Sarah Snyder
Trail as an important amenity for their
employees,” she affirms.
Soon after trail completion in 2013, the
highly popular Indiana Pacers Bikeshare
program was launched. According to Haley
and Visit Indy spokesperson Morgan
Greenlee, the program surpassed 50,000
trips—split nearly 50-50 between tourists
and residents—in its first six months. Now,
businesses along the trail are clamoring to
have bike-share stations set up in front of
their establishments.
“
People who haven’t been on a bike in
years are using them,” Haley says, noting
that bikes make it easy to visit shops or
other destinations along the Cultural Trail
that are too far to walk to on a lunch break.
“
The bikes get people where they want to
go, and we’re already hearing from prop-
erty owners about property values going up
where there’s a bike-share station nearby.”
Both the trail and the bike-share pro-
gram have been tremendous boons for local
tourism. Indianapolis made
The New York
Times
52
Places To Go list earlier this year
thanks in large part to the Cultural Trail.
Although Indianapolis is well known
for its walkable downtown, Greenlee says
the Cultural Trail has made it easier for
both residents and visitors to discover other
neighborhoods and city treasures. “Before
the Cultural Trail, Fountain Square might
have been considered a bit off the beaten
path for visitors,” Greenlee explains. “The
trail allows them to discover niche neigh-
borhoods they may never have known
about.”
The trail’s birth has also sparked a build-
ing boom, with numerous developments
in various stages of completion. In the first
three years after trail construction began
in 2007, more than $17.5 million in new
commercial building permits and $36 mil-
lion in residential building permits were
filed for structures within a half mile of the
Cultural Trail.
Over the past few years, one devel-
oper, Milhaus, has built five mixed-use
projects along or near the Cultural Trail,
with a total worth of about $163 million.
Construction of two additional projects is
set to begin in spring 2015. However, while
Milhaus CEOTadd Miller praises the ben-
efits of the trail, he warns that greenways
alone aren’t enough to attract business.
“
The cultural trail is a great amenity and
enhancement to good sites, and something
we want to be near,” he says. “There is sig-
nificant value to being close to the trail, but
the trail is a piece of the equation that gives
it an edge; it’s not the equation. I think the
trail will be a pathway that development
will follow, but it can’t fix [other, more
blighted areas].”
More Trails Ahead
With the economic success of the Monon
and Cultural Trail areas, the city has plans
to build even more trails. Some 180 miles
of trails are slated for development in com-
ing years, generating an estimated $73 mil-
lion in jobs for workers and pumping more
money into the local economy through
construction material purchases. The return
on that investment? Indianapolis leaders
believe development of five high-priority
trail systems—the B&O, Interurban,
Pennsy, Vandalia and 86th/82nd Street
trails—could generate $40 million in new
property tax revenue.
Perhaps the most exciting of those gre-
enways is the Pennsy Trail; long-term plans
call for it to run through Indianapolis’ east
side, joining with other Hoosier trails to
form a near-continuous east-west greenway
across the state called the National Road
Heritage Trail. (Nearby Greenfield and
Cumberland have built most of their sec-
tions of trail. Indianapolis has constructed
a few miles of the Pennsy and will develop
more by 2017.)
Indy Cycle Specialist owner Scott Irons
is anxiously awaiting completion of the
Pennsy, which will run just mere blocks
from his shop in Irvington, a historic
Indianapolis neighborhood. He believes
the trail will be a useful transportation
artery for Irvington residents and will draw
cyclists from around the Midwest looking
for a two-wheeled multi-day adventure.
“
Not only will it help existing busi-
nesses, new businesses will open because of
it,” he states. “I can see restaurants, bed and
breakfasts, campgrounds and more places
INDIANAPOLIS
TRAIL
FACTS
BY THE NUMBERS
11.4
–
Percentage increase in property
value of a home within a half-mile of a
mixed-use trail
25
–
Number of new businesses that
opened in the Fountain Square neighbor-
hood on completion of the Cultural Trail
90
–
Percentage of trail-construction
costs Indianapolis can expect to get back
in the formof increased property-tax
revenues
200
–
Estimated number of miles of
bike lanes and trails inside the city of
Indianapolis
6,371
–
Number of acres of unde-
veloped land within a half-mile of
Indianapolis’highest-priority new trail
systems, including the B&O, Interurban,
Pennsy,Vandalia and 86th/82nd Street
trails
114,296
–
Number of residents
who live within a half-mile of the Monon
Trail, and Pleasant Run and Fall Creek
greenways
2
million
–
Value in dollars of
public art surrounding the Cultural Trail
catering specifically to cyclists.”
The city of Indianapolis and other
municipalities planning the Pennsy “just
need to make it happen,” says Irons.
Robert Annis is an Indianapolis-based freelance
writer specializing in cycling and outdoor travel.
When he’s not hunched over a keyboard, you are
likely to find him pedaling the back roads and
trails of the Midwest or traveling to destinations
around the globe.
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