Mayor Jim Brainard demands details on secretive $1B St. Vincent, Ambrose project in Carmel

CARMEL, Ind. — Mayor Jim Brainard has a message for St. Vincent Health and Ambrose Property Group — tell the city and neighbors what you plan to build at 96th and Spring Mill Road or we'll turn down your project.

"The city needs to see a development plan," Brainard told IndyStar. "(The developers) don’t have a chance of obtaining a rezone without a clear transparent explanation of what they intend to do."

The hundreds of people living in the area have grown increasingly frustrated as St. Vincent Health and Ambrose Property Group have refused to say what specifically they plan to build on up to 40 acres they are trying to rezone at the intersection.

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Speculation mounted in February when Bremner Real Estate, in coordination with Ambrose, circulated a letter to area homeowners that referenced a $1 billion medical campus with a large in-patient hospital. Rumors circulated that St. Vincent Health, whose main campus on 86th Street is about 3 miles away, was behind the project.

St. Vincent officials for two months declined to confirm they were involved, which served to build the consternation from area residents. A little over a week ago, St. Vincent confirmed its involvement.



The frustration spilled over Thursday at a neighborhood meeting at the Drury Plaza Hotel when Ambrose representatives made it clear they are asking for a blanket zoning change and have no intention of sharing details of what they plan to build.

Jon Dobosiewicz, a land-use planner who is representing Ambrose, told neighbors that the firm is asking for a zoning change that would allow it to build any number of commercial or medical buildings similar to what's already up and down Meridian Street in Carmel. Once the zoning is in place, he said specific projects would be developed over time that meet those standards.

Further muddying the waters, Ambrose filed a site map with the city that shows nine buildings, four parking garages and a helicopter pad. Dobosiewicz said the site plan is merely a concept to give folks an idea of what might be built, and shouldn't be taken as a literal presentation of what will be built.

When told Brainard wanted to see more details, Dobosiewicz told IndyStar that Ambrose would "fully expect to provide additional development details regarding the proposal as the request moves through the City’s Plan Commission rezone review process."

The months' long zoning process starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Plan Commission.

It's all left neighbors throwing up their hands in frustration. Dozens of residents of Carmel and Indianapolis showed up to the meeting to complain they don't understand what is being proposed along the border between the two cities.

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Sally Page, who lives in the Belle Meade neighborhood to the south, said St. Vincent and Ambrose need to be more upfront.

She said neighbors are worried that multistory buildings will tower over their homes in what's still a relatively residential area west of Meridian Street. She said 96th Street and Spring Mill Road are narrow two lane roads and she worries they won't be able to handle much more traffic.

"I think they haven't been honest with neighbors as to what is actually going on there," Page said. "They will deny it's the billion dollar project that it is, but if you look at the site plan they submitted to Carmel for zoning, there are nine buildings and four parking garages."

Hector Gonzalez, who lives in nearby Cedar Knolls in Indianapolis, said he would be opposed to the development on the site map — if that is what St. Vincent and Ambrose plan to build.

He thinks the way St. Vincent and Ambrose are going about the zoning change gives them an unfair advantage. It's difficult, he said, for neighbors to detail specific concerns when there's no project being proposed. If the zoning gets changed, he said neighbors may never get a chance to weigh in on specific projects before construction starts.

"We are asking for more information so we can can address our positions as neighbors, so we can see how this is going to impact us both in Indianapolis and in Carmel."

Carmel also has a long standing guideline of not allowing commercial development west of Spring Mill Road. In fact, three previous projects have failed to gain momentum over the years at the northwest corner of Spring Mill and 96th, including an apartment community, a retirement home and a commercial project.

A group of neighbors hired attorney and former state lawmaker Murray Clark to represent them. Clark pointed out 15 acres Ambrose is trying to rezone already were zoned business years ago by Duke Realty after months of negotiations with neighbors, who won concessions on matters such as building height, parking and landscaping.

Only one of three proposed high rises was built on the property, called Parkwood West. Murray thinks the rezone would allow Ambrose, which owns that land now, and St. Vincent to bypass the previously negotiated restrictions.

Interestingly, St. Vincent recently moved its corporate headquarters to the building that's already up.

"I think there is a lot of frustration from people there because they are used to more collaboration given the commercial development Duke did along 96th Street," he said. "The neighbors don't feel, at this point in time, that same kind of working together."

It's also unclear how much land will be in the project. Ambrose is asking to rezone 30 acres straddling Spring Mill at 96th. Bremner Real Estate has contacted homeowners at the Lacoma Estates subdivision to the west of the project about purchasing 13 properties in a joint venture with Ambrose, according to a letter obtained by IndyStar.

The letter states Ambrose wants to develop 40 acres, including the 10 acres in the neighborhood and the 30 acres at Spring Mill, into a $1 billion medical campus including a large inpatient hospital, supporting medical buildings and parking garages.

The letter obtained by IndyStar states Ambrose owns the 15 acres east of Spring Mill and would purchase 15 acres owned by Sexton Development west of Spring Mill.

The homes in the Lacoma Estates subdivision are valued from the $220,000s to the $440,000s, according to county property records. Ambrose and Bremner Real Estate would offer market price on the homes, plus 40 percent, according to the letter. Several homeowners already have reached purchase agreements.

St. Vincent officials say that they have no immediate plans for the land but they want to acquire it and have it rezoned in case they need it in the future.

“We don’t have any building plans or project plans other than to own it,” said Jonathan Nalli, chief executive officer of St Vincent-Indiana. “We’re going to hold it in case we need it.”

He compared the effort to St. Vincent’s acquiring of land adjacent to its Carmel hospital near 136th Street and Meridian for future projects.

He said St. Vincent's focus is on expanding its collection of micro hospitals, which have been built recently in Plainfield, Noblesville and Avon. More of these neighborhood hospitals, which include emergency rooms and eight in-patient beds, are planned in Castleton, Greenwood, Noblesville and Brownsburg.

“We’re constantly looking at where is it that we need to have a presence where we have existing St Vincent patients,” Nalli said. “It’s a constant conversation of what does that look like and where that should."

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Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at (317) 444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich and at https://www.facebook.com/chris.sikich.