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Shops, restaurants and medical offices have brought more people and traffic to County Line Road, near Interstate 65, but the area is expected to get a whole lot busier in the next few years.
Three new restaurants, a hotel and a gas station are planned on the Indianapolis side of Emerson Avenue and County Line Road, just west of the interstate exit. Larger stores are expected to follow shortly after.
Developer Allen Commercial Group is planning Claybrooke Commons, a 59-acre shopping center that likely would have a few large stores, smaller retailers and more restaurants just north of the Hilton Garden Inn. As development fills in, the interchange will start to look more like the Southport exit, where shoppers flock to Target, Meijer and other large retailers, Allen Commercial Group director of leasing John Cunningham said.
The developer expects that a 100,000-square-foot store will anchor the development, which potentially would be home to two or three large stores. Cunningham said he’s already had talks with a few national retailers such as Costco, which wasn’t interested in adding an Indiana location at this time.
“The site is so large that it will require an anchor to kick it off,” Cunningham said. “There will be outlots, and it will be done in phases.”
Eventually, Claybrooke Commons could have up to 400,000 square feet in retail and restaurant space.
Allen Commercial Group pitched the proposed shopping center to prospective tenants at a recent conference in Las Vegas. The company hopes to lure big retailers that don’t have locations around Greenwood Park Mall or at the Southport interchange.
The Greenwood-based developer has invested $650,000 in site improvements to develop the northeast corner of the intersection. The work included an access road, which will run to new restaurants and stores, and a longer turn lane along Emerson Avenue, which currently narrows into a chute when you cross north past County Line Road.
Indianapolis has long-term plans to widen Emerson Avenue between I-65 and County Line Road but has no timetable or schedule for the project, according to the city’s strategic plan for the area. More than 20,000 cars a day pass through that intersection.
City officials have no immediate plans to expand the road but could revisit the need for road work if the volume of traffic significantly increased as a result of the development or if enough residents complained, Indianapolis Department of Public Works spokeswoman Leslie Gordon said.
Vehicles headed north on Emerson Avenue get backed up because the road is five lanes on the Greenwood side and shrinks to two lanes in Indianapolis.
The Greenwood side of the intersection is home to a Walmart store, Gander Mountain outdoor retailer, a Buffalo Wild Wings, strip malls and rows of medical offices. That side developed first because Greenwood widened Emerson Avenue to five lanes and it’s the direction most motorists are headed on their commutes home from work in Indianapolis, Greenwood planning director Ed Ferguson said.
But development has started to take off on the north side of County Line Road as well. A Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen restaurant is under construction at the northwest corner of the intersection, in an outlot of a shopping center that’s anchored by a Kroger supermarket.
A Shell gas station with a Circle K convenience store is planned on the northeast corner, Cunningham said. The sit-down restaurants Cheddar’s Casual Café and Bagger Dave’s Legendary Burgers Tavern also plan to open their first southside locations at that corner.
Texas-based Cheddar’s, which offers steaks, sandwiches and other American fare, has Indiana locations in Avon, Bloomington, Fort Wayne and Mishawaka. Bagger Dave’s, which is owned by one of the largest Buffalo Wild Wings franchisees in the Midwest, has an Indianapolis location near Zionsville. The Michigan-based restaurant dishes out gourmet burgers and craft beers.
Construction of the restaurants is expected to begin soon, Cunningham said.
Sprague Companies, which owns the nearby Hilton Garden Inn and the Holiday Inn Express in Greenwood, also purchased land nearby. The company plans to build another hotel at the interchange, but it’s likely to be a long-term project, director of new construction Judy Hoovler said.
“We’re excited to see what Allen can do with Claybrooke Commons,” she said. “We have hope that area will do well.”
We would love to have a Whole Foods or Trader Joes on this side of the town. Anyone thought of that?
ReplyDeleteMe too! And add a chipotle!
DeleteYes!!! I agree Rainy!!!
ReplyDeleteA Fred Meyer would blossom there, the Kroger company owns this super store chain and would put a better variety , quality than Walmart smack in that busy traffic zone.
ReplyDelete