Developer plans $22M apartment, retail project with housing for veterans along Keystone corridor

A rendering of the planned 37 Keystone project. (Image courtesy th city of Indianapolis)

Avon-based developer Fortified Group LLC plans to build a $22 million apartment and retail project just south of 38th Street and Keystone Avenue.

The development, known as 37 Keystone, is set to comprise 92 apartments and 3,700 square feet of retail at 3702 to 3744 Keystone Ave. The property, which would feature one- to three-bedroom units, would consist of market rate and reduced-income housing, with the latter meant to serve homeless veterans.

Fortified Group LLC principal Dale Pruitt said he hopes the project will be a point of pride for residents on the east side of Indianapolis while also providing a catalyst for improving the rest of the neighborhood—particularly as IndyGo’s Purple Line Route, which runs past the development site on Keystone, becomes more widely used.

“This is really a project to help make [that area] a self-sustaining community and bring back the pride that the community used to have years ago,” he said. “We want to help bring that back to the community, to the residents and to the neighborhood.”

Pruitt said the one-bedroom units would have about 675 square feet of space and one-and-a-half bathrooms, while the two- and three-bedroom units would have two bathrooms and 875 and 1,075 square feet of space, respectively.

The project would feature a concrete podium, with the retail space and a 72-vehicle parking garage on the ground floor.

There would also be a 1,200-square-foot fitness area, a 2,200-square-foot community office and kitchen and a community partner area of about 1,400 square feet, according to filings with the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development. The 1.6-acre property would also have green space and a community garden, as well as a play room and bike storage room.

Fortified Group has been scheduled for a hearing with the Metropolitan Development Commission hearing examiner on Thursday about its request to rezone the site from the C-3 and D-5 commercial and dwelling designations to MU-2, which allows for mixed-use developments.

That request has been continued to Jan. 9 to allow Fortified time to amend the request to include a variance of development standards for certain aspects of the proposed project.

The property, which consists of about 12 vacant parcels, is under contract pending city approvals. The current owners include the Legacy Business Center, Christ’s Open Door Baptist Church Inc. and a partnership of Nick and Carolin Owens and Eddie Small Sr.

The 30% set-aside for homeless veterans is meant to create more opportunities for those who have served in the armed forces, said Pruitt, who was discharged from the U.S. Army after nearly 22 years in 2018.

“For me, it’s a way to help my military brothers and sisters that may be struggling a little bit,” he said. “I want to help them, and I’m trying to work with Indiana homeless veterans and families … to meet some of their housing needs.”

Pruitt said he plans to request incentives from the city—either through a tax abatement or single-site tax-increment financing bonds—after going through other approval processes to begin construction on the project.

A firm timeline for the project has not been made public.

Indianapolis-based R3B Architecture is the design firm on the project.