'Burb Bites: BRICS co-owner plans Boone County market
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The week's news from around the region includes a planned development in Boone County, more road construction in HamCo and the end of an eight decade drive-in era.
🍨 The co-owner of Broad Ripple Ice Cream Station is planning to open an ice cream parlor and marketplace in Whitestown after getting zoning approval Wednesday from the town council.
- Two lots at 206 and 208 S. Bowers Street will be rezoned to accommodate a 5,000-square-foot facility called Craft Marketplace that will sell ice cream, local goods, meat and produce.
- Its construction calls for the demolition of two homes built in 1960 and 1987.
- Petitioner and BRICS co-owner Kirstie Hileman puts the project's estimated cost at between $1.5 and $2 million.
🎞️ Also in Boone County, 80-year-old drive-in theater M.E.L.S. at the Starlite has closed permanently before its 2026 season due to a property sale.
- The buyer has not been identified, but M.E.L.S. at the Starlite theater leadership said the new owner won't run a business on the property and has no plans to develop housing on the site.
- The sale is also not connected to any data center or LEAP District developments.
🚧 In Fishers, construction on the 116th Street and Allisonville Road intersection starts today with work expected to continue through October.
- After plans to build a roundabout were canceled last fall, city officials decided to focus on extending left turn lanes, adding stoplights and other general improvements.
- This plan allows the intersection to remain open throughout construction.
🚒 No one was hurt in Franklin when a large fire destroyed an under-construction addition at the Compass Park senior living community early Friday.
- The blaze that Franklin Fire Department Chief Joshua Snyder called the biggest he's seen in his 20-year career displaced 55 residents and required the work of 60 firefighters from 11 departments to bring it under control.
- The damaged construction was a 39-unit apartment with underground parking set to open to residents this summer.
🅿️ The Noblesville Common Council will vote on proposed downtown parking changes Tuesday.
- Changes would increase the duration of three parking on weekdays from two to three hours and decrease street parking in the Federal Hill and Levinson garages from four to three hours.
- During last month's common council meeting, Mayor Chris Jensen said the changes are an attempt to "uniform and streamline the parking conversation" downtown while making the area more shopper-friendly.