Revival on Market Street

With a view of Monument Circle to the west and the promising former Market Square Arena site to the east, David Yeager figures his company's building at 120 E. Market St. is sitting pretty. The 12-story building's vacancy rate is nearly 70 percent, the 1950s decor needs updating, and most neighboring

But, "we just feel downtown is really starting to take off," Yeager said.

Along with his two brothers, Scott and Todd, and brothers Chance and Shane Felling, Yeager bought the former Burton Building last August. The partnership, which also owns a small retail center on the cast side, has spent $200,000 renovating the building's lobby and sixth floor.

The investment is starting to pay off. The Kameleon nightclub signed an eightyear lease

for 4,000 square feet on the building's first floor that long ago housed a bank branch. And the company has deals for two of its sixth-floor 120 Market Suites, which offer individual offices with shared conference room and reception space.

The style of the suites is far from a '50s office, with bold designs, bright colors and lots of interior windows. Eventually, the Yeagers and Fellings plan to redevelop the entire 96,000-square-foot building to fit with what they see as a part of downtown ripe for rebirth.

"There's a lot of residential coming in," Yeager said. "I think it's a good investment for anyone to at least take a look at.... With the economy hopefully kicking in, it will take off even more, we think."

The area has long been home to attorney's offices and banks, which like its proximity to the City-County Building. But the strip of Market Street just east of the Circle is beginning to attract more retail and commercial, even with more questions than answers about the future of the vacant Market Square Arena site.

"[The segment is] definitely starting to show some signs of life," said Mark Perlstein, a retail broker with locally based Linder Co.

It still has its problems, however. Parking, particularly during the day, is hard to find, and it remains to be seen how City Market will reinvent itself as more than a lunchtime food court, Perlstein said. Although the area has lots of lunch spots, a lack of dinner-time restaurants contributes to a roll-up-the-sidewalks - at- 5 o'clock atmosphere, he said.

But that might be changing, too. When the Kameleon opens this summer, it will join the Circle Bar Saloon as an East Market Street nightspot. Open on Friday and Saturday nights since November, Circle Bar's owners say they are pleased with their location in the former J. Pierpont restaurant and bar at 148 E. Market St., despite its distance from the rest of downtown nightlife.

Just to the west, Downtown Comics and Mary Ann's Hallmark both opened this year on East Market Street between Monument Circle and Pennsylvania Street, joining Revolution Wireless as retail tenants on the first floor of a parking garage.

And this fall, a 180-room Hilton Garden Inn will open at the comer of Market and Pennsylvania in the old Fletcher Trust Building, bringing a locally owned restaurant and a 5,000-square-foot spa with it.

"We love it over here," said Doug Stephenson, co-owner and manager of Downtown Comics, which moved to its 1,800-square-foot space in March from a smaller location a block and a half away on East Ohio Street. "We've seen a huge increase in business. The foot traffic is a lot better here."

Downtown Comics has even expanded its Saturday hours. Women, in particular, stop by the store more than they did at the old location, drawn in by window displays of toys and games for their kids, Stephenson said.

That kind of untapped crowd is part of what drew other businesses to East Market Street.

"We like the fact the area is up-and-coming," said Steve Schwartz, president and CEO of First Hospitality Corp., the Des Plaines, Ill.-based company that is spending $20 million to develop the Hilton Garden Inn. Although a Ramada Limited in the same location never got off the ground, Schwartz said the location is ideal.

"We wanted to create an interesting hotel experience for people," he said. Plus, "most of the corporate demand is on the north side of the Circle. We're close to the [Indiana] Convention Center. Obviously, we're not connected with a skywalk, but a [few] blocks away is workable."

Once the Hilton Garden opens, "it can only benefit" its neighbors, said Jay Burleson, a manager at Circle Bar. With the onset of warmer weather, business is picking up at the nightclub, which features a mechanical bull and martini specials on Friday for the after-work crowd.

With much of downtown's residential development happening to the north and northeast, Burleson and Kameleon owner Tom Vittorio said they figure East Market Street is ideal for their clubs. Although bars on South Meridian Street draw bigger crowds, Burleson said Circle Bar draws a more mature one, where people want to have fun with friends over a drink and conversation.

"This puts us in a good strategic area down the road, as well as with the condos that have already sold," Vittorio said. He looked at locations on South Meridian Street for Kameleon, but shifted focus when lease negotiations stalled. After a year of looking for a space, Vittorio said he expects it will take less than two months to convert the spot at 120 E. Market into a nightclub, partly because there's not much to undo in the long-vacant facility.

That, too, can be a selling point for East Market Street, said Yeager, Vittorio's landlord.

"The building was left untouched," he said of 120 E. Market St. "It's kind of exciting for us to take something like that and really turn it around and turn it into something unique."