Ribbon cutting for new $43 million close-by residential building in northside

Indianapolis, Indiana – With the inauguration of the Wesley Place Apartments at 75 West 18th Street next to the IU-Methodist Health campus, the redevelopment of the North Meridian Street area has continued.

“We developed a 244-unit, mixed-income project with a little bit of retail, 3000-5000 square feet on the first floor,” said Rodney Byrnes of Arrow Street Development. “The whole idea is we’re serving the health care workers, the hospital workers and the neighborhood, but its an option that hasn’t been an option for a long time in downtown.”

The $4.3 billion campus expansion of IU Health and the IU/Methodist Hospital are both two blocks away from the five-story building, which is situated along the Red Line of IndyGo.

”Its one of the reasons we came here, that and the hospital,” said Byrnes who expects to rent to hospital employees. ”Not just for walking distance but if they want to go out and get a drink or go have dinner or go hang out with friends after work, its something that’s missing here. It’s a sea of parking lots right now, and as that recruiting gets more difficult and hiring more talented employees, I think all of this is going to come together.”

The developer was persuaded by financial incentives from the city to reserve 10% of the apartments for workers with lower incomes.

”Its easy to imagine how attractive these units will be for present and future health care workforce,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. ”For these reasons the city of Indianapolis was proud to support this new project through tax abatement.”

Planners at IndyGo foresaw transit-oriented development along the improved bus route and anticipated the complex’s building along that route.

The historic Drake Apartment building at 3060 North Meridian Street was acquired by the city a week before the ribbon-cutting, with plans for a developer to refurbish the building’s 26 apartments.

”That requires a certain number of the units to be affordable to those making 80% of the area median income,” said Metropolitan Development Director Rusty Carr, “and for Indianapolis that’s for one person that’s $51,000 so at least 51% of the units that will be developed for housing will have to meet those income thresholds and the rest can either be affordable or market rate depending on the project proposals that we receive and how the community wants to see the building reused in the future.”

Vop Osili, president of the City County Council, noted that new apartment rents are frequently too high for tenants at the Wesley opening.

”Rents of $1400 or more a month for a studio apartment do not meet most councilors’ definition of affordable.”

The construction of Hall Place, the opening of the Wesley, and the City’s acquisition of the Drake have allowed for more reasonably priced residential development along the vicinity of North Meridian Street.

”One of our main charges is development of affordable housing,” said Carr. “Its not something that the private market produces. This is our role to step in and play a support role for affordable housing development and when it’s a really significant architectural building as well as on a main rapid transit line, these are really big priorities for us and so this is where we use our federal and local resources to come in and make sure that we can provide housing for our neighbors and residents.”