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A local property investor has acquired a pair of neighboring office buildings in the Mile Square, with plans to move his operations to one of the buildings.
Itamar Cohen, owner of property management firm INC Investments LLC, closed on the purchase of the four-story Morrison Opera Place building, 47-49 S. Meridian St., last Thursday for $4.1 million. In August, Cohen purchased the eight-story Meridian Center building at 50 S. Meridian St. in an auction, for about $3.74 million.
The purchase of the Morrison Opera Place building puts an end to plans previous owner Bruce Bodner had to convert part of the property to apartments. An earlier plan to add an 18-story addition with a hotel and living units atop the existing structure was dashed due to the pandemic.
The two buildings purchased by Cohen sit at the northeast and northwest corners of Meridian and Maryland Streets, respectively, and are Cohen’s first office buildings in the Mile Square. He said the purchases represent a continued shift in the types of properties in which he’s investing post-pandemic, moving away from retail and more into office space.
Cohen also owns the Marion County Coroner’s building at 521 W. McCarty St., along with several properties across central Indiana—including a few in Carmel and the Fort Benjamin Harrison area, where his eight-person INC Investment office is currently located.
“We’re exiting the COVID situation, and with office space, there’s a lot of CEOs trying to get employees back in the office, so I’m going to plug into that, with some spaces that we have pretty much ready to go,” Cohen told IBJ. “Downtown buildings is definitely a big dream I’ve had, … and these are a great first step.”
The owner has no plans to change the current uses for either of the South Meridian Street buildings from office, and in fact plans to take space in the 47,500-square-foot Morrison Opera Place Building for his INC Investment team’s operations. He said the company will move within 60 days.
“I’m a big fan of downtown Indianapolis, and it makes sense to be down here where the action is,” he said. “And, as an investor, there is a lot of money to be made.”
Cohen is working with Steve Delaney, a retail broker in the Indianapolis office of Dallas-based brokerage CBRE, to find a national restaurant to lease the first floor of the building, which Hard Rock Cafe occupied until it closed in 2017.
About 24,000 square feet is available for lease, with INC Investments set to take about one third of the available space.
Bodner told IBJ that while downtown “is on its way back,” he felt like it was the right time to sell the property, which he’s held since 1997.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time on the building, but for me—for now—that was the best move, and it’s in excellent hands with Itamar,” Bodner said. “You never really know when the right time is, until it arrives. It’s been a great building.”
Cohen said he’s also continuing to market a small portion of the 47,000-square-foot Meridian Center building, although most of the property is leased. Its tenants include Centier Bank on the first floor and law offices such as Tuohy Bailey & Moore LLP, Cline Law Group and Epstein Cohen Seif & Porter LLP on the upper levels.
The building opened in 1960 and was renovated in 1986.
The Morrison Opera Place building, which was built around 1870, has rich historical character, both on its interior and exterior. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
On the outside, the four-story building boasts arched windows on its upper floors and an Italianate-style cornice at the roof. Its interior is marked by a brick facade; exposed wood beams and trusses; cast iron columns and more. According its National Register application, the Italianate design that the building’s exterior typifies “was popular for commercial buildings in this area of Indianapolis from the period just before the Civil War to about 1880.”
According to public records, the building was constructed by Indianapolis businessman William H. Morrison after a fire destroyed the Morrison Opera Block on Jan. 17, 1870. Its second owner was M. O’Connor & Co. Wholesale Grocers, which occupied it from 1886 until 1924. From then until 1977, the Colonial Furniture Co. and its successor People’s Outfitting Co. occupied it.
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Please paint the Morrison Opera House. The exterior is looking worn and unkept, such a nice building.
So glad it will be preserved – frankly, the
“expansion” looked horrific!