Feature
Hudnut-led team to look at stamping plant uses 6.3.11
INDIANAPOLIS STAR
An Urban Land Institute team headed by former Indianapolis mayor Bill Hudnut will arrive in the city on June 19 to assess future uses of the General Motors stamping plant.
Hudnut today disclosed the arrival date. GM will permanently shut the 2.3-million-square-foot plant on June 30. The automaker revealed the 2011 closing date four years ago when it made plans to cut production capacity.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard invited the group to conduct a five-day brainstorming session.
“I came out in the middle of May and looked at the site and toured it. It’s a monstrous building,” Hudnut said today. “We want to come up with a plan with a good tie in to Downtown. We’ll have to figure out a good way to connect the property to Downtown. It’s awkward now.”
Hudnut now teaches in Georgetown University's real estate business school and is affiliated with the land institute, which regularly recommends new uses for worn urban sites.
The group could recommend new uses for the site, such as homes, shops and park areas, as well as a
plan to finance the purchase and redevelopment of the industrial property.
The mile-long site on Oliver Street on the Near Westside is owned by Motors Liquidation Co., Detroit, which controls the plants discarded by GM in its 2009 bankruptcy.
Almost all the production equipment has been hauled out of the plant. Motors Liquidation has the property up for sale, but no deals appear in the works.
“We’ve been contacted by a couple of groups,” said Marc Lotter, the mayor’s communication’s director. “I wouldn’t classify any of them as serious at this point.”
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