Looking ahead: Next year will bring more construction, arts and culture development to Fishers – Current in Carmel

In 2020, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness foresees complete of several projects that are already under way.

I think next year will be a year for building on ideas already out there in the public, and there will be a lot of that going on, he said. Youll see a lot of construction in the downtown area on private developments like the First Internet Bank, the hotel, two multi-family developments being built. Theres a lot of construction going to happen in the downtown area.

In December 2018, Browning Investments announced a $157 million development for downtown Fishers on both sides of 116th Street. The north side of the project will be built by Browning and CRG Residential and will feature a five-story apartment building with retail units, a public parking garage, a plaza gathering space and renovated downtown buildings. The south side will feature the 168,000-square-foot, six-story office building to be First Internet Banks new headquarters, along with a 110-room boutique hotel, the Hotel Nickel Plate, and a parking garage. The project is anticipated to be complete by fall 2021.

At the same time, construction on a tunnel for the Nickel Plate Trail under 116th Street will begin, as will construction on the first leg of the trail from 106th Street to 116th Street. The trail is expected to open in 2021. The first portions of Ind. 37 construction also will begin, starting on the 126th and 146th street interchanges in the spring.

Fadness said residents also can expect to see roadwork on 96th Street.

We are excited about the ability to build it to four lanes from Lantern to Cumberland (roads) and do lane reconfiguration and beautification, Fadness said. Itll be a significant year of construction for the city.

More of The Yard at Fishers District will open in the first quarter of 2020. The new features include a hotel and more than a dozen businesses and restaurants and apartments The Fishers Test Kitchen, featuring three new restaurants, will open in February. The second phase of the project, which sits to the east of Phase 1, will begin in 2020 and will include another hotel, an office building and townhomes.

I think itll be a very active place, Fadness said.

Other projects opening in the new year include Hub and Spoke, a $14 million, 85,000-square-foot design center that includes a showroom, event space, warehouse and makerspace at 106th Street and the Nickel Plate Trail. Fadness said he expects them to open up in the spring, with other portions of the development opening in the summer.

An autonomous vehicle program will begin in the spring or summer. The vehicles, created by the California-based company PerceptIn, will transport eight passengers at a time from Launch Fishers, 12175 Visionary Way, and the Internet of Things Lab, 9059 Technology Lane, to downtown Fishers. The vehicles travel at 20 mph. PerceptIn plans to establish its headquarters at the Internet of Things Lab in early 2020.

We hope to (expand transportation to) other places within the community. That would be ideal to shrink the universe, so to speak, and allow people the opportunity to get to restaurants and enjoy the community in ways they otherwise wouldnt be able to do unless they got in their car, Fadness said.

Two new members will join the Fishers City Council in 2020. They are Democrats Jocelyn Vare and Samantha DeLong.

We look forward to getting all nine council members together to find out commonalities and find common ground and hit the ground running for another four years in the City of Fishers, Mayor Scott Fadness said.

Fadness expects more focus on the cultural aspects of the city in the new year. The Arts and Culture Commission is working on a master plan for 2020 and beyond.

I think youll see a lot more focus on 2020 to the cultural and community aspects of our city, Fadness said. Theres going to be a lot of building, a lot of development, but we are really laser-focused in on the next couple years of garnering a strong sense of pride and community engagement. Youll see a lot of focus and emphasis on those things moving forward.

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Looking ahead: Next year will bring more construction, arts and culture development to Fishers - Current in Carmel