Commentary by Larry Lannan
The Depot Nickel Plate will change the look and feel of downtown Fishers. But to Fishers Community Development Director Tom Dickey, it’s just the beginning of a process.
On Sept. 2, construction is scheduled to begin on the mixed-use building project on the grounds of Fishers Town Hall, next door to the Post Office on 116th Street. The new structure will include retail and restaurant space at the street level, apartments and a badly needed parking garage. The developer, Flaherty and Collins, has decided to name the project Depot Nickel Plate.
Dickey describes the Depot Nickel Plate as one piece of an overall vision to change downtown Fishers.
“The building, when it comes up, if it were the only thing ever to be built in downtown Fishers, will be a big building in the middle of single story buildings,” Dickey said. “But that’s not the vision.”
The Fishers Community Development staff is conducting talks with a number of developers for many more downtown projects.
Dickey calls Depot Nickel Plate “the first piece of the longer term vision.”
Fishers Town Manager Scott Fadness calls the new construction a step toward a much larger vision to create a downtown for Fishers.
“For years people have been saying, we want a downtown, we want a sense of place, we want something we can say is the heart of our community,” Fadness said. “It’s just not there today. This is the first step toward that.”
Both Fadness and Dickey stressed the movement toward a new downtown Fishers is a long-term project that may take up to 20 years to complete.
Both men have a goal in mind. They want to make downtown Fishers a destination similar to downtown Carmel, Broad Ripple or Mass Avenue in downtown Indianapolis. They want to create a Fishers destination with its own identity.
The town staff and members of the town council have been asking an important question: What is the sweet spot for Fishers where a local resident would be able to say, ‘This is my home town, and this is my downtown?’”
After listening to Fishers residents, a theme began to develop.
“I think we’ve figured out it’s real, it’s Americana, it’s probably young focused, family focused,” Fadness said.
When you see the construction of the Depot Nickel Plate, keep in mind it is the first of what town planners see as a number of projects to transform downtown Fishers.
