$12M townhome complex at former Colonial Bakery site to pay tribute to local centenarian

When Albert Arnold, 101, moved into the Reagan Park neighborhood on the near north side of Indianapolis almost 70 years ago, he found a different community than the one in which he lives today.

While Reagan Park used to house a thriving, diverse community of white and Black families, over the years Arnold has watched as the area has suffered disinvestment and young people have moved out. Now Arnold’s hopeful that the neighborhood will be revitalized — and he’ll be a part of it.

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Arnold’s name will soon live on in the neighborhood where he’s spent nearly all his life.

The centenarian’s name will grace the newly-announced Arnold Place, a $12 million, 33-townhome development at 25th Street and the Monon Trail, which the city of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership announced Tuesday. The city contributed $9.8 million in funding, in part from the American Rescue Plan Act.

“A lot of people could have been chosen,” Arnold told media at a groundbreaking event Tuesday. “They took my name, so I appreciate that.”

In 2019, the city received a grant from the state of Indiana to clean up the site that formerly housed Colonial Bakery’s truck maintenance facility, which was covered in contaminated debris and soil. In 2022, the city issued a request for proposals to redevelop the site, eventually picking Indianapolis-based developer Onyx + East.

The development is the first to result from the city’s 25th & Monon vision plan, which was released in March 2021. The plan lists four brownfields for redevelopment in the Martindale-Brightwood area, including the Colonial Bakery site.

Officials at the groundbreaking Tuesday pointed out that homeownership is increasingly out of reach for young people, due to skyrocketing interest rates and the presence of out-of-state investors, who buy up homes that would otherwise be affordable.

“One reason the city and partners like INHP can make investments like these is due to the love of community shown by residents like Mr. Arnold,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said in remarks Tuesday. “That love can keep a neighborhood together.”

Of the 33 homes, 51%, or 17, will be designated for homeowners making 80% of area median income. In Indianapolis, that’s $77,350 for a family of four. The houses will be between 1,300 to 1,500 square feet, with two or three bedrooms, 2.5 baths per home and an attached garage. The first Arnold Place townhomes will be move-in ready by mid-2024.

The campaign for Jefferson Shreve, Hogsett’s Republican opponent in the upcoming mayoral election, said adding to the affordable housing stock was a good initiative but the announcement came too close to the election, which is Nov. 7.

“This is an excellent first step toward easing the affordable housing crisis in Indianapolis,” said Matt Organ, Shreve’s campaign manager. “As with all things Mayor Hogsett does, it’s too little, too late and too close to an election.”

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Arnold has lived in Indianapolis all his life and in Reagan Park for 69 years. When he was 78, he had a revelation and became a Christian, a member of Harvest Christian Fellowship. He’s now a minister at that same church, near where Arnold Place will be located — one of many houses of worship in the area.

“The more churches you have in a neighborhood, the greater your neighborhood’s gonna become,” he said.

Arnold’s hopeful that these homes will bring young people back to the neighborhood, giving them a chance to own their own homes and filling the churches and streets with hope for the future.

“There’s opportunity,” said Arnold. “Anything they want to be, they can be in this neighborhood.”

Contact business reporter Claire Rafford at 317-617-3402 or email crafford@gannett.com.