Italian steakhouse, coffee/wine bar planned for Proscenium tavern in Carmel

An Italian steakhouse and wine/coffee bar are planned in a new tavern at the Proscenium in Carmel. (Rendering courtesy city of Carmel)

A new tavern planned at the Proscenium in Carmel would house an Italian steakhouse and a wine/coffee bar, under plans approved at a Carmel Plan Commission Hearing Officer meeting.

The proposed 4,600-square-foot Proscenium tavern would be built at 22 Proscenium Parkway, northwest of the roundabout of South Rangeline Road and West Carmel Drive.

An Italian steakhouse and a wine/coffee bar are planned to open at the tavern. However, Tim Hill, director of design and development for Carmel-based Novo Development Group, said Thursday at the hearing officer meeting that specific tenants have not been identified.

Business names on a rendering of the project are placeholders to show how signs would appear on the building, according to the developer.

Mike Hollibaugh, director of the Carmel Department of Services, served as the hearing officer at Thursday’s meeting and approved the architectural design plans for the Proscenium tavern.

“That project will be cool. It will activate that area even more, so it’s exciting,” Carmel Redevelopment Commission Executive Director Henry Mestetsky told IBJ.

A floor plan shows the restaurant would occupy about 2,900 square feet, while the wine/coffee bar would be about 895 square feet, with around 773 square feet of shared space between the two. Hill said construction on the tavern would begin this winter.

The $85 million Proscenium mixed-use development by Carmel-based Birkla Investment Group and Dayton, Ohio-based Woolpert Inc. opened in 2021 on a seven-acre lot on the northwest corner of South Rangeline Road and West Carmel Drive.

The tavern would be built on a 0.23-acre site on the center green at the Proscenium. Hill said the tavern building was planned from the beginning at the Proscenium.

“This is kind of like the little jewel at the center,” Hill said at Thursday’s meeting.

The project’s first elements—a 100,000-square-foot Agora at Proscenium office building and a 600-space subterranean parking garage—opened in summer 2020.

Its 196 luxury apartments, 15,000-square-foot restaurant building and a 22-unit condominium building opened in 2021. The project also included Indiana’s first Wahlburgers eatery at 1200 S. Rangeline Road.

The city of Carmel purchased a Party Time Rental warehouse in 2009 and an Arby’s property in 2017 for a combined $6.2 million. The city partnered with Novo Development Group—whose holding company is Birkla Investment Group—to work on making the Proscenium a reality on the sites.

Last year, Birkla and Woolpert announced plans for a $29 million second phase for the Proscenium. The five-story second phase at 1215 S. Rangeline Road would include 48 rental units and seven penthouse condominiums, 16,000 square feet of ground-floor space for restaurant and office uses, and a 120-vehicle multi-level parking garage.