The city of Indiapolis has solicited bids for the redevelopment of the site of the former Market Square Arena. The two plans for redevelopment are slightly different, with one favoring residential development with some retail space, while the other is more mixed-use of residential, office, and retail space. The second plan has a large retailer name attatched - Target.

Drawing of the Market Center Partners twin tower proposal from IndyStar.com. More information, see: New plans for Market Square.

While Target has several stores on the outskirts of Indianapolis, this would be the first location in downtown Indianapolis for the retailer.

Downtown is gaining the density of residents that mass-merchandisers such as Target demand before they locate stores there, said Mark Perlstein, a principal of Sitehawk Retail Real Estate Group of Carmel.

Landing a Target Downtown “would be a real coup for the city, with Target’s reputation and their (customer) draw,” he said. He noted that a Downtown Target “would have minimal cannibalizing on their other stores in the marketplace.”

The city of Indianapolis will make their final decision on which project to proceed with by the Summer. However, both developers are looking for subsidies that could run into the “millions of dollars”. It will be interesting to see how much the city is able to cough up for this redevelopment effort.

When a professional sports team upgrades it’s facilities, it can leave a city with a very large, vacant parcel of land. While it seems that the land from most demolished stadiums/arenas are reused by the new stadium, usually for parking, there are a couple of exceptions:

• After both the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers moved west, the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field were later demolished and turned into apartment complexes and public housing.
• Following the construction of Camden Yards in Balitmore, the former site of Memorial Stadium has been converted into two apartment complexes and “the largest YMCA facility in Maryland”.
• The former site of the Charlotte Coliseum is currently under redevelopment, with the development firm of Pope & Land Entreprises proposing 625,000 square feet of office space, 271,000 square feet of hotel & retail space, 616 apartments, 91 townhomes and 116 single-family homes (more information).
• Currently the city of Detroit is looking towards the demolition of the former Tiger Stadium site. While demolition looks to happen this Summer, former proposals included a Wal-Mart (more information).

These multi-acre parcels are a mixed-use developer’s dream, but as more of these sites become available in the next decade, look for more big box retailers to try to piggyback on them as a way in to congested, downtown urban areas.