Downtown Indy's historic CSX building is getting a $300 million makeover
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Another new development is targeting downtown Indy. Photo: Courtesy of Ratio Architects
The Simon family has plans to bring a new Shinola Hotel and a 4,000-seat capacity Live Nation music venue to the corner of Georgia and Pennsylvania streets.
Why it matters: The development of the old CSX building at 230 S. Pennsylvania joins a long list of downtown construction projects reshaping the city's skyline and leans into Indy's reputation as a top-tier tourist destination.
Driving the news: Boxcar Development, an investment group led by Herb Simon and the Simon family, has submitted plans to the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission for the $300 million project.
- In addition to the hotel and music venue, the development will include new retail space and a pedestrian skybridge over Pennsylvania Street into Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
- If approved, the pitch calls for demolition to begin the fourth quarter of this year and construction to be completed by 2027.
- Project plans will be available for public review later this month and discussed at a public hearing on Aug. 7.
Zoom in: The Shinola Hotel will set up shop in a new 13-story, 226,000-square-foot tower with 170 rooms, meeting spaces, a fitness center, an upscale restaurant, a bar and a Shinola retail store.
- The music venue will be an indoor space that will give the city more chances to book acts.
- Also planned for the space is a two-level parking garage.
Zoom out: Indianapolis-based architecture firm Ratio Architects will lead design of the hotel and related spaces.
- Populous — a global firm that worked on both the Fieldhouse of the Future renovations at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the Sphere in Las Vegas — will lead design of the music venue.
- Officials say both structures will be designed in a way that is "complementary to and reminiscent of the historic Warehouse District in which much of the project will sit."
What they're saying: "The development addresses long-standing blight at a critical intersection in the downtown, creates new retail space along Georgia and Pennsylvania Avenues and fills an existing cultural need for event space with a new 4,000-capacity venue," Boxcar Development said in a statement released Thursday.
- "The site is the last undeveloped site in one of Indianapolis's most important neighborhoods."
What's next: The Historic Preservation Commission must approve the demolition of the vacant CSX railroad servicing building first constructed in 1923.
- After considering the proposal during the August meeting, the commission would vote on it during the September meeting.