The proposal to repurpose an aging Meridian-Kessler office building and parking lot as a mixed-use transit-oriented development has been withdrawn.
On March 1, TWG Development’s president, Tony Knoble confirmed by phone, “We are no longer pursuing the redevelopment of the site. ”
The firm’s initial 2015 renderings of apartments and retail space for the 2-acre site near the intersection of Kessler Boulevard and College Avenue were not well received by neighbors in the immediate vicinity.
Taking note of the feedback, TWG’s second iteration late last year removed alley access and some commercial space, reduced the number of apartments, upgraded façade materials, and added a stop light on College Avenue for access. This version fared no better with the neighbors and also disappointed mixed-use density and transit advocates.
At the time of the announcement, TWG was working on a third revision to incorporate design elements that will make The Link at Kessler more appealing. According to TWG president Tony Knoble his design team had taken stock of the feedback from a range of stakeholders and TWG was preparing to propose 151 market-rate apartment units and adding five two-story walk-up townhomes of approximately 1,700 square feet each along College Avenue. TWG will provide 122 at-grade parking spaces and is negotiating with AT&T to gain an additional 35 spaces from its existing surface lots.
Commercial spaces were also included in the latest version. In addition to the complex’s leasing office, the proposal includes 2,500 square feet for a fitness center and yoga room, a 500-square-foot coffee bar, and 2 micro-office suites (350 total square feet) to complement 5,000 square feet of retail space. “We’re trying to make this more of a mixed-use project,” Knoble said. The plaza with public art remains, too, he said. “We’re trying to stick with a small outdoor seating space to activate the area.” The developer has previously committed to no liquor service or sales by any commercial tenant in the development.
The addition of the townhomes along College is a new element. “We’ve done that at two other projects,” he said. “We have a lot of empty-nesters in our properties downtown and I think The Link will appeal to them as well as to millennials just out of college.”
There’s no way of knowing now that the project has been shelved. The site remains highly desirable for development because of its prime location at the Kessler/College neighborhood commercial node – a vestige of the streetcar line that ran up and down College Ave. until 1953 when the streetcar between downtown and Broad Ripple was retired.
AT&T issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) last spring and received tremendous interest from the development community. TWG was selected from three finalists. There’s no indication whether AT&T will reissue the RFP or go back to the remaining bidders, both of which included mixed-use, transit-oriented, dense residential components.
In theory, such proposals would fit the City’s Red Line Transit Oriented Development Strategic Plan which found that “demographic changes and shifting lifestyles are leading to greater demand for development that is walkable, higher density, mixed-use, and transit-served. To both ends of the demographic spectrum, millennials and baby boomers, place and connectivity matter.”
Citing a housing preference study by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors, the report states: “Demand is high for . . . suburban neighborhoods that have a mix of housing and business. . . . Current demand for attached housing in mixed-use districts is underserved in Central Indiana, and that demand is projected to increase with demographic changes over the next 20 years.”
