When the City of Fishers issued debt to finance the final phase of the State Road 37 project at 141st Street, that bond issuance now has $23.6 million left over. Based on a transfer of funds approved by the Fishers City Council Monday night, that money will be utilized to buy land in the city.
Many, but not all, of these land purchases will be in the areas of the downtown Nickel Plate District and areas near the Fishers Event Center. The land will then come under the control of the Town Hall Building Corporation.
Established in 1989 as a nonprofit corporation, The Town Hall Building Corporation operates under the provisions of the Indiana Nonprofit Act. This mechanism allows the city to acquire or build essential public facilities, such as the new Arts & Municipal Complex, through a system that allows for project financing and avoids placing the full cost burden directly on taxpayers through immediate tax increases. The corporation handles the financing, and then leases the improvements back to the city.
City Economic Development Director Megan Baumgartner tells LarryInFishers the purchase of this land allows the city to provide potential development in areas of Fishers where land prices could stymie economic development projects. In a recent meeting of the Town Hall Building Corporation Board, Baumgartner describes these land purchases as “a huge opportunity for us.”
At Monday’s Council meeting, Finance Committee Chair John Weingardt said the transfer approved Monday night is required by statute, “otherwise, the money is just going to set there.”
Here is the list of land to be acquired:
(1) north of 116th Street between Municipal
Drive and Commercial Drive;
(2) south of 116th Street between the Nickel Plate
Trail and Commercial Drive south to Morgan Drive;
(3) between Interstate 69 and Meadows Drive, south of Fishers Elementary School to Fishers Pointe Boulevard;
(4) in the vicinity of the area commonly known as the Fishers Life
Science and Innovation park;
(5) along the Allisonville Road corridor between 106th and 116th Street;
(6) along the Hague Road corridor from 96th Street to
106th Street,
(7) in the area commonly known as The Crossing at Fishers
District.