Historic Mixed-Use in Fountain Square

Posted on August 02, 2011 by Jake Dietrich

The construction of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, an urban pedestrian and bicycle path connecting downtown Indy neighborhoods, is nearing its completion. In addition to being a great recreational facility for the city, it also has potential for business growth due to the increased foot traffic walking past storefront windows along the Trail. One of the last pieces of the trail that is still under construction is the Southeast Corridor along Virginia Avenue. This section runs right into Fountain Square, a shopping and entertainment district that strongly lives by their slogan “funky, artsy, retro…anything but square.” It is widely considered one of Indianapolis’s most culturally rich neighborhoods.

The commercial anchor to the neighborhood is the Fountain Square Theatre Building, an entertainment, shopping, and office cornerstone for the city originally constructed in 1928. The building saw great success for four decades until it began to slowly see a decline in the late 1960s. However, since the Fall of 1993, current owner Linton Calvert has been restoring the building with the ultimate goal of trying to restore the building's original character as best as possible. During lunch one day, Linton was kind enough to show our Milhaus group around the building. Within the brilliantly restored mixed-use building we saw uses such as entertainment, hotel, recreation, restaurant, café, bar, social gathering, and business. We could easily understand why the building is often the destination of company retreats, weddings, social gatherings, and plain good old-fashioned fun. For more information on the building or facility reservations, please visit their website.

This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest

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