Indianapolis Neighborhood Business Districts: Examining Retail Viability

By Ian Colgan | Market & Economic Analysis | Jun 29th

Development Concepts has done a considerable amount of research regarding the economic factors that drive successful neighborhood business districts. A Neighborhood Business District, as we call it, is a concentration of retail, dining and other services serving local residents, located outside of a Downtown area. If they are large enough, they can be retail, dining, arts and entertainment destinations that draw in visitors from across a metropolitan area. Nationally, well known examples of NBD’s are Lincoln Park in Chicago, South Street in Philadelphia, Fells Point in Baltimore, or Capitol Hill in Seattle. NBD’s represent the types of neighborhoods that have become highly desirable across the country – urban amenities easily accessible by walking or easy driving distance by nearby residents.

Through our research, we have identified a series of indicators that can be used to understand the retail viability of a particular NBD – whether established or planned. With the knowledge of the core factors that generate viability for successful NBD’s, we have created a “Retail Viability Report” for 16 existing and potential NBD’s in the City of Indianapolis. It is our intention to share the understanding of how NBD’s work economically so that Indianapolis can move towards a more sustainable future.

True NBD’s are elusive to cities like Indianapolis, which is characterized as low density and automobile oriented.  Indeed, based on national trends, we identified only one truly “mature” Neighborhood Business District in the entire City. Broad Ripple is defined as a successful urban retail district compared to other districts nationwide, having sustained private investment without the need for public sector assistance. Broad Ripple is also a major City-wide destination and one of Indianapolis’ most highly desired residential neighborhoods.

Download the full report

We attempted to study both the better known NBD’s in the City like Broad Ripple, as well as distressed areas that have been discussed as future NBD’s, such as East 10th Street or MLK Street. A major reason for doing this was to compare and contrast successful and potential districts to understand how they differ in terms of density, income and traffic count. The contrasting indicators are meant to generate an understanding of what these neighborhoods must do to not only attract additional retail, but also sustainable private investment.

Here is how we categorized the 16 districts in Indianapolis.  Definitions can be found in the report.

Mature

Broad Ripple

Established

Massachusetts Avenue

49th & Pennsylvania Avenue

52nd/54th & College Avenue

56th & Illinois

Emerging

Fountain Square

Irvington

West Washington Street

Unstable or Stagnant

Beech Grove Main Street

Speedway Main Street

38th & Illinois

38th & College

Developing

10th Street

16th Street

25th & Delaware

Distressed

MLK Street

Some other interesting findings:

• The districts with the highest residential density (as measured by population per square mile within a ½ mile radius of a central intersection) were 38th & Illinois (6,800), followed by 10th Street (6,750), 38th & College (6,580) and Fountain Square (6,280).  All of these are approximately 3 times the density of the City of Indianapolis.
• 56th & Illinois, 49th & Pennsylvania and Broad Ripple have the highest levels of household income surrounding their retail districts.
• Out of all 16 areas studied, only two had a Walk Score above 80 (Broad Ripple and Massachusetts Avenue).
• Broad Ripple, Massachusetts Avenue and 52nd / 54th and College had by far the highest retail sales out of all 16 districts. The total for these three nearly eclipses the total of the remaining 13.
• The district with the highest retail “demand” is 52nd/54th and College, followed by 49th & Pennsylvania, Broad Ripple and 56th & Illinois.
• The districts with the lowest Walk Scores were Speedway Main Street (38), MLK Street (52), 10th Street (54) and 38th & College (58).

Tags: Business Districts, Indianapolis, Neighborhoods