For 15 years at the turn of the last century, factory workers built automobiles at the Cole Motor campus at the corner of Washington Street and College Avenue on the east side of downtown Indianapolis. After two world wars and years of housing business tenants, the site transitioned to a Marion County Jail in the mid-1990s.

Now, as soon as next year, the historic campus will transform into housing with 213 apartments as the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development and private developers redevelop dilapidated buildings downtown into residential and commercial spaces.

1820 Ventures, a local developer, won the bid for the project after a 2022 callout for proposals.

The 300,000-square-foot site with buildings at 730 E. Washington St. and 752 E. Market St. and a connecting bridge over Market Street was built more than a century ago as the Cole Motor car factory.

Cole Motor had its heyday in the early 1900s, rivaling Cadillac in the luxury American car market. But the company’s success waned after World War I and Cole Motor folded in 1925.

For years, the site served a variety of industrial tenants until the City of Indianapolis took over in the late 1990s and used the building as a jail for the overcrowded Marion County jail system. The city moved out all inmates in 2022 when the Community Justice Campus opened.

Even though the campus sits directly between the downtown core and the near east side, the site was often overlooked. An interstate ramp to exit I-65/1-70 used to pass directly above the site creating a fast track down Market Street to Market Square Arena while completely bypassing the Cole Motor neighborhood.

Nearly two decades since that interstate ramp was torn down, developers are trying to renew the neighborhood and make the passageway a pedestrian-friendly street, said 1820 Ventures managing partner Jeremy Stephenson.

“Our approach is to go deep in an area and rise up the tide in that area. This is a neighborhood street, and we want to get it back to that,” Stephenson said. 1820 Ventures recently redeveloped the old Angie’s List campus, including building Gathyr, a 103-unit apartment complex, a few blocks east on Market Street.

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About $30 million in economic incentives — including federal historic tax credits, state redevelopment tax credits and a city TIF agreement — will help pay for the $84 million Cole Motor project.

Out of the more than 200 loft-style units, 11 will be reserved for households making 30% or less of the area median income. Most of the remaining units will be kept affordable for households making 80% or less of the median income, or about $80,000.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2027.

Alysa Guffey covers business and development for IndyStar. Contact her at amguffey@gannett.com.