“Initially, people thought we were crazy for wanting to turn an abandoned baseball stadium into apartments,” Cox, director of Core Redevelopment, told CNBC Make It.
Bush Stadium was home to the Indianapolis Indians from 1931 to 1996. After that, it was used as a dirt track for several years and eventually as a car storage site before being abandoned.
Stadium Lofts has 138 units and Stadium Flats, the four-building complex next door, has 144 units.
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In 2011, Watson was chairman of the board of Indiana Landmarks, a state historic preservation nonprofit, when he was asked to propose ideas for saving Bush Stadium.
Watson says the stadium had been abandoned for several years and was in danger of being completely demolished. Some of the ideas he and the Indiana Landmarks organization had for the stadium included turning it into apartments or renovating it and using it again for football and baseball, but the latter plan came to nothing due to a lack of funding.
“About nine months later, (the city) approached me again and said, ‘If you don’t follow through on the idea you had of turning it into apartments, it’s going to be lost. They are going to demolish it.’ ‘So we put together a team and looked at whether or not this was possible,’ says Watson.
In 2011, Cox, Watson and his two sons took ownership of the stadium, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The city of Indianapolis transferred the deed to Indiana Landmarks for $10 and the historic preservation nonprofit gave it to the partners for $1.
“A lot of times, cities turn over their properties to nonprofits,” Watson says. “That’s what happened here.”
The renovation of the Stadium Lofts took the partners a little less than two years.
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As part of the agreement with the city of Indianapolis for the acquisition of the stadium, Core Redevelopment was mandated to build an additional 144 apartments outside the stadium in four adjacent buildings, which they named Stadium Flats.
The Stadium Flats addition was completed about a year after Stadium Lofts opened and cost approximately $13 million. By the time Stadium Flats opened in July 2014, all apartments were rented. It consists of 90 1-bedroom apartments, 48 2-bedroom apartments and 6 1-bedroom apartments with dens. Rents range from $1,067 to $1,470.
Cox, Watson and his sons had a budget of $14 million for the Stadium Lofts conversion and ultimately spent about $13.8 million. The amount includes $1 million from Cox, Watson and each of his sons, a $6.5 million mortgage, $5.3 million in grants from the city of Indianapolis and the acquisition cost of $1 .
The mortgage has since been paid off and replaced with long-term permanent financing, Watson says.
Monthly rent for Stadium Lofts apartments ranges from $900 to $1,700.
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The renovation of the stadium began in August 2011 and was completed in just under two years. At the time of its opening in July 2013, all 138 apartments were rented.
It has been transformed into 95 1-bedroom apartments, 26 2-bedroom apartments and 17 lofts. Rent in the complex ranges from $900 to $1,700 and each apartment has a washer and dryer.
“Our biggest concern when we started this project was, ‘Who’s going to come and rent it?’ » There wasn’t a lot of housing in the neighborhood. There wasn’t a lot of economic activity in the neighborhood,” Watson says. “We were sort of pioneers when we did this project, so we were concerned about its success and we underwrote it conservatively. .”
The stadium is located in Marion County, Indiana. As of April 2024, the median rent for all bedroom counts and property types in Marion, IN was $600. That’s 70 percent lower than the national average, according to Zumper.
Apartment balconies overlook what was once part of the Bush Stadium grounds.
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Cox admits that converting the stadium into a residential space was a challenging project for the group from a technical standpoint. When they took ownership, they had to resolve the many issues the property already had while still retaining its character.
Some of the original stadium features retained by Watson and Cox include the scoreboard, old ticket booths and press box, and they even put the pedestals back into the existing field to pay homage to what was there before.
“We designed it so that when you walk in, you feel like you’re walking into a historic stadium rather than an apartment building,” Watson says.
Cox, Watson and his sons completed the conversion of Bush Stadium more than 10 years ago.
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Developers also installed balconies made of chain-link fencing “to create that stadium-type appeal,” Watson says.
“One of the unconventional things we did was expose all the concrete floors in the units,” he added.
The building’s fitness center is decorated with photos of the old stadium. The complex also offers residents several study rooms. The developers built a courtyard for residents to relax next to the grounds, including a gas fireplace, tables and chairs.
Cox says seeing the complete transformation of the once-abandoned stadium was something of a “culmination of a childhood dream.”
“I played baseball growing up and always thought maybe I would go into the Hall of Fame as a baseball player,” he says.
The residential balconies were made with a chain link fence to mimic that of the old stadium.
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Watson adds that it was also surprising to see the interest shown by Indianapolis residents when Stadium Lofts opened.
“Almost everyone had been here for a baseball game in their life, so the connections ran deep and people were eager to come to the project,” Watson says.
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