The area of 96th Street and Allisonville Road, on the far south end of Fishers, has seen a number of stops and starts in development over the years. The recent announcement of the city’s purchase of land there along the White River provided the possibility of future development. For CRG Properties, the future is now.
Thursday afternoon, the City of Fishers announced a $98 million CRG Residential mixed-use development at the northwest corner of 96th Street and Allisonville Road. This project is expected to include multi-family housing, townhomes, and commercial retail space, situated next to the recently announced 98-acre parkland to the west. The City of Fishers, in close partnership with CRG, also announced the reconstruction of the Michigan Left intersection at 96th & Allisonville into a roundabout.
CRG Residential is committing to a land donation required for the roundabout and an additional 25 acres of non-floodplain land to increase the size of adjacent parkland, totaling 123 acres for the White River passive nature park.
“This project will enhance the southwest corridor of our community in multiple ways,” said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness in a city news release. “The new park, and now the additional buffer zone donated by CRG, will serve as a key amenity for our city and region, providing expanded public access to one of our community’s greatest natural assets—the White River. And as we bring the roundabout intersection online, the additional vehicular traffic will be able to better access the local businesses in the area as a gateway to our city.”
This CRG development plan includes 380 multi-family units, 66 townhomes for sale and 35,000 square feet of new commercial retail space. It will also include infrastructure improvements to support the City’s new park.
“We are excited about the opportunity to invest in this important corridor of the city and to enhance its value to the community,” said CRG President and Fishers resident Christopher Reid. “There are so many dynamic pieces to this development, particularly the park and greenspace along the White River which will provide access to the overall community. We look forward to working with city officials, Councilors, key partners and the community to develop a project that instills pride in the community.”
The Fishers City Council will vote on a project agreement with CRG at the February 21st meeting. The council will consider allowing CRG to use Tax Increment Financing, utilizing the property taxes generated as collateral on the bonds to finance the project. The $23 million bond will be developer debt, with the city holding no liability on the 25-year bond payments, according to city officials. The bond will fund land and infrastructure costs.
Minus the park land that the city purchased from tax court, the pretty much sounds like a carbon copy announcement from 12 years ago for that area.
Minus tearing down the former Walgreen’s — has anyone committed to ACTUAL start dates for construction? Or is this all still pending a bunch of moving pieces that require financial tango and back-room negotiations that don’t TRULY benefit us citizens? (like that now eyesore at Holland and 116th…)
I do like that they are going to redo that ghastly intersection…the sooner they can get that done the better off EVERYONE will be.
This does appear to be similar to the old Riverplace project that was proposed years ago and which never happened. The town spent at least $10 million in taxpayer dollars on the “Michigan Left” intersection, supposedly to handle increased traffic from Riverplace. And even a roundabout there could be problematical, at rush hour there is so much traffic on both roads that getting into the roundabout without traffic lights could be difficult. I do like the parkland proposal, since much of it is in flood plain. I note that the so-called “free market” has come up with nothing, leaving only TIF corporate welfare as the funding source for much of this. And what happens if the developer goes under? The taxpayers do indeed foot the bill, or so I understand.
Love the concept but this seems like an incredibly tough sell… Tye real question is: Who wants to live in a community that constantly smells like sewage? You have Fishers’ wastewater treatment plant immediately north of the site and Carmel’s to the west. Yikes.
This was my first thought too. Can’t we just leave this part of Fishers undeveloped, let the animals have a place. We don’t have to pave all usable acreage in Fishers.
Ah .. thats the smell of a ‘smart, entrepreneurial city’