Urban Land Institute to Work with Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard on Options for Revitalizing Mass. Ave./Brookside Industrial Corridor

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use arrives in Indianapolis this week for a four-day study visit of the Massachusetts Avenue/Brookside Industrial Corridor area. The visiting panel will work alongside Mayor Greg Ballard and several local land use professionals to develop a replicable approach for revitalizing some of the city's longstanding vacant and underutilized manufacturing sites with employment-based redevelopment.

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Mayor Ballard and his Rose Center fellowship team – Michael Huber, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce; Adam Thies, director of the Department of Metropolitan Development for Indianapolis and Marion County; Brad Beaubien, planning administrator of the Department of Metropolitan Development for Indianapolis and Marion County – will work with the visiting panel to identify the applicability of redevelopment best practices, public policy changes, and research needs to help attract new development and employers to the corridor, just northeast of downtown.

While many cities coping with the legacy of vacant and underutilized industrial sites have attempted to redevelop them into mixed-use communities, Mayor Ballard's team does not see the feasibility of that approach in Indianapolis due to local real estate market dynamics. Their goal is to create a strategy for the Mass. Ave./Brookside industrial corridor that can serve as a model for Indianapolis to revitalize other underperforming industrial areas throughout the city, improving its overall fiscal health by facilitating local job growth in weak-market neighborhoods.

"Indy has a rich history of bringing together public and private partners to accomplish great things in our city," said Mayor Ballard.  "The Daniel Rose Fellowship will provide great insight as we work to return vacant industrial sites to productive uses in our city."

The study area consists of more than 300 acres of a mix of occupied and vacant industrial, commercial, and residential building buildings. It is ideally positioned near the rising residential neighborhoods of Cottage Homes and Woodruff Place.  Despite the corridor's convenient access to U.S. Interstate 70 and a CSX railroad corridor, the area suffers from deteriorating infrastructure and environmental issues.

The visiting panel consists of national renowned land use and real estate professionals, including former Indianapolis Mayor and ULI emeritus fellow for public policy, Bill Hudnut. In addition to Hudnut, the other panel members include: Peter Cavaluzzi, principal,  EE&K-Perkins Eastman, New York, N.Y.; Bert Mathews, president, the Mathews Company, Nashville, Tenn.; George Atta, director, Department of Planning and Permitting, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii; Matt Cheroutes, senior strategic advisor, Elkus Sisson and Rosenstein, P.C., Denver, Colo.; Reid Dulberger, chief economic development officer, City of Memphis and Shelby County, Tenn.; Nadine Fogarty, vice president, Strategic Economics, Berkeley, Calif.; Patrick Quinton, executive director, Portland Development Commission, Portland, Ore.; Laura Shipman, urban designer, Columbia, Md.; Zachary Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer, New York City Economic Development Corporation, New York, N.Y.; and Marja Winters, assistant city manager and community and economic development director, City of Bentor Harbor, Mich.

Indianapolis is one of four cities selected for the 2013-2014 Rose fellowships, along with Honolulu, Memphis, and Portland. During the five years of the fellowship program, teams have been successful in leading change in their communities after receiving technical assistance and strategic advice from ULI. Past classes of Rose Fellows have tackled challenges including revitalization of Detroit's Livernois Avenue; upgrading and re-branding Louisville's Fourth Street corridor; the redevelopment of Tampa's downtown riverfront; Kansas City's historic livestock district; and the transformation of Sacramento's nearly empty downtown railyard. This four-day study visit is intended to provide initial observations, recommendations and homework for the Indianapolis Rose Fellowship team to follow up on over the remaining 8 months in the program. Cavaluzzi and Mathews—the panel co-chairs and faculty advisers to the Indianapolis Rose Fellows—and Hudnut—a Rose Center Advisory Board member—will continue to work with the Indianapolis Rose Fellowship team through the course of the program

The Daniel Rose Fellowship is the flagship program of the Rose Center, established in 2008 by the ULI Foundation Governor Daniel Rose. The Center aims to empower leaders in the public sector to envision, build and sustain successful 21st century communities by providing access to information, best practices, peer networks and other resources to foster creative, efficient and sustainable land use practices. The Center works with public officials throughout the United States to encourage and support excellence in land use decision making. By providing public officials with access to information, best practices, peer networks, and other resources, the Rose Center seeks to foster creative, efficient, practical, and sustainable land use policies.

NOTE TO EDITORS AND REPORTERS: Representatives of the Rose Center will present their findings in a public forum on Friday, February 28, 2014 from 9:00-11:00 a.m. EST at the Old City Hall, 202 N. Alabama St., Indianapolis, Ind. No registration is required.

About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 30,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.

SOURCE Urban Land Institute