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The owners of The Willows Event Center north of Broad Ripple are reviving efforts to redevelop the site almost a year after withdrawing their proposal amid pushback from neighbors.
Carmel-based J.C. Hart Co., Indianapolis-based Chase Development and Willows owner Evergreen LLC expect to file the updated plans for the 8-acre project at 6729 Westfield Blvd. with the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development later this month but offered IBJ an exclusive first look at the changes.
The updated $61 million project—renamed Elements—would consist of 192 apartments in four buildings and 16 townhouses in eight buildings along the west and southwest sides of 13-acre Spirit Lake. The project is expected to mean the demolition of the 35-year-old Willows Event Center currently located on the property.
The unit mix is a moderate change from a mid-2022 plan featuring three apartment buildings with 209 units, and the same townhouse configuration. The new plan is a notable reduction from the original proposal, first floated in late 2021, which would have resulted in a single, 238-unit apartment building and nine townhouse buildings with 18 homes fronting Spirit Lake.
The original project was met with fierce resistance from neighboring property owners and others in the Nora area before the development group in June 2022 ultimately withdrew efforts to rezone the site to a designation that would allow for high-density residential development.
John Hart, chairman of J.C. Hart, said the development’s partners are optimistic the new design—in particular the lower unit count—will be more palatable to adjacent property owners than the original idea. Updated plans have been shared with neighborhood organizations like the Marott Island Community Association in recent weeks, but a finalized version of the concept wasn’t expected to be shared with those groups until Tuesday morning.
“I’m going to remain optimistic that [neighbors] are going to say, ‘Hey, we really like the changes you’ve made,’” Hart told IBJ. “Is that a high probability? I’m not sure. But I’m going to stay optimistic that they will favorably consider the changes that we’ve made.”
Hart said that while he understands the changes might not go far enough for some who live in Spirit Lake Condominiums on the east side of the lake or Oxbow Estates nearby, there was only so much that could be done to minimize density for the project. It wasn’t feasible, he said, to have a project that consisted of no more than 60 units, as some neighbors proposed in their objections.
With the modifications, the project would have a density of less than 10 units per acre, when taking into account the adjacent Spirit Lake. City code allows developers to include amenity areas, such as lakes and ponds, in their density calculations.
Inclusion of the lake was a point of contention for remonstrators to the project in the past. Without the lake, the figure is closer to 26 units per acre. The lake was also included in calculations for the Spirit Lake Condominiums when they were built on the other side of the lake in 2002.
The county’s comprehensive plan generally calls for one to five units per acre for multifamily developments in the area. But the Marion County Land Use Plan Pattern Book also encourages higher density projects in areas of close proximity to greenways, such as the Monon Trail. The project is expected to feature sidewalks and crosswalks, as well as a connector path to the trail, which is across Westfield Boulevard, Hart said.
The new iteration of the development consists of four five-story apartment buildings—with four levels of living space over enclosed parking—and eight townhouse buildings with two units each. Aside from unit counts, most of project’s housing specific components remain the same as previously planned.
The apartment portion would be built by J.C. Hart at a cost of $51 million along Westfield Boulevard. Apartments in the complex would all be market-rate, ranging from $1,200 to $2,100 per month.
Chase would construct the townhouses at a cost of about $600,000 per unit, or $9.6 million, with frontage on North Dawson Lake Drive, along the southern edge of Spirit Lake. The $700,000 to $1 million homes would be three to four stories and include two-car garages.
Property owner Evergreen LLC—a partnership of siblings Jack Bayt and Antonia Zunarelli—is expected to remain a partner in the project, as well.
Lindsey Scott and John Kautzman, who have acted as spokespeople for neighbors near the site, provided a statement to IBJ on Tuesday morning saying they were disappointed and surprised that the developers shared the finalized set of plans with the media before providing them to impacted homeowners.
“Our coalition has met with the developers in good faith and relied on their statements that they wanted to work collaboratively on any new proposal,” Scott and Kautzman said in the statement. “While unable to comment specifically because we have yet to see any final plans, we reiterate that we have always welcomed responsible development at the former Willows site, including a density that is consistent with the comprehensive plan.
“We remain concerned that these developers will be improperly allowed to profit a second time by counting the same lake twice”—meaning Spirit Lake, which was included for the approval of Sprit Lake Condominiums”—to create the illusion that their density should be permitted. It would be unfair and unsafe for the hundreds of residents in the area and those who commute that roadway every day.”
The project’s new name is meant to complement the developers’ interest in making the project more environmentally friendly, Hart said.
The apartment component will feature several bioswales—landscaping that collects polluted stormwater runoff—and an Aqua-Swirl stormwater treatment system, intended would remove sediment, debris and certain chemicals from water before it is set into the lake and the White River.
The development team met with representatives of the Marott Island Community Association—which opposed the previous iteration—to discuss the new project design. The updates, Hart said, sought to directly remedy the issues raised by the association and other remonstrators last year, such as traffic and density.
“We went and completely redesigned our project to try to make sure we addressed what they said they would embrace,” Hart said. “So now, we’re going to show them what we’ve done, and we’ll get our moment of truth.”
An updated traffic study—commissioned by the development team—determined the project would not adversely affect traffic flow along Westfield Boulevard.
The rethinking on the project also means the development would see a change in the way it approached a request for city funding. The developers are requesting about $9.9 million in developer-backed bonds for the project, Hart said.
Previously, at least 10% of the units were expected to be set aside for individuals and families making up to 50% of the area’s median income—a city requirement for projects to receive public dollars in the form of tax-increment financing bonds.
Hart said the development team is now open to using an alternative approach that would allow it to pay a lump sum equal to the difference between market rate and workforce rent—rates for those making 80% of the area’s median income—over the 25-year life of a bond. That money would go into the city’s affordable housing fund, which can be used for any number of projects that support transitional and low-income housing opportunities.
While the development team is open to either going that route or incorporating lower cost units into its project, Hart believes the lump sum approach would “remove the uncertainty or the concerns [for] the neighbors” who may associate lower-income housing with higher crime.
“We’re just trying to be smart … to build a project that balances being in compliance with [the Marion County] comprehensive plan and environmentally sensitive, with making economic sense for myself and our partners,” he said. “We want our project to reflect something that’s been well thought out.
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The developer is using phramses like “moent of truth…” That’s definitely not good-faith.
They made marginal changes. If they think there won’t be push back they must be crazy. Hopefully the neighbors are happy. Our real estate market and economic climate will get this development pushed through. It’s just a matter of time.
This will, and should be approved
Personally, I think this is ugly. Every development in Indy looks the same. White stucco, with some other colors. No brick. You don’t see this facade in Carmel. Welcome mediocrity.
In this era of rapidly increasing climate change, anyone who builds near rivers doesn’t understand what’s coming.
Build it