Both the Evansville Economic Development Commission and the City Council have voted to let the Fifth and Main project proceed by approving the use of $24 million dollars in bonds.
CRG Residential of Carmel, Indiana, has proposed a four-story mixed-use building including 150 apartments, commercial space along Main Steet a courtyard with a pool and underground parking.
The Evansville Economic Development Commission gave the developer the approval to move ahead to the city council which then approved issuing the set of two $12 million bonds.
Ross Merder is director of development with CRG Residential. He said they are about halfway through the design process. They’re looking to complete the designs by August or September.
Once the design is complete, the construction will hopefully be two years. Construction costs are still inching up.
“It's still going up, maybe not as quite as fast,” Merder said. “But there's certain aspects of construction costs that are still hard to get, and more expensive than the day before. Interest rates also have played into financing being more challenging.”
The project is expected to cost about $50 million dollars in city, state and private funds.
The city will be responsible for the underground parking. One of the $12 million bonds will be for the 183-vehicle underground parking structure, which Mayor Lloyd Winnecke believes will be a “budget neutral” project.
“The developers CRG will have in excess of $40 million dollars in the project both in debt and equity,” he said during the meeting. “State incentives to total just over $13 million. And with your action here tonight the city's investment will be approximately $12 million to build the underground garage.”
The bond will be financed through tax increment financing (TIF).
The planned park near the Fifth and Main development is a separate project.
CRG Residential took over the project in the middle of last year from Domo Development. CRG began the project in the due diligence phase, which was recently completed.
Winnecke said while it seems like nothing has been happening, there’s been progress behind the scenes.
“This project remains our number-one downtown priority,” he said. “We are hopeful that with your approval tonight, and the developers continued work the project should go out to bid later this year.”
After bids are accepted, again, construction is expected to take two years.
This is the same developer that partnered to build the Post House apartments in Evansville. Merder shared examples of past CRG projects such as Nickel Plate Station Apartments in Fishers, a 300-unit building in Greenwood and several other examples.
The apartments will be “market rate,” meaning this is not an affordable housing development, with units at around $1,300 per month.
The 420 Main Street building was 18 stories tall and was demolished November of 2021.
