EVANSVILLE − A different company has taken over efforts to resurrect the Downtown Evansville block where an 18-story bank tower was imploded last fall.
Domo Development, in which Indiana Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Doden is a partner, secured state financial assistance last year to implode the former bank tower, raze the next-door Sycamore Building and clear debris.
Company officials spoke of a new two-building, four-story project with ground-level commercial spaces and apartments on upper floors.
More:6 months after Evansville's tallest building was imploded, its old space remains barren
Domo, however, is no longer involved. Mayor Lloyd Winnecke said CRG Residential, a Carmel-based construction and real estate investment firm, "has signed an agreement to advance a major mixed-use project" at the site.
CRG Residential previously developed Downtown Evansville’s 144-unit mixed-use Post House along with Indianapolis-based Scannell Properties. The company is, according to Winnecke, "conducting site surveys, environmental assessments, and strategizing on how to overcome current economic challenges."
There's no timeline for construction.
“We understand the community’s heightened enthusiasm in developing a project that can serveas a key anchor at the center of Downtown," CRG President Christopher Reid says in a release from Winnecke's office. "We intend to move forward quickly to identify and propose a development that will instill pride in the Evansville community.
“We have had great interest in the Evansville market over the years, and this newest opportunity allows us to pursue our own process to identify what a similar mixed-use project will look like.”
The release quotes Domo partner John Hennessey as saying: "When community leaders approached our team about this project, they shared that the site had been a challenge for decades. We are proud of our work to bring the project to this stage. When approached by local investors about selling our stake in the project, we felt it was, both, the right timing and the right decision for our team and the Evansville community. We look forward to seeing the citizens of Evansville enjoy the benefits of the project's completion."
Domo was introduced in September 2019 as the 5th & Main project developer. The company also became a part owner of the block, along with local, unnamed investors.
At first, Domo said the 18-story tower would be left standing and renovated for mixed-use. The company in 2020 pivoted from that idea and said the whole block would be demolished and rebuilt.
But inflation complicated the multi-million dollar redevelopment. Involved parties discussed cost estimates early this year, and "inflation just hit the project like a ton of bricks," Winnecke told the Courier & Press Monday.
Further discussion about how to proceed led to the change in developers. Winnecke said CRG is a larger company than Domo, perhaps giving it a leg up on handling the inflationary pressures.
Winnecke described Domo's exit from the project as "very amicable."
The concept of a mixed-use development for the site, with commercial spaces and apartments, remains the same, Winnecke said. A community park at Fourth and Main streets sponsored by CenterPoint Energy is still considered part of the project.
Winnecke said he's optimistic CRG will complete a project at the site, even though the timeline is not certain.
"They understand what a high priority this is for the city," Winnecke said of the company.
In addition to the Post House, CRG Residential recently opened Nickel Plate Station in Fishers and has invested in other public-private partnerships in Carmel, Greenwood, Brownsburg, Newport, Kentucky, West Des Moines, Iowa, and Traverse City, Michigan, among others.