Developer pitches plans for former Carmel golf course

Plans for the former Sunrise Golf Club property along the Monon Greenway in Carmel are coming into focus as the developer asks the city to approve a rezoning request.

The preliminary proposal for Sunrise on the Monon calls for about 150 single-family houses and as many as 265 attached dwellings, though it’s not clear yet whether those will be apartments, townhomes or condominiums.

At least 20 percent of the 78-acre property at 9876 Westfield Blvd. is expected to remain open space, with an eight-acre “natural preservation reserve” on its wooded western border and the four-acre Vera J. Hinshaw Park—including a Monon “gateway plaza”—at the southwest corner.

The proposed park, which would be donated to Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation, is named for a lifelong Carmel resident whose family held the land for almost 150 years.

Plans calls for wildflower gardens, an open field accessible from the Monon, a pavilion and a working windmill that pumps water—harkening back to the days when the property was known as Wind Pump 80 Farm.

As planned, Vera J. Hinshaw Park would include an open field, a pavilion and working wind pump. Click to enlarge. (Rendering courtesy of Sunrise on the Monon LLC)

“We’re doing our best to utilize the existing contours of the property to make a beautiful project,” said Andrew Greenwood, a partner in Carmel-based Old Town Development LLC, which is developing the site through sister firm Sunrise on the Monon LLC.

Another affiliate, custom homebuilder Old Town Design Group, will handle construction. Old Town has made a name for itself by developing “pocket” neighborhoods of high-end, small-lot homes in Carmel’s Arts & Design District.

Old Town principal Justin Moffett told IBJ in May that the Sunrise development likely will target empty-nesters.

The developer worked with national design firm Looney Ricks Kiss on a land-use plan for the property.

Seven different lot sizes are detailed in the rezoning application, and single-family homes are expected to range in size from about 2,400 square feet to more than 5,000 square feet. Sales prices likely will start around $350,000 and creep into the seven-figure range.

Custom homes in the so-called Woodlands area—nestled among the existing greenery—are expected to be the most expensive.

The development team also is asking to allow multifamily housing in an area along the southern edge of the property, which borders The Retreat apartments and condominiums. The Seasons of Carmel, another apartment project, is about to start construction to the east, across Westfield Boulevard.

Rezoning is necessary because the property is zoned for low-density residential uses. Sunrise is seeking to establish the site as a planned-unit development, allowing a variety of uses and setting special design standards.

The Carmel Clay Plan Commission is expected to take up the request next month, likely assigning it to one or more of its committees for review. If approval comes by the end of the year, site work could begin in spring 2015.

Buildout is expected to take three to five years, Greenwood said.