Apartments, retail planned next to Athenaeum

The historic Athenaeum is finally getting a new neighbor.

Chase Development Inc. is planning to build a mixed-use project with up to 70 apartments, more than 10,000 square feet of retail and a 229-car garage on a parking lot next to the Athenaeum at Michigan and East streets. The plan comes about 15 years after the Athenaeum Foundation acquired the parking lot and began pursuing development. The foundation issued a request for proposals in 2013.

"The financial deal wasn't quite where it needed to be to satisfy the foundation," Athenaeum President Cassie Stockamp said of previous offers. "We just continued to work with different developers and this one bubbled to the top."

The project, called Block 20 because the Indianapolis Plat Map identifies the land as the 20th block in the city, won't be completed until at least 2018. Chase Development and the Athenaeum Foundation still need to hold meetings with neighbors and go through the city's approval process, Stockamp said.

Financial terms of the deal have not been completed, Stockamp said. The Athenaeum Foundation would like to maintain ownership of the property, but that remains up for negotiation. The cost of the project also is up in the air, she said.

"This is the very beginning," she said. "We're just trying to be transparent and make sure everybody can get involved who needs to be involved."

Regardless of the final details, Stockamp said the project will provide some much-needed money to the Athenaeum Foundation.

"It's really going to help sustain this historic legacy," she said. "Creating an annuity to help support this building was important."

The Athenaeum is in the midst of a $1.2 million renovation. The 94,000-square-foot building, built in the 1890s, includes a YMCA, Young Actors Theatre, Indiana German Heritage Society and The Rathskeller, a restaurant that has been open since 1894.

Redevelopment of the parking lot will fulfill a commitment that the foundation made to the Lockerbie Square Neighborhood Association in 2001 when it acquired the adjacent property and demolished a building.

The building will include a total of 55,000 square feet of space. The new garage is slated to have 160 spaces for public parking, a key addition for visitors to the Massachusetts Avenue corridor.

Block 20 will incorporate modern and energy-efficient amenities to a design that relates to the historic structure next door, Chase Development President Daniel Jacobs said in a statement.

"This type of project doesn't come along very often," Jacobs said. "An ultra-modern development situated, and in many ways integrated, with a 125-year-old historic structure presents such a compelling opportunity."

The lead architect for the project is Dan Moriarity, owner of Studio M Architecture in Carmel.

Call IndyStar reporter James Briggs at (317) 444-6307. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesEBriggs.