Indiana's Clay Terrace
Small-Town Charm Meets Upscale Shopping

by Paula Widholm

Retail stores lining a small town's main street usually evolved over several decades. Shoppers strolled past storefronts with facades ranging from glass to brick and stone to cast iron.

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Clay Terrace, a $110 million lifestyle center about 15 mi. north of downtown Indianapolis in suburban Carmel, tries to capture that small-town charm and architectural variety.

And it didn't happen over decades. Local co-owners/developers Lauth Property Group and Simon Property Group had 16 months to simultaneously deliver 14 buildings on the 70-acre site in affluent Hamilton County.

Since the grand opening in October, construction has started on an additional three out-lot buildings, which will bring the center to a total of 17 buildings this fall.

"The idea was to create a small-town streetscape from an architectural series of prototypical buildings that represent different eras of architecture," said Jeffrey Gunning, vice president and a leader of architect RTKL's retail entertainment group.

Example facades include a detailed 1920s cast-iron look similar to stores in New York's SoHo neighborhood and broad storefront windows surrounded by red brick and neutral cast stone representing the 1940s. The mix and match of design motifs drew favorable reaction from retailers, Gunning said.

Anchors include Dick's Sporting Goods, Wild Oats, Circuit City, Mitchell's Fish Market and DSW.

Clay Terrace is 90 percent leased and is expected to generate more than $150 million in annual retail sales. Lauth served as the general contractor and Simon is the leasing agent and property manager

Replicating Times Past

New-age building materials simulate the look and feel of the turn of the century. For example, Lauth used fiberglass and plaster glass to create the look of structural steel. GFRC, a lightweight concrete with a smooth finish, was cast in molds, shipped to the site and painted forest green to replicate cast iron.

"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a lot of cast-iron facades and exposed steel," said Mark Jang, director of retail development operations for Lauth. "To design with that same material today, the costs would be astronomical."

In addition to creating various facades, the center's buildings also vary in height from 28 to 44 ft. tall. Each building has a steel structural system with masonry block rear walls covered with brick. Sides and storefronts are open for tenants to display product. Fabric awnings and signage support the old-fashioned look.

The upscale, mixed-used center at 146th and Meridian streets contains more than 500,000 sq. ft. of retail including "big box" anchor stores, specialty retailers and restaurants.

Two of the buildings offer second-story office space totaling more than 70,000 sq. ft. Dick's Sporting Goods is the only retailer operating on two levels.

Enhanced Shopping

"There's not a great pent-up demand for enclosed malls in this section of Indiana," said Joe Downs, vice president of operations for Lauth. "The trend moving through the whole country is open air and upscale."

Lifestyle centers offer a higher-quality shopping experience, Gunning added.

"It's different from community centers with large parking lots that don't promote Saturday afternoon strolling," he said.

To keep those shoppers ambling, Clay Terrace features shade trees, paving variations, street furniture, lush landscaping, water features, wall art and ambient music.

A village green for art shows, outdoor concerts and picnics contributes to the look and feel of an urban main street. "All lifestyle centers need a piece of green amid what otherwise is an urban streetscape," Gunning said. "It's a place to sit on a bench and have lunch, or for the kids to stop and play."

The landscaping presented some unique problems.

"When the new landscaping is installed, it needs to be a finished product," said Peter Howe, a landscape solutions adviser for Carmel-based Engledow Group, a landscape consultant. "In other words, it needs to look established and basically needs to go in full-sized."

To ensure mature landscaping for the grand opening, a nursery was set up on the jobsite in early 2004. About 1,200 trees were picked and tagged in 10 different states especially for Clay Terrace. The landscaping features more than 10,000 shrubs, 267 flower planters and in excess of 3,000 sq. ft. of seasonal color inground.

Clay Terrace's landscape plan also called for "manufactured soil," which is unusual. The soil mix of coarse gravel, soil and peat moss facilitates the movement of tree roots beneath sidewalks without heaving the concrete.

Balancing Infrastructure Demands

Mother Nature didn't help get construction off to a rousing start as record rainfalls made summer 2003 one of the wettest in Indiana history. Dewatering efforts included cutting ditches and installing temporary drainages to help speed drying of the site.

The first steps were to relocate overhead utilities and move a shallow, high-pressure oil pipeline to go around the property. Shell Oil continued to run product through existing lines, transferring over to the new ones once they were complete.

"All the pipes and new welds were X-rayed and checked," said Kevin See, construction project manager.

New utilities were brought to the site, which formerly was a wooded area with four houses and farm fields. About 20 of the site's acres were deeded over to the municipality for a four-lane boulevard through the middle of the center, and Lauth and Simon own the remaining 50 acres. All land parcels were acquired by June 2003, and zoning was approved in September 2002.

After creating the boulevard, Lauth began lining the street with buildings. "It went up extremely fast," said Michael Hollibaugh, director of Carmel's department of community services. "Lauth kept a clean and well-organized site and accommodated our tight schedule."

Throughout the design and construction, Lauth met regularly with Carmel city officials and incorporated their design requests. In light of the city's plans to connect U.S. Highway 31 with 146th Street, Lauth reserved green space on the eastern and southern borders to allow ramps to be built without compromising parking.

"They were able to balance the infrastructure needs with the development of the site," Hollibaugh said. "From the signage to the lighting to the street furniture, it's all a nice package."

On the heels of Clay Terrace, local developer Premier Properties Inc. is developing a $127 million lifestyle center, Metropolis, in Plainfield west of Indianapolis.

Designed by Detroit-based JPRA Architects, phase one of the 850,000-sq.-ft. facility broke ground Jan. 6 and is scheduled to open this fall. Pepper Construction of Indiana is the general contractor.