By Bill Ruthhart bill.ruthhart@indystar.com
WESTFIELD, Ind. -- Plans are in the works for another high-end lifestyle shopping center in Hamilton County, this time along U.S. 31 in the emerging suburb of Westfield.
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A proposal filed with town officials late Thursday calls for 430,000 square feet of retail space on a 64-acre parcel at the northeast corner of 161st Street and U.S. 31. The $83 million project, scheduled to open in the fall of 2009, would be developed by Chicago-based Pine Tree Commercial Realty. Dubbed Lantern Commons, the development would be slightly smaller than Carmel's Clay Terrace, a 570,000-square-foot lifestyle center just two miles to the south. Thursday's filing also comes just days before the first store is scheduled to open in Hamilton Town Center, an outdoor, 1 million-square-foot lifestyle mall at I-69's Exit 10 in Noblesville. Lantern Commons will add to Hamilton County's growing presence of high-end retail developments. For Westfield, Thursday's news is a landmark moment. "This is the largest retail project ever offered in Westfield," said Town Council President Andy Cook. "This is a huge endorsement by the development community on Westfield's direction and a vote of confidence on where this community's heading." Pine Tree's Barry Herring declined to name specific tenants being considered for the project. The site plan calls for two 100,000-square-foot anchor stores along U.S. 31 and three to six midsize stores. About 30 boutique shops would be built on the interior of the site, which Herring said would be developed in a park-like setting with a creek running through the middle of the development. Pine Tree has retained Indianapolis-based Colliers Turley Martin Tucker to handle recruitment of tenants. But with Noblesville's Hamilton Town Center beginning to open stores, Clay Terrace just down the road and plans for thousands of square feet of shopping in Carmel's City Center, will there be enough shoppers to go around for Lantern Commons? Herring thinks so. "There will be competition," he said, "but I think there's enough players and enough room in the market for us, or we wouldn't be building this." Herring said Lantern Commons would be anchored by high-end fashion stores similar to some found at The Fashion Mall and Castleton Square. He said the project wouldn't include a Wal-Mart, Target or any other big-box stores or fast-food restaurants. "The level of upscale development that is going to go on here will permeate from this site throughout the town to adjacent properties," Herring said. "This will dictate what will be developed around us. We have set the bar very high." Pine Tree would spend $9.5 million to help build and widen streets in the area around Lantern Commons, including the construction of a roundabout at 161st Street and Westfield Boulevard. Dave and Missy English live just a block away from there on secluded Woodside Drive. Homes on their dead-end street would back up the development. A couple of years ago, they and their neighbors successfully fought plans for a Wal-Mart on the site. "This looks nice, but I'm worried about the traffic," Missy English, 42, said as she sat at her kitchen table, flipping through sketches of the project. "This could have just as much traffic as a Wal-Mart." Dave English, 45, said that unlike some of his neighbors, he doesn't oppose growth as long as it doesn't hurt his property value. Lantern Commons, he said, could make his neighborhood more appealing. "There are going to be people on this street who are going to fight this, because they're old-timers and don't want any growth," he said. "But we don't have upscale in Westfield like they do in Carmel. This truly could help the town." The proposal still has to go through the public hearing process in Westfield and must be approved by the Town Council. Cook expects Lantern Commons to face some opposition. "It will be interesting to see how this is received, because this is the first kind of this development coming to the town," Cook said. "There will be those who say this is too much, that it's too big, and some will say bring on more. "Either way, I think people in Westfield realize this kind of growth and progress is coming."
Call Star reporter Bill Ruthhart at (317) 444-5527.
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- This development if done right could be good for Westfield. Having Clay Terrace 2 Miles to the south isn't that big of a deal. There are plenty of stores that are not in the Indianapolis area market that would love to locate in Hamilton County. Having a developer wanting to do this I am sure they have thought of which stores that will go into Lantern Common. They want to see their development be successful, so competing with a already established mall just to the south with the same stores would not be a wise idea. What stores should go into this mall?
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