On a farm, McCordsville sees a new downtown rising

The town of McCordsville is betting that if it builds it, they will come.

But this field of dreams won’t be a baseball diamond in a cornfield. It will be an entire downtown.

The town wants to develop 100 acres of farmland near the intersection of Mt. Comfort Road and U.S. 36 into apartments, stores, restaurants, specialty shops and sidewalks and trails. The site is behind a small strip mall anchored by one of the town’s biggest business, a CVS pharmacy, and the project is designed to get people to notice McCordsville, stop there and shop.

"We don't have a downtown or even a Main Street now," said Town Manager Tonya Galbraith, "yet subdivisions are being built and people are moving in and they are demanding amenities." 

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The Hancock County suburb of 6,000 near Geist is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Indiana and the population is expected to hit 11,500 by 2020. Yet, motorists whiz past its businesses without ever realizing they have entered the burg in the first place

Town officials said it is time for McCordsville to make its presence known.

"For far too long, McCordsville has been a residential extension of Lawrence and Fishers," the town's request for proposals to developers reads. "The residents and officials alike want to develop a unique identity and character for McCordsville which will celebrate our history and heritage as a community."

The proposal seeks "a connected, walkable town center to create experiences for our community"

If those specifications sound a little familiar, it's because they are.

McCordsville is just the latest Indianapolis suburb to redevelop its downtown into "live, work, play" communities —  part of a nationwide trend to draw visitors and new residents to city cores and rejuvenate economies.

Brownsburg last year announced a $70 million public-private partnership to bring restaurants, retail shops, offices and hundreds of apartments to the heart of the Hendricks County town of 23,000.

Plainfield is developing near Center and Main streets (U.S. 40) that will include luxury apartments, homes, green space, a performing-arts center, shopping, walkways, wider roads and neighborhood improvements.

Greenwood, Bargersville and Franklin in Johnson County are also doing downtown upgrades.

In fact, the firm that won the bid to draw up the McCordsville plan, Fortville-based Context Design, is also working on Plainfield’s plan and developed Fishers’ Nickel Plate District blueprint.

McCordsville is paying Context Design $38,000 to come up with a conceptual plan and the company is planning meetings with residents and businesses to gather their input. The size of the project has not been determined, but McCordsville hopes to attract private developers who could be provided with tax incentives and other municipal assistance.

Galbraith said the three landowners at the downtown site told the town they would consider selling if the plan moves forward.

Officials from Context Design could not be reached for comment, but in their application they wrote that "we see numerous parallels between this project and the Nickel Plate District Master Plan. Both communities recognized a lack of a cohesive downtown was stifling their ability to grow."

McCordsville, Cumberland and Hancock County are already planning to revitalize 10 miles of Mount Comfort Road from 96th Street to U.S. 40  with a mix of commercial, retail and industrial development. The Indiana Department of Transportation also plans to realign the corridor.

But a true city center is needed much more, some McCordsville business owners said.

"We are surrounded by all this development and we are a tiny blip that goes by unnoticed," said Amanda Isom, owner of Salsberry Garden Center, 6346 W. Broadway. "And if you live here you have to go to all these other towns to get stuff. I think this could be huge for the town."

Isom said the anomynity is unfortunate because the town has some attractive businesses and, despite the hard-to-find location, her business has increased every year for eight years. "It is amazing how many people drive by everyday and don't know what they are missing," she said.

Nick Servies, one of the owners of Scarlett Lane Brewery, said he would love to move into the new downtown.

"I've told the town I would like to see a classic Indiana town square," he said. "Even if we can't be relocated there we would benefit from it,"

Scarlett Lane just celebrated its fourth year in McCordsville and will soon be adding a barbecue restaurant at its location, 7724 Depot St., but relies on regular, return customers.

"We don't get many people who accidentally stumble upon us, foot traffic," Servies said. "We get people who make this a destination, who know where they are going."

"If there were a downtown, that could bring business to another level."

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317 444-6418. Follow on Twitter and facebook.