23 Businesses Sought to Join Speedway Redevelopment
Bruce C. Smith
Indianapolis Star
April 21, 2009
Developers helping Speedway to rebuild Main Street are working on a short list of businesses considered strong prospects to join in the town’s project to remake the areas around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“We’re focused on approximately 23 prospects, which are consistent with the master plan for the Speed Zone,” said Charles R. Cagann, president of Indianapolis-based Mansur Real Estate Services.
The company was selected by the Speedway Redevelopment Commission as the master developer for the $500 million project to rebuild the aging Main Street and industrial areas near the race track.
And Cagann’s report to the redevelopment commission Monday night was one of the latest indications that the project continues to inch forward.
The town’s engineers, American Structurepoint, are more than 40 percent complete on some of the technical designs for the work.
Redevelopment Commission Executive Director Scott Harris said town representatives are working for state and federal grants, “so we can use our Speedway (local) dollars most effectively.”
He said applications for that money are targeted for funding of Speedway projects by 2010.
Cagann put a similar 2010 time frame on the development company’s work to attract new businesses to the Speed Zone, the redevelopment area spreading between Main and Holt Road, and between 10th and 16th streets.
Cagann didn’t name any names but he said Mansur is looking for new businesses for the Speed Zone to fit the master plan.
That includes several more restaurants, some neighborhood businesses, motor sports-related companies, auto museums and a college with classes in auto racing or technology, all intended to draw more people to Main Street.
Regarding the search for preliminary deals for businesses to settle on the new Main, he said, “Our goal is to have at least four or five letters of intent signed by the end of this year.”
