Carmel-based Podell Partners is constructing its first buildings in Park 69, Ingalls Innovation District’s planned centerpiece project. (IBJ photo/Chad Williams)
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Ingalls has not changed much over the years, but the small town in southwestern Madison County could become the next community northeast of Indianapolis to sprout from the cornfields.
Town leaders are preparing for growth as they’ve seen what being located along major corridors has meant to nearby communities like Fishers, Fortville and McCordsville. Ingalls, about 25 miles from Indianapolis and within 10 miles of both downtown Fishers and downtown Noblesville, sits along Interstate 69, U.S. 36 and State Road 13.
Ingalls had a population of about 2,200 in the last U.S. Census Bureau count in 2020, but Town Manager Neil Stevenson anticipates the community will grow to between 12,000 and 15,000 residents within a decade.
Already, five housing developments by national homebuilders Arbor Homes, D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison Home Corp. and Lennar Homes of Indiana are under construction or in the works just south of County Road 800 South. Four developments are east of S.R. 13 along County Road 800 South, while another is on the south side of town off County Road 1050 South.
Combined, the subdivisions are expected to total about 1,400 new single-family houses.
“Being along those large corridors really naturally lends itself to growth,” Stevenson said. “It presents itself to that natural growth upwards out of the central Indiana region along I-69, so we’re capturing a lot of the growth and successes from Fishers and Noblesville.”
Construction on the first major economic development project in Ingalls is ongoing just off I-69’s Exit 214 at S.R. 13 in the 350-acre Ingalls Innovation District. About $210 million in private investment has been poured into existing and future commercial, industrial, manufacturing, residential and warehousing facilities.
Square Box Storage, General Truck Sales and Advanced Turf Solutions are companies that have started operations at the district. Fishers-based food manufacturer Dairy Chem Laboratories Inc. plans to break ground on a facility there next year, according to a site plan provided by the town.
Construction recently started at the district on Ingalls’ first new apartment project, the $42 million Ingalls Creek Flats, which is projected to have about 240 residential units. About half are expected to be ready next year.
And Carmel-based Podell Partners is working to build the district’s centerpiece project, called Park 69, a 23-acre business park that is expected to comprise six buildings totaling about 300,000 square feet.
Podell Partners CEO Wes Podell said one reason he selected the site is because he expects major development in the years ahead around Exit 214 along both S.R. 13 and County Road 800 South, which becomes East 136th Street at the Hamilton County-Madison County line.
“It is the next stop in the growth up there,” Podell said.
Podell began considering Ingalls about three years ago, he said, when he was looking for land for the business park. The current plan for Park 69 calls for two large buildings at the front of the development and four smaller buildings.
“I think if you look at the fundamentals, and you look at where the growth has occurred and where it’s headed, both in terms of rooftop and commercial activity, we really felt like this is the next interchange in that corridor,” he said.
Last month, Noblesville-based B&B Group broke ground on a 36,000-square-foot facility at Park 69 that will serve as a new headquarters for the company that provides services in commercial snow and ice management, residential and commercial irrigation, and residential outdoor landscape lighting.
B&B Group owner Andy Barker said the facility will also house his two other companies: Real Time Detention, which provides correctional facility consulting, and Real Time Furniture, which helps behavioral health care facilities purchase furniture. Combined, Barker’s three companies will employ 25 people at the site.
Barker said he first looked for space in Hamilton County but could not find the combination of office and warehousing space he needed. Ingalls had the available open real estate that the heavily developed Hamilton County lacked, he said.
“[We tried] to find some free-standing building in that 25,000-to-50,000-square-foot range, and there was just nothing that was a good fit for us,” Barker said. “And there really has not been anything in that sweet-spot range.”
Growing the town
Stevenson said Ingalls is working to ensure a grocery store is part of future development near Exit 214. The closest groceries to the community are a Kroger Marketplace near the intersection of East 116th Street and Olio Road in Fishers—about 7 miles away—and a Needler’s Fresh Market along U.S. 36 in Pendleton—about 5 miles away. A Meijer Grocery and a Target store planned on the east side of Fishers will be closer to Ingalls.
The town is also planning a $12 million project to upgrade C.R. 800 South to a boulevard with three roundabouts leading to Fishers. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization awarded $975,000 for the project’s design.
“We would like to see a lot more commercial development in the area as well … to give some of the residents places to shop and eat,” Stevenson said. “We’ve been working with a large grocery store to come into that space. That’s something this whole area is kind of really missing.”
Stevenson added that Ingalls is somewhat limited in where the town can encourage development due to a lack of utility service in areas that have long been farmland. About 69% of the town’s total acreage is agricultural, according to a report conducted last year by Indianapolis-based American Structurepoint Inc.
He expects more farmers and landowners in unincorporated Madison County near Ingalls’ borders will want to sell their land.
“We don’t really control when a farmer wants to sell their land, so we just have to work with the developer once that takes place,” Stevenson said. “Obviously, a lot of that’s in unincorporated Madison County, so if they want to annex into the town, they can do so, and we work with a developer at that point.”
While most development in Ingalls is happening on the north side of town near the interstate, Stevenson said development there will benefit the town’s older core near U.S. 36, also known as Broadway Street, which lacks many of the amenities needed to attract residents and businesses.
The Ingalls Innovation District sits in a tax-increment-financing district, which Stevenson said will help the town pay for infrastructure and utility improvements and lead to a revitalization of downtown by capturing tax dollars generated by new development. The town also requires homebuilders to pay $1,500 park impact fees for each new housing unit they build, which will help fund improvements to Ingalls’ parks system.
“We’re trying to utilize some of that development to encourage economic development in the old part of town,” he said. “The major goal for us is, we want to accommodate development, but we also want to make sure [developers are] paying their fair share as we grow.”
A land rush about a decade ago saw Ingalls, Lapel and Pendleton moving to annex parcels of unincorporated Madison County near Exit 214, creating an area where multiple jurisdictions come together.
“It’s kind of a confusing area for a business or a developer to try to work in to coordinate all those different municipalities and service providers,” said Mike Horrigan, president of the Horrigan Land Group division of Indianapolis-based Bradley Co.
Horrigan represents landowners who are looking to sell a pair of properties north of Exit 214. One of the properties on the northeast side of the interchange, about 74 acres, is listed for $4.4 million, while a parcel on the northwest side, 50 acres, is listed for $6 million.
“When you get to Exit 214, quite honestly, there’s been some interest in that area for the last couple of years,” Horrigan said. “The single biggest limiting factor is utility capacity.”
Stevenson said he has heard from people who compare Ingalls to Whitestown, which experienced a commercial and residential development boom along Interstate 65 that pushed the town from fewer than 500 residents in 2000 to more than 13,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“I see that. We’re right along the major interstate, I-69. We’re around the interchange, and we’re also on the major state road on the south side of town, so we’re similar in that regard,” Stevenson said. “Development is just kind of naturally spreading out from central Indiana, so we’re just benefiting from our location. We’re just trying to plan for that and get ahead of the curve.”
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