Nickel Plate Trail construction is in the final stretch in Indianapolis

Lara Cooney recalls hearing the whistle of trains chugging along the Nickel Plate rail line before they reached 62nd Street. Decades later, she’s chosen to position her new business—a coffee shop—right along the recreational trail the rail line is being converted into.

She’s not alone. Business owners and developers have been anticipating the completion—as soon as next year—of the Nickel Plate Trail through northeast Indianapolis

Already, the trail has spurred significant development in Fishers, which has essentially completed its portion of the 17-mile path (it is planning to build one more bridge over a busy intersection). And development is underway as well in Noblesville, which is working to complete its section of the trail.

Cooney is planning to open Fire and Ice Café, a Celiac-friendly coffee shop inspired by the difficulty her husband and daughter have finding food without cross-contamination, in late November. When she saw that there was a retail vacancy at Allisonville Road and East 62nd Street—a building that abuts the Nickel Plate Trail’s path just a few hundred feet east—she pictured selling drinks and snacks to walkers, bikers and others enjoying the new trail.

She’s hopeful the trail and accompanying development will improve the neighborhood, a commercial and residential district dominated by strip malls and big box stores that currently is not pedestrian-friendly.

“I’d love to see this area just sort of refreshed,” Cooney said. “It’s struggled at various points throughout the time I’ve been here. Certain businesses would come in and leave.”

Fire and Ice Café will be located in a retail complex that Paragon Realty bought because of the potential of the Nickel Plate Trail.

Chris Block, the vice president of Paragon Realty, said the company has spent $1.5 million overhauling the exterior and parking lot of the strip mall in anticipation of the trail’s completion.

And Block worked with city officials to move a planned trail node from an original location to one closer to the shopping center. That means bike parking will be nearby, and Cooney is exploring the idea of adding public art in the area to draw the trail’s users to the retailers at the shopping center.

The Allisonville Road and East 62nd intersection is just a tiny piece of the trail that stretches across three cities and two counties. But the work underway there is indicative of the type of redevelopment planners anticipate the trail will bring in northeast Indianapolis.

In Fishers, the trail spurred a $157 million mixed-use project in the Nickel Plate District including Hotel Nickel Plate, the First Internet Bank headquarters, a 237-unit multifamily development called Nickel Plate Station and the rehabilitation of older buildings in downtown Fishers.

Further north, Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen points to the $67 million investment by Indianapolis-based developer Flaherty & Collins Properties into The Granary, a luxury apartment building planned for the south side of downtown that will have a connection to both Nickel Plate and Noblesville’s Midland Trace trail.

In Indianapolis, the Monon Trail—the first segment of which opened in 1993—has spurred the development of thousands of apartments, townhouses and condos as well as millions of dollars in retail and office projects along its 10.4-mile stretch through the city. More than 3 million people use the Monon each year.

Today, the Monon stretches 27 miles across Marion and Hamilton counties and spurred development in Carmel and Westfield, as well.

The success of the Monon Trail was in part the inspiration behind Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which opened in 2013 as an 8-mile path connecting six cultural districts. That trail, which has been expanded once with another expansion planned, has also spurred millions of dollars in mixed-use development.

A 2015 study by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute found that property values within one block of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail increased 148% from 2008 to 2014, an increase of $1 billion in assessed property value.

Overcoming obstacles

But despite that evidence, development of the Nickel Plate Trail faced plenty of hurdles.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness has been part of the project since its inception. He and then-Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear announced in February 2017 that they would spend about $9 million to rip out Nickel Plate rail lines and replace them with nine miles of asphalt for walking and biking.

The conversion was made possible by a federal railbanking program, which allows railroads to be converted into trails while still maintaining property rights-of-way, ensuring the land could still be used for transportation needs in the future.

But the project faced significant opposition from critics who wanted to maintain the railroad and collected 9,000 signatures on a Change.org petition and took the city of Fishers to court to stop the project. The group’s leader even mounted a primary campaign against Fadness and lost.

“It was very controversial at the moment,” Fadness said of the trail. “It’s hard to believe that now, given just how many people utilize and enjoy that amenity on a daily basis today.”

The lawsuits stretched for years and led to a settlement last May that required the federal government to pay $6.7 million to 168 property owners along more than 20 miles of the Nickel Plate Trail, from just south of East 16th Street in Indianapolis to just west of the White River in Noblesville.

The lawsuit, filed by Kansas City, Missouri-based Stewart Wald & Smith, a firm that specializes in rails-to-trails litigation, alleged the owners hadn’t been compensated for their property beneath the tracks when the railroad was converted into a trail.

Bells, whistles, crossings to come

Indianapolis has the longest segment of the Nickel Plate Trail at 10 miles but got a late start on construction compared with its northern neighbors.

The city broke ground on its $14.9 million portion of the trail in late 2023, thanks in part to a $5 million Next Level Trails grant that the city matched.

Right now, construction is happening north of Interstate 465, including a spur that will connect the main trail to Sahm Park in Castleton. Indianapolis workers recently removed train tracks from the road within the Kessler Boulevard right of way. For a week after, work closed 65th Street from Allisonville Road to Binford Boulevard.

Indianapolis Department of Public Works Director Brandon Herget said the team working on Nickel Plate is making other safety improvements along the trail as the project moves along.

“It’s easier for us, with existing design contracts and construction contracts, to quickly make improvements along the entire Nickel Plate Trail corridor,” Herget said. “We’re actively installing speed tables and elevated crosswalks depending on the specific circumstance that elevated safety protocol, sort of on an intersection-by-intersection basis.”

Although much of the project will be finished in 2025, some of the improvements—mostly bridges and underpasses—will take longer.

The Indiana Department of Transportation is tasked with building and paying for an underpass at Interstate 465. At Keystone Avenue, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization has awarded Indianapolis federal funds for a $6.5 million bridge. The city is matching $1.2 million of that cost.

Herget said the administration also plans to fund a bridge over 82nd Street. That project is in design, Herget said, but has not yet been awarded funded. He said it has been submitted to multiple grant funding opportunities.

Once complete, the Indianapolis segment will connect to 95,000 residents, 2,250 workplaces and 30,000 jobs, according to data from Binford Redevelopment and Growth, a community group focused on Binford Boulevard and 71st Street.

Meanwhile, Fishers will begin construction this fall on a bridge over 96th Street, which will be funded through the Next Level Trails grant program. Fadness said the city is also working to add “bells and whistles” like public art and lights to really make the trail a destination.

Tourist attraction

The Indianapolis portion of the project can’t be finished fast enough for Jesse Rice, who has long been a believer in the plans.

In 2016, he opened Black Circle Brewing at 2201 E. 46th St., which sits along the planned trail. In his area, the old rail lines have been removed and asphalt laid for the path.

“We’re now going on eight years of being there without [the trail] being open,” he told IBJ. “So we’re definitely excited about it.”

He’s hopeful that the trail will help him pivot Black Circle from an establishment that is often event-focused to one that benefits from daily foot traffic—people stopping in “just have a beer in the beer garden or sit on the patio,” Rice said.

Herget said that beyond appealing to locals, the Nickel Plate Trail also presents some tourism marketing opportunities. Specifically, Herget said the city’s not-for-profit tourism marketing arm Visit Indy is interested in pitching the loop as a major asset.

“Obviously, the Cultural Trail is known literally worldwide,” Herget said. “We host folks from around the country and the world regularly to marvel at what Indianapolis has done in establishing the Cultural Trail, and that›s one important node of the broader network that is really a regional asset.”•

Correction: The original version of this story at IBJ.com and in the Oct. 25 issue of IBJ included the incorrect photo of Chris Block. The story has been updated with the correct photo. Click here to see additional corretions.