ever work on as residents. And as an Indianapolis company, that’s not lost on us. We steward this very, very seriously.”

Representatives from Scannell Properties and Pittman Investors declined interview requests from IBJ.

Pittman Investors is owned and managed by Steve, Scott and Chad Pittman—three of the five children of late heart surgeon and real estate developer John N. Pittman—whose death led to a family squabble about land. Pittman Investors owns the land.

Last year, Steve Pittman told the Plan Commission he’s confident the “mix of really good multifamily and retail and restaurants and entertainment” offered by The Farm will attract residents.

Other companies working on the project include Indianapolis-based architecture firm Delv Design; Indianapolis-based engineering firms American Structurepoint, Circle Design Group, and Lynch Harrison & Brumleve Inc.; Indianapolis-based landscape architecture firm Context Design; Florida-based consulting firm InfiniSys Electronic Architects; and Minneapolis-based architecture firm BKV Group.

Indianapolis-based Shiel Sexton Co. will be construction manager for the project.

Styron told IBJ The Farm will help diversify the town’s tax base, which includes a higher percentage of single-family houses than most communities.

That can be problematic because an amendment added to the Indiana Constitution in 2010 capped property tax bills for owner-occupied houses at 1% of the home’s assessed value, unless voters agree in a referendum to pay more. The cap is higher for other types of property—2% of assessed value for farmland and multifamily housing and 3% for industrial and commercial property.

The result is that commercial and multifamily housing can drive more tax revenue to local governments than can single-family subdivisions.

“I have preached from the beginning that Zionsville flourishes when we have more diversity in our tax base and our property tax base, and this project is an absolute winner in terms of how it’s going to support so much more beyond the visitors, shoppers and residents at The Farm,” Styron said. “It’s going to have quite a significant impact on positive development that will happen in Zionsville.”

Zionsville Town Councilor Josh Garrett, whose district includes The Farm, said residents expressed concerns about traffic impacts and how the project will affect their property values. However, he added, the Pittman family has been responsive to the project’s neighbors and provided them with a sense of what to expect.

“I think folks knew what was coming, and it’s just a matter of when,” Garrett said.

Long time coming

For more than 30 years, the Pittman family owned and farmed the land at the corner of Michigan and Sycamore, where a familiar red barn greeted drivers heading to Zionsville.

“This particular bit of property has served as an iconic view coming up Michigan Road for years,” Styron said.

In 2013, the town granted Pittman Investors a rezoning of the 62-acre property as a planned unit development allowing multifamily housing, retail and office uses.

Redevelopment of the former farmland was expected to cost $90 million and include 150,000 square feet of office and retail space, high-end estate homes and 400 multifamily units.

But a five-year legal battle among members of the Pittman family over the estate of patriarch John N. Pittman delayed the project.

In 2020, Steve Pittman and his brothers, Scott and Chad, reached a settlement that resolved several legal cases brought by siblings Mark Pittman and Anne Kelton. That cleared the way for The Farm and The Bridges in Carmel, a 65-acre mixed-use real estate development on West 116th Street, between Spring Mill Road and Illinois Street, to proceed.

The settlement established a framework in which Steve, Scott and Chad Pittman would buy out the other two siblings’ share of The Farm and The Bridges.

By 2021, The Farm was expected to be a $150 million project on 48 acres, while a portion of the property and another previously owned by John N. Pittman were auctioned off. Pittman Investors did not provide an updated price for the development.

“I think they have really worked hard to put together a lovely and attractive economic gangbuster kind of development right here at one of our entry points,” said Styron, who is not running for reelection this year. “There’s a lot of folks that leave Zionsville to go to work, and they’re coming home and they’re driving right down that road, and so I think it offers another amenity and opportunity for our residents.”

Housing need

Zionsville is a town of homeowners. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 84.3% of the town’s housing stock is owner-occupied. That compares with 72.5% in Noblesville, 75.3% in Carmel and 77.1% in Fishers.

New housing developments in the pipeline will continue Zionsville’s trend. Promontory of Zionsville, a 321-acre private lake community developed by Westfield-based Henke Development Group LLC, is expected to include 80 houses that cost from $1.5 million to $4 million.

Henke will also work over the next decade to build Holliday Farms, a 600-acre golf course community that will have eight neighborhoods when it’s complete.

One reason single-family homes dominate is that developers have struggled to win Zionsville’s approval for multifamily housing projects. In 2019, for example, the Zionsville Town Council rejected a proposal from Carmel-based J.C. Hart Co. Inc. to build Sycamore Flats, a 184-unit apartment project, south of the town’s downtown village.

Styron said the 400 apartments at The Farm will help diversify Zionville’s housing options.

“I think what’s exciting is that we are going to have multifamily housing in this particular area, which is another opportunity for Zionsville to introduce multifamily housing in our community in a way that fits our vibe,” she said.

Garrett said the apartments will be “complementary” to the housing offered in Zionsville.

“I think it’s always good to have a mix of housing stock, whether it’s people that are moving to the area [whose] home isn’t completed, or they haven’t found their long-term home yet,” he said. “People that are looking to downsize and want something that is low-maintenance and still walkable to the village. I think it’ll be good for the community.”•