Two Franklin families are planning to build one dozen luxury condo units downtown.
Jenrista, a Franklin company owned by residents Harry Sherman and Terry Lancer, is developing the estimated $4 million condo building on a quarter-acre site at 150 S. Main Street.
The building, dubbed 150 South Main Street Condos, will have a retail space and a private parking garage on the ground floor. There will be three floors of condos above that, Lancer said.
The condos will have three bedrooms and two bathrooms in each unit, and be equipped with luxury finishes and a balcony. Residents will also have access to a rooftop shared patio space that overlooks Youngs Creek Park, Lancer said.
The condos are expected to be valued between $400,000 and $600,000, depending on customizations, Lancer said.
The site was formerly a 1930-built two-bed, two-bath single-family home that last sold for $164,000 in 2020, according to online property records.
The home was recently torn down to make way for the development. Lancer, Sherman, family members and city officials broke ground on the project Tuesday. Construction will begin soon and the building is expected to be complete by spring 2023.
Lancer and Sherman said the property is the perfect location for a development like this.
“We decided that Franklin is an exciting place to live downtown with all of the recent renovations completed, the new venues that are opening, the new amphitheater park located close by the courthouse square,” Lancer said. “Franklin really needed condominium living right in the heart of downtown Franklin. That’s what motivated us to buy the property.”
Their condo building is being built across the street from Newkirk Square, an $11 million development from the Greenwood-based Bemis Group to include 14 condos with underground parking and 11 townhomes with attached garages starting at $450,000. The Bemis development will also include 10,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the ground floor.
Youngs Creek Park with the DriveHubler.com Amphitheater and the growing popularity of shopping, dining and exploring downtown Franklin is building more interest in living in the city, especially close to the heart of downtown, they said.
Condos like these have been built in other Indiana communities like Carmel, Fishers and Bloomington and they thought Franklin should be experiencing more of this type of growth, too.
Franklin’s growing set of amenities, safety and proximity to downtown Indianapolis, puts the city on competitive ground with those communities, Sherman said.
“I’d like to see Franklin grow. And with the new amphitheater, all the new construction, all the new infrastructure work that’s going on – it is where you want to be,” Sherman said. “(And) we are closer to downtown Indianapolis than Fishers and Carmel.”
The maintenance-free lifestyle offered with condo living is expected to attract young professionals and empty-nesters, Lancer said.
City officials and representatives from the Franklin Chamber of Commerce attended the groundbreaking for the new development and said the project will be good for the community. They also thanked Sherman and Lancer for investing in their community.
“I’m just looking forward to the finished product. I know it’s gonna be something special and there’s a need for more downtown living,” Mayor Steve Barnett said. “Hopefully, this will help with that and be a nice finished product when it is all said and done.”
Pre-construction sales are now open. Call Lancer at 317-797-6595 for more information.
