INDIANAPOLIS — The hulking concrete complex at Market Street and College Avenue used to be the last place you would want to sleep at night. The historic buildings could soon attract new residents to downtown Indianapolis.
The former Cole Motor Company and Marion County Jail II will transform into loft-style housing with shops on the ground floor. Crews have already stripped the inside to bare concrete and work on the outside could start in the next few months.
“With what it’s been the last 20 years as a city-operated jail, it’s important to take it back to where it was originally for a productive use,” said project developer Jeremy Stephenson.
The only change to the plan was to demolish a building on the complex which had become structurally deficient.
The Cole Motor Company called the complex home until it went defunct in 1925. The building was listed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1983 and the Jail II complex opened in 1997.
The factory’s revitalization is happening at the same time as City Market’s renovation, which is happening four blocks east on Market Street.
Stephenson believes the two projects could make the space between Monument Circle and Interstate 65/70 an attractive place to live…