RACER Trust: Indy GM Site Could Break Records

Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe redevelopment manager with RACER Trust says the potential scope of development proposed for the former GM Stamping Plant site in Indianapolis could be the largest in the trust’s six-year history. Bruce Rasher says a call for offers that just ended has yielded four groups pitching intensive mixed-use projects on the vacant industrial land along the White River. Rasher says if any of the proposals come to fruition, it "could result in a truly transformative and generational project."
The trust reached out to more than 70 pre-qualified developers this time around. Previous plans for the more than 100-acre site fell through, but Rasher says the current call for offers is "much more focused" than in the past. Failed previous offers include a potential new location for the Marion County justice center and a private sector proposal that involved a 10,000-seat entertainment venue.
Rasher says the trust "could not have asked for a better public partner" than Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration and the City-County Council. "What they did over the course of the second half of last year was to undertake an extensive stakeholder engagement process to find out what the community envisioned for the use of the property," Rasher said. "But they also explored what the city would be willing to entitle it for and what, if any, public investments the city would make." He added, compared to past attempts, "there’s much more certainty in the marketplace as to what the city wants and what the city is prepared to do in a public-private partnership with a buyer that they could select."
RACER Trust was created following the bankruptcy of General Motors and a court-approved agreement to create the independent trust to market, remediate and ultimately sell dozens of properties left behind in the auto maker’s massive reorganization. RACER Trust says properties are currently on the market in Anderson, Bedford, Indianapolis, Kokomo and Muncie.
Previous plans for the more than 100-acre site fell through, but Rasher says the current call for offers and partnership with the city is “much more focused” than in the past.