Guest Blog: Tamara Zahn "We Have Much to Celebrate."

Three cheers for MIBOR as you celebrate 100 years.  Thanks for all you've done – collectively and individually - to make Central Indiana a better place to call home.  You have made a difference. 

We've come a long way.  We have much to celebrate.

I vividly remember just twenty years ago when Indianapolis Downtown Inc. was being formed to develop, manage and market Downtown Indianapolis.  There were huge craters Downtown where the development of Circle Centre had stalled.  More businesses and residents were moving out of Downtown than moving in.  

Thankfully, an “army” of public and private sector civic leaders, active advocates, resident pioneers and a handful of brokers shared the belief that a strong heart was vital to the success and well-being of the entire region.  

Over the years, many worked tirelessly to develop and market compelling Downtown residential options and an irresistible package of cultural, entertainment and dining options, especially to empty nesters and young professionals, within a safe, convenient and very walkable environment.   We put a face on urban living. 

The result is Indy’s largest and most diverse neighborhood.  More than 20,000 residents now call Downtown home.  Equally as important, Downtown’s success generated positive momentum for the surrounding neighborhoods.  In fact, Indianapolis was second only to St. Louis with the largest percentage increase of young professionals who chose to live Downtown or the neighborhoods around Downtown, according to research conducted by CEOs for Cities.  There’s still more to do.  

If we work together, the future is bright!

I am excited for Indianapolis and Central Indiana.  I don’t recall a time, at least in the last two decades, that our community was more open to and engaged in embracing new leadership and new ideas.  The possibilities are endless.  The passion and energy of our own neighbors to build a better community is truly inspiring.  Examples of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things are everywhere…in business, in the not-for-profit world, in neighborhood, community and economic development.

Now is the time to stand on what Indianapolis does best.  Reach for the inconceivable, put agendas and egos aside, break down boundaries and work together to build powerful relationships, collaborations and results. 

Together we can continue to make Indianapolis a special place that we all are proud to call home.   

Tamara Zahn is the former president of Indianapolis Downtown, Inc. from 1993 – 2012. She is also the daughter and sister of residential real estate professionals. While an undergraduate at Indiana University, Tamara was the recipient of the F.C. Tucker Real Estate Award.      

Resurrecting Indy's urban housing market

Today we'd like to share a column published in the Indianapolis Business Journal in response to a housing conversation recently hosted by LISC that featured our own MIBOR President Debbie Morris as a panelist. We posted her comments in a recent blog you can read here. Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

TAFT: Resurrecting Indy's urban housing market

The recession affected some older Indianapolis neighborhoods differently than it did the larger metro area housing market, with areas of Marion County taking particularly hard hits.

These neighborhoods suffer from deteriorated or outmoded older housing, lack of quality amenities nearby, perceived or real weakness of urban school options, and the need for high-quality transit.

However, the right strategies—making it easier to buy and renovate homes, helping developers redevelop entire swaths of the neighborhoods, and improving mass transit—would give these weaker areas a shot in the arm.

That was the consensus of a housing conversation hosted recently by Local Initiatives Support Corp. to determine the major structural challenges facing urban neighborhoods and what it would take to strengthen demand in neighborhoods that have lost population.

The experts convened included Debbie Morris of the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of REALTORS®; Leigh Evans from Mapleton Fall Creek Community Development Corp; Adam Thies, the new Department of Metropolitan Development director; and John Watson from Core Redevelopment.

Statistics generated by the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of REALTORS® reveal very different housing market dynamics within the metro area.

Since 2000, the nine-county central Indiana area has experienced modest growth in sales prices, while Marion County prices remained flat and prices in the Indianapolis Public Schools service boundaries dropped 26 percent.

Changes in the total number of sales reflect similar trends, with a gradual increase in sales across the region, a small decline in Marion County, and a steep drop in IPS. Downtown has been an outlier, with no growth in sales but a 68-percent increase in sale prices.

While the trends within IPS reflect a steadily declining housing market that now contains most of the approximately 14,000 vacant and abandoned homes in Marion County, the strong growth in downtown values reveals rising demand for urban living. The forum identified a number of clues for how to spread this small-scale urban housing vitality into the surrounding IPS district.

Interest in urban living by generations X and Y could be converted to housing purchases with the right housing product and environment.

The second clue is to make it easier for buyers to purchase older homes that need work. Mortgages will need to pay for a much higher percentage of renovation work in a transaction.

A third clue is that many homes are substandard or so poorly located that they will never attract a resident and should be demolished.

Finally, while home buyers and renters might be increasingly interested in urban living, they still demand high-quality amenities. This primarily means access to quality public education—a challenge that a growing number of magnet and charter schools are beginning to provide to the IPS area.

Since walkability is a major draw to urbanism, these neighborhoods must also offer sidewalks or bikeways to nearby shopping, entertainment or recreation. Ultimately, urban living will maximize its value only when residents can save up to 25 percent of their income by using high-quality public transit instead of owning a car.

It is encouraging that even some non-downtown urban neighborhoods like Holy Cross, Fountain Square and Mapleton-Fall Creek are beginning to offer many of these attributes. Ultimately, to achieve a true rebirth of the urban housing market, there must be significant private investment spurred by public investment in the key amenities.

If Indianapolis is to prosper, we must rebuild infrastructure to revive urban housing.

Taft is Indianapolis executive director of Local Initiatives Support Corp., a not-for-profit that invests in neighborhood redevelopment projects.

What's Next for Neighborhoods

Earlier this month, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation presented its third installment of the “What’s Next for Neighborhoods: A Public Conversation Series.” This forum focused on housing in Indianapolis’ urban core neighborhoods.  As an organization focusing on the health of downtown neighborhoods, LISC felt it was important to talk about the challenges these neighborhoods face. As a REALTOR® who hears daily the concerns and desires of homeowners, I was pleased to be asked to be part of this important discussion.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Indianapolis witnessed large-scale suburbanization, with subdivisions springing up north and west of the White River, along Allisonville Road, east to Fort Benjamin Harrison and along East and West Washington Street to accommodate veterans home from World War II and their growing families.  As suburban neighborhoods continued to grow over the decades, Indianapolis’ once thriving urban neighborhoods began to decline.

While downtown Indianapolis has received several notable upgrades recently — including the most recent Georgia Street Corridor and the Near East Super Bowl Legacy Initiative, which was impressive to Super Bowl visitors from all across the country — our urban core neighborhoods have more than 14,000 vacant homes and the highest rate of foreclosures in the state.

As we look ahead and ponder economic growth and development opportunities for our city, our starting point should be not only accommodating, but attracting a variety of residents — from young professionals who wish to live, work and play within the urban core to empty nesters and families alike.

Bill Taft of LISC and Rob McPherson of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership laid the groundwork for the discussion, and panelists Leigh Riley Evans, executive director of Mapleton-Fall Creek Development Corporation; Adam Thies, director of the City’s Department of Metropolitan Development; and John Watson, managing member of Core Redevelopment LLC, made up the balance of the panel to discuss solutions for this challenge facing the ultimate growth of our city.

As a REALTOR®, I was excited to bring the concerns and desires that I hear from central Indiana residents each day to the table and I look forward to continuing to work with community and city leaders to find innovative ways to strengthen and rebuild our urban neighborhoods.

Debbie Morris

2012 President

Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of REALTORS^®

^{It's YOUR turn. What are your thoughts on ways to strengthen and rebuild our urban neighborhoods? Leave a comment below!}