Elanco HQ project in West Indianapolis: Harbinger of gentrification? | Economic development projects should include simultaneous neighborhood improvements

I came across discussion recently about how the expansion of a medical center in Buffalo is called "gentrification" when it is more about "reproduction of space"--a change in the use of the property, not a classic example of gentrification, or the replacement of low income residents with higher income residents ("Friction in the Fruit Belt," Buffalo News).

Maybe I am being pedantic, but it's not gentrification.  But no question that it is a scalar change in the nature of the place.

Indianapolis Star photo.

Apparently this is an issue in Indianapolis too, where the site of a former GM stamping plant has been empty for a decade, and an animal pharmaceuticals firm, Elanco Health, is going to build a new headquarters on the site, to accommodate the firm's acquisition of Bayer Animal Health Sciences.

Rendering of the new complex.

The Indianapolis Star reports on the groundbreaking, "Elanco breaks ground on $100M Indianapolis headquarters. Some worry about gentrification" (registration required), as well as how some residents express opposition to the project, fearing that it will spur displacement.

As part of the deal, Elanco wanted the area to be better connected to Downtown, and the city is adding bridges and other improvements.  From the article:

The state and city offered Elanco an enticing $170 million incentive package. Of that amount, $64 million is from the city in a special property taxing district called tax increment financing.

... The headquarters will consist of a 220,000-square-foot, six-story office structure and connected innovation and collaboration buildings, Elanco spokesperson Keri McGrath said. Roughly 1,000 employees will work there. 

Not everyone is for it. Jonathan Howe, who has lived near the location his whole life, has led opposition to the project, which he called government-funded gentrification. He lives in a neighborhood called West Indianapolis, which encompasses the new Elanco headquarters. 

“I’ve never received any investment from the city,” Howe said. “The amount of somersaults and backflips the city is doing for Elanco is sickening when you’re a resident here."

... The Elanco headquarters project is pitched as a way to “push downtown west,” Simmons said, “connecting The Valley (neighborhood) with the (Monument) Circle.” “Our community has longed for over a decade and much longer to be connected to downtown,” said Indianapolis councilwoman Kristin Jones, who is running for a state Senate seat. “And this project is going to provide that connectivity. (We) are going to finally have the infrastructure improvements that we have so longed for.”  ...

The alleys in Howe’s neighborhood look like a “war is taking place” he said. So badly damaged they are that residents cannot park behind their own home. The sidewalks outside Howe’s home and recording studio, where he’s lived all his life, are torn up, he said. A park sign knocked over by a car has not been replaced, he said. 

The Valley neighborhood is a historically working-class, lower-income area with a large renters population. The community has, in recent years, become home to a burgeoning Hispanic population. "People who are making $120,000, $150,000 a year at Elanco, they get all the infrastructure, they get all the roads, they get all the perks, they get everything," Howe said. "I get the inconveniences, I get to wait longer for my food, I get to continue to deal with neglect in my infrastructure and my schools and my parks."

While I'm not sure the residents are correct about gentrification, because how can improving a currently empty 45 acre site be gentrification, they have legitimate concerns.

First, they complain that the community is disinvested with significant infrastructure and civic asset needs.  Second, that the Elanco project is going to be funded in part through Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which instead of directing increased property taxes to neighborhood improvements, will take away that potential.

Cities should pair neighborhood improvements with big economic development projects, but usually they don't.  The article does make the point that the TIF district is part of the Downtown intensification plan, and that the Downtown TIF program doesn't provide for neighborhood improvements.

But that is the problem.  I understand why cities focus their economic development energies on downtown and central business districts, because that's where the best return on investment comes.  

At the same time, this creates tensions with residents, who see downtown interests as benefiting disproportionately from improvements, while they believe they get little in return.

I don't always agree with this sentiment, but indirectly it makes a very good point, that cities should ensure that economic development programs also spread benefits to the neighborhoods directly, 

-- "Revisiting community benefits agreements," 2021

rather than through trickle down and/or gentrification, which results in displacement.  (This is an issue in many places, including Dallas.  See "‘We don’t fit the demographic’: a community in Dallas grapples with gentrification," Guardian.)

Absolutely this TIF program for Elanco should be extended to include neighborhood improvements for West Indianapolis and the Valley neighborhood.  If people's property taxes are already going up, with no substantive change, they're being taken advantage of.

And if cities want to build stronger support for such property tax financing systems and subsidies of businesses, they are going to need to better link those projects with visible improvements in the greater community.

It's a no brainer to create a neighborhood improvement plan for West Indianapolis in association with the Elanco project.

Mount Dennis neighborhood, Toronto as an example.  I mentioned this neighborhood recently, which along with the addition of light rail, is getting other more resident-focused improvements.  It's a model of how to do this kind of co-beneficial planning.  

The Mount Dennis neighborhood in Toronto, which is about to be served by the Eglinton light rail line, is supportive of the new infrastructure, in part because there is a simultaneous program for neighborhood improvements ("Sidewalks, bike lanes and shops: why this neglected neighbourhood is saying ‘yes in my backyard’ to LRT development," Toronto Star), which illustrates the importance of the kind of complementary approach suggested here. 

The plans aim to make Mount Dennis a new transit hub with superior connections 

to Downtown Toronto and the Airport

The new planning framework builds on the 2019 community-initiated Mount Dennis Eco-Neighborhood Action Plan.

Note that because it's Toronto, the most populated city in Canada, densities for new development are much higher than in most US communities.

From the article:

The “Picture Mount Dennis” report contains a host of recommendations to improve Mount Dennis. Among them: 

• Encouraging the development of Weston Road, which cuts diagonally through the area, as Mount Dennis’s historic main street. 
• Low and midrise buildings would continue to dominate both sides of Weston Road. The height limit would be eight stories and the goal would be to create a “pedestrian-scaled” main street character. 
• A height peak of 45 stories would apply for buildings immediately adjacent to Mount Dennis station, with those heights gradually decreasing to the north and south of the station and towards Weston Road. Choice Properties wants to build seven towers with about 2,356 units all told, with heights ranging from 20 to 49 storeys. 
• Encourage a “balanced mix of housing types, unit sizes and tenures” in all new developments in order to provide housing opportunities for a variety of income levels and family sizes. For example, new buildings with more than 80 residential units should include more space for families, so 10 per cent of the units should be three-bedroom or larger, 15 per cent of units should be two-bedroom, while an additional 15 per cent should be a combination of two and three-bedrooms. 
• New buildings with 80 or more units should have 10 per cent of units be affordable rental or affordable condos. 
• Connect a new network of bike paths — including one that runs along the length of Weston Road — to planned cycling corridors in Toronto. 
• A “post-secondary satellite campus” should be built in Mount Dennis, that could align with clean tech or an eco-business or some form of green-friendly transportation.
• Attract jobs by promoting and attracting a major business such as a mass timber production facility that provides material for wood frame buildings, a food or social innovation hub, a photography or film museum or a major arts/cultural centre.

Systematic neighborhood stabilization program.  I wrote a series about this:

-- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)"
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2"
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)"
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)"
-- "Local neighborhood stabilization programs: Part 5 | Adding energy conservation programs, with the PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone as a model," 2021