Detroit-based Shinola will expand its hotel footprint with a second hotel in Indianapolis. Boxcar Development, an investment group led by Herb Simon and the Simon family, has preliminarily submitted a proposal to redevelop the site of the former CSX building in downtown Indianapolis. The proposal envisions a new multi-use development that includes the Shinola Hotel, a 4,000-capacity music venue operated by Live Nation, a retail space and a pedestrian skybridge over Pennsylvania Street into Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers.
Investment in the project is expected to equal $300 million, with demolition beginning in the fourth quarter and construction completing in 2027. The plans, submitted to the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission, will be available for public review later in July and discussed at a public hearing in August.
Indianapolis-based Ratio Architects will lead design of the hotel and related spaces. Populous, a global firm specializing in gathering spaces, whose notable projects include Sphere in Las Vegas and the Fieldhouse of the Future renovations at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, will lead design of the music venue.
According to Boxcar, the development addresses long-standing blight at a critical intersection in the downtown Indianapolis, creates new retail space along Georgia and Pennsylvania Avenues, and fills an existing cultural need for event space with a new 4,000-capacity venue. The site is the last undeveloped site in one of Indianapolis’s most important neighborhoods.
Boxcar has signed a letter of intent with Bedrock Manufacturing, which owns the Shinola brand, and Sage Hospitality Group, which manages the Shinola Hotel in Detroit. Boxcar is also finalizing details on an agreement with Live Nation to operate the live music venue.
The Shinola Hotel will be housed in a new 13-story tower and occupy 226,000 square feet. It will include:
- Mix of 170 rooms and suites
- Indoor and outdoor terrace banquet, meeting and event spaces
- Fitness center
- Upscale restaurant
- Bar
- Shinola retail store
"We feel like there can be tremendous growth in hotels from a brand awareness perspective, from introducing us to non-watch-buyers and from potentially leading in markets where we don't have a retail store presence, like Indianapolis," Awenate Cobbina, an executive at Bedrock Manufacturing, which focuses on the company’s hotel and hospitality initiatives, said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.
Cobbina noted that when he started with Bedrock more than three years ago, one of the areas of growth that was identified was hotels.