Fishers Nickel Plate District Trail Project

Fishers Trail Project 116th Street (Image: IBJ.com 11/18/11)

Within the past couple weeks, the Fishers Nickel Plate District Trail Project has reappeared on my radar. I first saw the news story when it broke in the Indianapolis Business Journal last year in November. I recently came in contact with it again when I spoke with the person who works for the company responsible for the unique pavement techniques used in the project. Once I saw some of the pictures, I had to take a look myself.

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Downtown Kokomo – Project Park Bench 2012

This month, artist design benches have shown up within downtown Kokomo. The Kokomo Perspective notes that the artists’ theme was “reinvention” and can be seen in many of the benches and were in accordance with the Kokomo Artisan Experience earlier this month. Some benches deciphered reinvention as the improvement of technology bringing a brighter future, while other benches toted earth-friendly and sustainable methods of reinvention.

The benches will be relocated throughout town in city parks and along multi-use paths such as the Industrial Heritage Trail and the Wildcat Walk of Excellence. The timing and theme is somewhat ironic as Mayor Greg Goodnight had interviews and taping this week with CNN Money’s Poppy Harlow on the resurgence of Kokomo in this rough economy.

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Kokomo Construction Roundup: March 2012

It was a beautiful day yesterday and after work I decided to go on a long bike ride. On that ride, I decided to go take a look at how some of the known construction projects downtown are developing. For the first time in what seems like my whole entire life, Kokomo has many different projects going on downtown at the same time. Here are three of the projects that have visible changes as of 3/6/12. As the construction season begins, this list will grow to include some of the other downtown development news.

Kokomo-Howard County Public Library Outreach Building

My first stop was the Outreach Building for the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library. To my surprise, the building is coming along quite quickly. You can see that as of yesterday the building’s supports are in place and the shear mass of a building is starting to take shape. From the elevation images and the articles that I’ve come across, the building won’t be a design icon in the downtown district. Although it won’t be the most beautiful building, it does provide density to a block where a parking lot previously sat.  It does provide a good street wall to both Market and Mulberry Streets, which helps enclose the street and promotes walkability. One of the MAJOR design flaws is how close the building is to the neighboring structures and doesn’t fit in well with the previously existing urban fabric in that area. The building’s orientation is exactly how I would have designed it, but I would have had more visible facade changes to mimic the existing look and feel of the surrounding structures. This is just a cookie cutter building that doesn’t provide much value and similar if not exact replicas of this structure could be found in an infinite number of communities in the world.

More on the Library Outreach Building is here in a Kokomo Tribune article.

Senior Housing Development

The Senior Housing development that I’ve previously highlighted on this blog, got some great news recently that will help get this project rolling. According to the most recent Kokomo Perspective and Kokomo Tribune newspapers, the St. Mary Development Corp. received a federal rental housing tax credit of $900,429 in addition to a $250,000 loan both from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. Within the past couple weeks, the site has been cleared and the old Hoosier Wholesale building was demolished. Site prep is ongoing and construction should begin on the $9 million project this July with a completion date in 2013.

PNC Bank Facade Improvement

Another urban design improvement downtown is the facade improvement of the PNC bank at the corner of Mulberry and Buckeye Streets. This one has a bit of mystery behind it as I have no idea how the end result will turn out. If a certain development firm is in control of it, I’m sure it will end badly, disastrous, ugly or  tasteless. I’ll get more into that in a blog entry at a later date… As for right now all we have is the facade with orange fencing near the base awaiting for construction.

Not exactly a “downtown” project but I am most certainly excited for the extension of the Industrial Heritage Trail: The current southern terminus (Boulevard) pictured below facing south to the potential future IHT extension.

UPDATE: Sycamore Commons Convenience Store proposed for “Manetoowa” Parcel

"Manetoowa" sitting in front of the proposed site (Image: http://www.waymarking.com)

According to a article in the Kokomo Tribune on 12/20/11, Fortune Management is proposing to build a convenience store on the lot where the Indian Maiden statue is currently located. The development could provide everyday necessities that would normally not be within walking distance for people living east of downtown. The project is also located at an important automobile and bicycling route within downtown Kokomo, which “ups the stakes,” creating certain expectations on a currently empty site.

60-Unit IUK Student Housing Complex Approaches Next Hurdle

Potential style of what student housing across from IUK (Image: Kokomo Perspective)

Mecca Companies of South Bend wishes to build a 60-unit student housing complex across the street from Indiana University Kokomo. The project is up for approval with the zoning board for a special exemption and setback variances. If the project moves forward, this would improve IUK’s desireability for prospective freshmen as well as improving the quality of life for current IUK students, which could mean added future development and economic stimulation.

The owner, Annex of Kokomo LLC is asking for variances for setbacks for the front and the rear, a driveway separation variance and a buffer variance on the south and west sides of the property. If the project clears the zoning board hurdle the proposed $7 million 60-unit housing complex could be completed as early as August 2012.

5 Screen Movie Theater coming to Peru, IN

Peru's Roxy 5 Movie Theater (Image: Kokomo Tribune)

As you might have realized with An Indianapolis Festival Day, I’m trying to branch out slightly in the world of blogging, I’m also going to attempt to branch out geographically. So for this post, I took a better look at the new 5 screen movie theater coming to Peru, Indiana.

For those of you who read the local newspapers, some articles have come out giving details on the 5 screen movie theatre located within Peru’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district. The new Roxy 5 Movie Theater will be the only movie theater within Miami County and hope to keep residents from traveling to Kokomo for entertainment.

Crossing Washington

With the Haynes-Apperson festival this weekend, the city of Kokomo will expect to see hoards of people coming downtown, many of which will cross Washington Street, a busy 4-laned roadway. All the recent road construction downtown made it more pedestrian and bike-friendly, but people who live nearby in the Old Silk Stocking Neighborhood are cut off from downtown because the thought of crossing the busy road makes people anxious. I had a funny thought the other day. Whenever I see people crossing Washington Street at the Sycamore Street intersection they often look as if they are crossing an illegal border, oftentimes hurrying across either roadway seeming like they are trying to not be seen. This problem made me think about what changes could be made to comfort pedestrians and bicyclists along Washington Street and the many side streets near downtown. With small changes, we could see more people walking and biking to the central business district, which in turn would benefit Kokomo.

Desired Pedestrian Connection with Three busy intersections (Image: Ross Pierce 6/29/11)