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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Condomania

The Indianapolis condo market is booming:

. . . the Downtown condominium market is alive, kicking and guzzling Red Bull.

Supply is high. Dozens of condos are open or in the works.

Demand is even higher.

And it seems no one -- not developers, not Realtors, not residents -- thinks supply or demand will come down soon.
Not when there are people like Jessie Mills.
Last year, Mills and her husband, John, moved out of their sprawling home near Eagle Creek Park and into a smaller townhouse Downtown.
They love it, she said. It's a maintenance-free lifestyle in the heart of a walkable city brimming with restaurants and retail.

Condos are big in Indy because of something Fort Wayne doesn't have -- that "walkable" environment brimming with things to do. We have a classic dilemma here. It's hard to sell the condos if there's nothing to do, and it's hard to persuade developers to provide the things to do if there's no one to do them. And notice the pricde tags -- $200,000 to more than $1 million, with monthly fees added to that. Even if condos were cheaper here, we're talking about a limited pool of potential buyers.

And even in Indy, not all condo projects are succeeding:

The city's hopes for a luxury high-rise condo in Downtown sounded great to Cindy and David Pride.
The tower would rise on the former site of Market Square Arena, where Elvis performed his last concert and the Pacers played basketball for 25 years. It was supposed to transform the east side of Downtown Indianapolis into a new urban center.
The Prides, moving to Indianapolis from Florida, reserved their unit in One Market Square soon after plans for the building were revealed three years ago.
But ground has yet to be broken on the project, which was supposed to be completed this year. The Prides and others who were ready to buy have backed out of their commitments and are moving elsewhere.

One of the possible reasons for the project's lack of success is interesting: "Because of its location in -- rather than on the edge of -- Downtown, the project wouldn't offer what high-rise residents desire most: a skyline view."

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Comments

Kevin Knuth
Tue, 08/29/2006 - 7:16am

Leo,

This somewhat ties in with tonights editorial regarding the Colts stadium.

I think you bring up very valid points- Primarily that such a project in Fort Wayne will NOT move forward without significant investment from a non-public source.

One line you wrote in tonights editorial struck a chord with me however- "There are those who say downtown is a lost cause that should have been left alone".

I think that many said the same think about Southtown Mall. It is too early to call Southtown a success- but I am thinking it is heading that way.

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