2010 Owner of the Year

... retail and sidewalk cafes. “We’re focusing on beautiful architecture, good pedestrian connections.”

Photo: Ron Hoskins Photography

The massive Carmel City Center project, developed in partnership with the city by Pedcor Cos. of Carmel, will begin opening this summer. A city within a city, City Center will have green spaces, piazzas, water features and multiple buildings that incorporate residential as well as retail and office uses.

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Not far away is the site of the new Carmel Arts and Design District, which like the City Center involves public-private partnerships. Last year saw the opening within the district of the Indiana Design Center, which has just under two dozen retail and trade showrooms on two levels. Ongoing construction includes the Carmel Arts District Lofts and Shoppes project.

Pedcor is behind the 85,000-sq-ft Indiana Design Center.

In keeping with the pedestrian-friendly theme, the City Center and Arts and Design District are connected by the Monon Greenway, a rails-to-trails project that extends north into adjacent suburbs and south into downtown Indianapolis. The trail also passes directly through the middle of the Monon Community Center at Carmel’s Central park.

The relatively new center features indoor and outdoor aquatics facilities, fitness equipment, a gymnasium, classrooms and art studio space.

Though the mayor has strived to steer the city away from auto-centric development, he’s not neglecting the needs of drivers. Beyond the new downtown and arts district, another legacy he’ll leave is a transformation of the city’s road infrastructure that promises to make getting around Carmel both safer and more efficient.

In fact, some have said that Brainard and his city have become obsessed with the construction of roundabout intersections, and it’s a badge the mayor is proud to wear. At least three dozen intersections have seen stoplights or four-way stops replaced by roundabouts in recent years.

“We’re getting an 80% reduction in injury accidents in our roundabouts, versus stoplights,” the mayor says, explaining that roundabouts prevent dangerous, so-called “T-bone” accidents. The crashes that do occur are more sideswipe in nature and tend to involve less property damage and fewer injuries, he adds.

The most unusual application is in the city’s ongoing Keystone Parkway project (see August 2009 feature article). What was a multilane state highway with a half dozen stoplights is being redesigned into a stoplight-free city thoroughfare, with the stoplights replaced by grade-separated, teardrop-shaped roundabout interchanges.

Construction began in early 2008 on the fast-track, $112-million initiative that involves three different general contractors—Milestone Contractors, Walsh Construction and Rieth-Riley Construction Co.

They have divided up the interchange projects. Three of the six interchange projects opened to traffic in 2009.

“The Keystone project is unique in the U.S. in its scope and design,” Brainard says.

Carmel’s development boom has meant steady business for developers and construction companies, but the benefits have been more than just financial.

Cordingley says working with Carmel on the City Center, Indiana Design Center and other projects has been a tremendous experience for a company that had been focused mostly on developing affordable housing and multifamily projects. The Carmel work has grown the company’s capabilities into major multiuse projects, including retail and office space and, eventually, a boutique hotel, he says.

“We’ve learned a lot in doing mixed-use developments,” Cordingley adds. “That is going to be an important thing for us to be doing, going forward. “All of these things were the result of the mayor’s vision. He put together the financing so the city could contribute and create public-private partnerships. He went out and recruited the private developers until he found ones that could do something special.”

For his part, the mayor says the construction projects are differentiating the city.

“We don’t have oceans, nor do we have mountains, so we have to focus on building a beautiful environment to compete for good jobs and the companies that offer those jobs,” Brainard says.