Here’s how Fishers businesses might weather Ind. 37’s overhaul next year

John Tuohy | IndyStar

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State Road 37 project managers are paying a marketing firm $500,000 to lessen the economic pain for Hamilton County businesses when the orange barrels and detours start piling up next year and the busy corridor begins transforming into an expressway-style road with roundabouts.

The goal is to keep shops and restaurants along Ind. 37 in Fishers and elsewhere in the county humming and avoid the hardship some faced in recent years when U.S. 31 and Keystone Parkway in Carmel were reconstructed.

“This is to soften some of the ugliness of construction,” said Keriann Rich, marketing director for the firm, Imavex of Fishers. “Seeing what happened elsewhere helped motivate us in forming our strategy.”

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Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt said the public relations contract will pay off in the end.

“I think it is a very good investment,” Heirbrandt said. “One thing we learned from other projects is a lot of businesses lost revenue.”

The $500,000 contract is just a sliver of the $126 million joint project that Fishers, Hamilton County and the state will begin next spring and summer, with construction of a roundabout at 126th Street. In all, five roundabout-style interchanges will be built from 126th to 146th streets, and Ind. 37 will be sunken like U.S. 31.

The state provided $100 million, and Fishers and Hamilton County contributed $12 million each to the reconstruction's first phase, which is expected to last several years. RQAW Corp. is the project manager, and Fishers is in charge of issuing contracts.

An average of 46,000 vehicles travel Ind. 37 each day through Fishers, and there are scores of businesses that could see access to their shops impeded.

Rich said her firm will focus on letting the public know that retailers and other outlets are open for business and provide instructions on how to get there. Imavex will also keep businesses informed of the latest construction and traffic changes.

“It is important that the public knows alternate routes and that you can still get to these places,” Rich said. Retailers, which are not a necessity the way a doctor’s office is, are most vulnerable and will get special attention, Rich said.

The firm will host a web page on the project website, advertise in local media and use social media to get the word out.

“We’ll use Facebook Live, too,” to feature some shop owners, for example, and implore the public not to ignore them, Rich said.

When Meridian Street in Carmel was made over, some businesses reported declines in receipts of 50 percent. Carmel didn’t hire a marketing firm, but Mayor Jim Brainard began a campaign called the #31Bites pledge, which challenged residents to eat and shop along the corridor 31 times during August of 2014.

Some business on U.S. 31 also offered special deals and frequent diner cards. Rich said if Ind. 37 merchants do the same, those offers will be aggressively publicized.

At Lockhart Cadillac just south of 126th Street, company officials are preparing for the worst.

"We are very concerned," said Vikki Deaton, assistant to the owner. "We were told we're looking at a three- to six-month intersection closure, which means customers can't enter from State Road 37, which is how 90 percent of customers get here."

She said transport trucks will have to enter from the west on streets that are not used to handling such heavy traffic.

Fishers has already made upgrades to Allisonville Road and intersections parallel to the project in anticipation of detours and heavier traffic.

Lockhart Cadillac will encourage customers to drop off cars for repair at its body shop near Hague Road and 88th Street in Indianapolis instead of on Ind. 37 and will also increase its at-home sales and service.

"We already offer the home delivery but will have to hire more staff to increase it," Deaton said.

In 2020, 131st Street and 146th Street are scheduled for roundabout construction, and 141st Street is scheduled in 2021.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.