Type: Adaptive use, mixed use
Developer: Hendricks Commercial Properties
Owner: Bottleworks Districts LLC
Designers: RATIO Design; EUA
Site Size: 11.86 acres (4.8 ha)
Date Opened: December 1, 2020
Date Completed: December 1, 2020
Buildings: 216,980 square feet (20,158 sq m)
Parking: 185,980 square feet (17,278 sq m)
Open Space: 113,660 square feet (10,559 sq m)
Transforming Indianapolis’s historic Coca-Cola bottling plant into the mixed-use Bottleworks District required delicate negotiations with national and state historic preservation entities as well as prospective tenants. Built in the early 1930s by the Yuncker brothers and expanded over the next two decades, the facility once held the title as the world’s largest bottling plant, producing more than 2.2 million bottles each week. Its Art Deco buildings were clad in glazed white terracotta—one of the largest terracotta facades in the state.
The facility closed in the 1960s after aluminum cans took over the market. Indianapolis Public Schools purchased the property in 1968 and used it for administrative, maintenance, and warehousing purposes for nearly half a century. In 2017, Hendricks Commercial Properties acquired the site, envisioning a mixed-use district that would honor the complex’s architectural heritage while meeting contemporary needs.
The first phase, completed in 2020, converted the plant into a 139-room boutique hotel and transformed three maintenance garages into event venues and a 38,000-square-foot (3,530 sq m) food hall with local merchants and chef-driven vendors.
The restoration work removed, repaired, and reinstalled deteriorated terracotta units, fired and installed new units, and polished and refinished 300,000 square feet (27,870 sq m) of original terrazzo flooring. “All the floors were terrazzo,” says Dave Kroll, principal and director of preservation at RATIO Architects. “Even the loading docks had terrazzo floors. The majority of the walls were glazed brick, and ceilings were either exposed concrete or perforated metal ceiling tile.” These durable materials held up well over the decades, and the school district had taken good care of the property. “They did not remove too much,” Kroll says. “What they added was easy for us to remove, and they maintained the building well.”
To occupy the former garages, Hendricks chose entertainment destinations that would address gaps in the local market. Living Room Theater focuses on art house and independent films, and Pins Mechanical combines duckpin bowling, pinball, and adult and kid friendly beverages. The food hall concept emerged from studying successful examples in major cities. “We visited food halls in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and San Francisco,” says Lance Evinger, vice president of acquisitions and dispositions at Hendricks Commercial Properties. “We could take advantage of Indianapolis’s great food scene and create a place for smaller operators to come in with a low barrier to entry.”
Navigating federal historic tax credit requirements required approval from both the State Historic Preservation Office and the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). One contentious issue was adding a third floor to achieve the necessary number of hotel rooms. “The first response from the National Park Service was that two-story buildings can’t have a rooftop addition as part of the tax credit program,” Kroll says. After several months of negotiations, however, the addition won approval. The architects used the building’s existing rooftop truss system as design inspiration and set the addition back from the street to minimize visual impact.
The development team also wanted to create an open internal courtyard for the hotel in the building’s 1950s addition. The NPS initially resisted the idea of removing square footage, but ultimately approved the courtyard design after careful negotiations over materials and finishes.
The need to be sensitive to the national and state historic preservation requirements complicated negotiations with tenants, says Jack Johnson, vice president of tenant coordination at Hendricks Commercial Properties: “We had to require that tenants put ceilings in at exact heights shown in historic drawings, and it caused some issues because we had roof drains and duct work that hung below that.”
Signage presented another challenge. “The buildings were all clad in terracotta—you couldn’t attach a sign to that,” Evinger says. The team developed creative solutions, using window space and freestanding “lollipop” signs that emerge from brick pavers without touching the building.
Along Massachusetts Avenue, the project restored the original bottling room, traditionally known as the “star room” (now called the library) because of its distinctive terrazzo star pattern, and a former soft-drink laboratory was transformed from a cramped, wood-paneled space into an airy room with clerestory windows and green-tiled walls.
By reopening Carrollton Avenue and 9th Street to the public after more than 50 years, the redevelopment re-established the neighborhood street network. Rebuilt streets feature high-quality brick pavers, pedestrian-friendly alleyways, and plazas.
The developers initially planned a second phase as residential but switched to office space due to market demand. “There was a mass exodus from the central business district to the suburbs because of COVID-19,” Evinger says. “Being on the periphery of downtown, we were uniquely positioned to capture tenants that wanted to stay downtown but have more access to parking and more neighborhood amenities.” Phase two includes 300,000 square feet (27,870 sq m) of office space and 40,000 square feet (3,720 sq m) of ground-floor retail, with tenants moving in through 2026.
Bottleworks has sparked significant investment in nearby neighborhoods. RATIO Architects is working on adaptive reuse projects for structures directly across from the hotel entrance.
The project won the Indiana Landmarks’ 2023 Cook Cup for Outstanding Restoration and top honors from the 2022 ICSC Global Design & Development Awards. The hotel frequently sells out, drawing visitors who have read about the unique property in publications such as Time, National Geographic, and Condé Nast Traveler. The district hosts major parties and events, many organized around NCAA, NBA, NFL, and Indy 500 games and tournaments.
“You walk through there and it’s a step back in time,” Johnson says. “And it’s not just one group of people that comes here. I’m 60, and I see people here that are older than me, people who are younger. My daughter got married here. As soon as we opened it, she wanted to get married in the hotel. It’s just one of those types of places—it touches people a lot of different ways.”
