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A company planning to redevelop Irvington Plaza is in talks with the founder of the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame to locate the hall in the mostly vacant, dilapidated retail center—but details, contracts and funding still need to be worked out.
News of a possible development at the site, which was announced this month in a social media post, has been long-awaited by Irvington residents. But those involved said the potential project is in very early stages and will require a giant fundraising effort.
Terry Tallen, CEO of Del Mar, California-based Tallen Capital, currently has the plot under contract. He confirmed to IBJ that he is working with Tim Turpin, the founder of the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame, to redevelop the Irvington Flea Market site at 6301 E. Washington St. into a 60,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building that would serve as home to the hall. The hall, founded in 2020, does not have a physical location and operates through its website and events.
Tallen also said Turpin’s social media announcement, which says the hall “has found a permanent home,” was premature. Both parties confirmed that talks about the deal started early this month and that no formal agreement has been signed.
Tallen studied business and played football at Indiana University from 1977 to 1982. In 2023, he was inducted into Turpin’s hall of fame.
“Through that process, I got to know [Turpin], who’s the executive director of the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame, and Tim does a tremendous job,” Tallen told IBJ. “He reached out to me because they’ve been looking for a permanent home for the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame, and I think that Irvington would make a great location for it.”
He told IBJ that other potential uses for the nearly 16-acre site along East Washington Street include housing and a grocery store.
Turpin’s early plans for the hall include rooms dedicated to Indiana college sports, professional teams and the Indiana High School Athletic Association, along with a kitchen and banquet hall to host events. The project would also include pickleball courts, a multipurpose sports field and a connection to the Pennsy Trail, Tallen said.
Tallen aims to sign a lease agreement with Turpin in the next 60 days, with a big catch: the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame must raise enough funds to purchase the five- to six-acre plot needed for the development.
Turpin has a goal of raising $14 million—the projected full cost to develop the building— by Dec. 1, but Tallen said the deal won’t necessarily fall apart if that goal isn’t reached. The $5 million needed to purchase the land, demolish current structures, and conduct architectural and design work would be enough to keep the deal going, he said.
Tallen said his company “may have to go in another direction” if Turpin can’t raise the funds.
The yet-to-be-launched capital campaign from Turpin would include the sale of bricks embossed with the names of prominent Indiana athletes and sports icons to be placed at the Hall of Fame. That alone, Turpin said, could raise $20 million.
The plan for the Indianapolis site marks Turpin’s latest attempt at setting up a statewide hall. IBJ columnist Mark Montieth reported in February that Turpin had been trying to establish the hall in Evansville. Turpin told IBJ he also considered New Albany as a site.
Turpin has spearheaded a one-man effort to create and find space for an Indiana Sports Hall of Fame. He got the idea while touring the country for a company that makes commemorative bricks.
He hopes to combine it with two other halls he has founded—the National Semi-Pro Baseball Hall of Fame and the Greater Evansville Sports Hall of Fame.
The 156,000-square-foot Irvington Plaza was built in 1952 and for years served as a primary retail hub for the neighborhood. However, it has been on the decline since the 1980s. In May 2017, it lost a 32,000-square-foot Marsh Supermarkets anchor store, which led to even more vacancies.
In addition to the Hall of Fame project, Tallen wants to land a grocery store for the Marsh space in the plaza. Most recently, Tallen has had discussions with Needler’s Fresh Market regarding the location. Needler’s did not respond to IBJ’s request for comment on the site.
City-County Council member Andy Nielsen, a Democrat who represents the area that contains Irvington Plaza, told IBJ there needs to be a comprehensive strategy for the site that takes into account community input, including the recommendations of a 2019 Urban Land Institute study.
He said he wasn’t prepared to support the use of public funds, through TIF or otherwise, for the project.
“This is a site that could be a transformational economic development opportunity for the east side, and there have been elected officials and community leaders before me who have been working on this for a long time, and so I’m really pushing for what a comprehensive strategy and vision for the site is, before even entertaining any sort of use of public funds for anything like that,” he said.
In a statement, the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development told IBJ that the Tallen has communicated his proposed plans. In response, the department “continues to push” for a holistic plan for the entire site “to ensure it aligns with land use and zoning standards” and “the neighborhood’s desires for redevelopment.”
The department said it would consider financial support after Tallen Capital provides that plan.
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