Fletcher Place- Inner city Indianpolis Neighborhood just SW of Mile Square

Fletcher Place is an inner city Indianapolis neighborhood located just southwest of Mile Square (downtown). The district was developed starting in the mid 19th century and was most filled in by the 1920s. Historically Fletcher Place  didn’t suffer the same wholesale disinvestment of other inner city neighborhoods but there was a fair amount of post WWII blight, urban renewal, and industrial development that have created grey zones on the edges of the district. Like other inner city district within the Innerbelt, Fletcher Place has seen significant reinvestment starting with the creation of the Fletcher Place Historic District in the 1980s and newer hip businesses sprouting up along Virginia Avenue within the last 10-15 years.

The biggest next step for making the Fletcher Place neighborhood whole again is the redevelopment of its western and north edges, which were ravaged by urban renewal, industrial development, and disinvestment. There are however some signs of life along the north edge with new apartment buildings spilling over from the Cole-Noble District. This would add density to an already medium density community helping add needed retail amenities and hopefully created enough school age children to build new walkable schools in the neighborhood. Fletcher Place also needs more parks and better tree canopy.

Click here to view my Fletcher Place album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Decent density but a bit underwhelming for a district located adjacent to Dwtn.
* Solid overall sidewalk and ADA infrastructure but a decent amount of curbs are not up to ADA standards.
* Excellent access to Dwtn being 1 mile on average and accessible across all modes of transit. Decent bike infrastructure including two bike lanes that feed right into dwtn and a handful of bike share stations.
* Overall great racial diversity, solid economic diversity. Few families here however and the district is largely childless young professionals.
* Within Fletcher place there are solid good & bev amenities including a good array of restaurants, bars, cafes, & a couple breweries. One needs to go to adjacent district (dwtn, Fountain Square, & Lockerbie Square) for higher cultural amenities like museums, art galleries, live music, and theaters/cinemas.
* Overall a safe community.
* Significant decent for-sale diversity with a handful of 1 beds and decent # of 2-beds selling anywhere from 200K-500K including a mix of condos and SF. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 250K-800K
* Good # of rentals  with studios & 1-beds leasing in the low-mid 1Ks, 2-beds generally in the mid-high 1Ks. 3-beds are very limited.
* Good amount of attractive historic homes tucked on the residential streets and some attractive historic commercial along Virginia Ave.
* Some good urban infill especially along Virginia and with new SF construction in the neighborhood.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

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• Only a small Catholic school located within Fletcher Place but some decent schools in neighboring Fountain Square.
• So so access to parks including a couple small & medium parks and Idle Park which is in the middle of the I-65-70 inner belt.
• Good amount of urban renewal occurred along East St and the north 1/3 of Fletcher Place. Newer dense apartments are starting to improve the north edge but limited urban projects along East St. Still some holes to fill along Virginia Ave.
• Decent tree canopy along the residential streets but pretty poor along East St and the North 1/3 of the district.
• So so retail amenities within Fletcher Place including a Wholefoods located just north of the neighborhood, a couple banks, a handful of boutiques & gift stores, a handful of barber shops/salons, a local bakery, a handful of doctor’s offices nearby, and a couple churches. More walkable retail amenities in neighboring communities (dwtn, Fountain Square, and Lockerbie Square).”