Business prof outlines large investments in Indianapolis real estate – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather | Indiana Traffic

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Change is coming to Indianapolis with large investments bringing new hotels, office conversions and mixed-use developments.

Sara Coers is the associate director of the Indiana University Center for Real Estate Studies and a Kelley School of Business professor. She said the city’s real estate market is on fire, as Indianapolis has a lot of investments coming to downtown and across Midtown — 12 square miles between the White River and Fall Creek that serves as a gateway to the north side — because office work is becoming less common.

The city government has yet to give a green light to the plans for a hotel in the Circle Tower on the southeast quadrant of Monument Circle.

Emmis Communications in 2023 put its Lacy Building on the southwest quadrant up for sale.

“The Circle Tower building was recently announced, they’re going to convert that to a hotel,” Coers said. “The Emmis building is for sale and we have some really prime pieces that are suddenly up for rethinking all because of the decline of the office market.”

Coers said an office building near The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on the near-north side will soon be reimagined. “New City (Development), the developer for that project, has owned that office for a while and they’re realizing, ‘Hey, we’ve got all this space, all this unused parking, and this gives us a chance to rethink and reinvigorate the office in a different way than someone who is trying to convert the office to a different use,’” Coers said. “They’re trying to keep the office and activate the area around it.”

Coers said office space is not dead in Indianapolis; it just needs to be rethought.

“Bring more density to the area. Get people living there. Get people going there because they’re taking their kids to the dance studio,” Coers said. “Maybe there’s retail nearby that they can go to and that’s the kind of office that people want to work in. They want to be where they live, where they’re shopping, where they’re eating.”

Some investments are yet to be announced.

Keystone Group recently purchased property on the northwest quadrant of the Circle for a mix of residential, retail, and hospitality developments. The development group says the project in the former Elevance Health headquarters will likely include rooftop views, outdoor amenities, and parking.