Store and office vacancies in downtown Indianapolis are noticeable. A report from Colliers shows office vacancies are 26% downtown.
INDIANAPOLIS — If you walk on Meridian Street in downtown Indianapolis, you notice vacant buildings sit on nearly every block.
A few are now a sidewalk gallery covered in art.
“The building right across from us is empty. There’s just a lot of vacancies downtown,” McKenzie Collins said.
Collins, a barista at Illumine Coffee, said it’s bad for business.
“People who are just living around in this area just walking by and strolling in that’s a little bit less of our customer base. I think the vacancies definitely impact local businesses,” Collins said. “Having a walkable, green, livable, affordable downtown for people to live in would create more small businesses being able to be here, being able to keep their doors open.”
Illumine Coffee and other shops on Meridian Street rely on the offices downtown for foot traffic, but many offices sit empty.
According to real estate investment firm Colliers, 26% of office spaces sit vacant downtown — almost double the national average of 14%.
Buildings downtown have doors boarded and dust collects on the windowfronts covered in fingerprints.
“It has to be concerning, and there’s a couple of reasons why, right? One, it’s economic activity is receding out, right? That’s not necessarily a good thing if you’re a city,” said Andrew Urban, senior vice president for Colliers.
Urban said the empty office buildings range from big skyscrapers to smaller buildings. According to Urban, businesses are looking for different kinds of office spaces. He mentioned that many are moving north to Hamilton County.
Urban used the analogy, “They went from a big kind of economy car to a smaller, higher-end luxury car. And that’s where the taste and changes have really occurred.”
Urban said these current figures are worse than what the numbers looked like during COVID.
“Overall activity is about as bad as it was during the great financial crisis,” Urban said. “A lot of economic activity is no longer in the marketplace. And that really has a knock-on effect for small lunch shops, restaurants, dining, entertainment.”
Urban said the impact goes deeper than local businesses since large office spaces provide a big chunk of change in tax revenue.
“It also has a knock-on effect to other things, right? Property tax revenue begins to slip, city services begin to slip,” Urban said. “It’s really paramount that not only citizens, but also city leaders, try to address this problem in a proactive fashion.”
When it comes specifically to retail vacancy, Urban said, “I know it’s substantially higher than the office vacancy.”
Urban said the two share a symbiotic relationship.
“Just convert them to apartments. And I go, ‘That is the right answer, but getting there is actually very difficult,'” Urban said.
Collins stays hopeful for days like Small Business Saturday.
“Great opportunity to show out and support real people who see and feel the impact of where and how you’re spending your money,” she said.
Small Business Saturday this year is on Nov. 29.
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