Bargersville town officials have released initial renderings of Umbarger Plaza, a planned downtown gathering place for entertainment and leisure.
The about $2 million plaza east of the railroad tracks and southwest of Old Plank Road and Baldwin Street will include a stage, public restrooms, benches, a lawn, trees and plants from native prairies. Show feed producer Roy Umbarger & Sons Inc. transferred the property, valued at $173,000, to the town of Bargersville on Jan. 4, 2022, according to property records.
While Umbarger Plaza won’t be completed until the fall of 2024, residents were given a sneak peek of what it will look like during a presentation from Beech Grove-based transportation and development consultants CrossRoad Engineers during an Aug. 8 town council meeting.
In order to clear space for the plaza, construction crews demolished a grain bin and two one-story buildings, but the landmark Umbarger grain elevator on County Road 144 was left standing. A reflection of Bargersville’s rural heritage, the roof of the covered stage at the plaza will resemble the roof of a grain bin, said Trent Newport, president of CrossRoad Engineers, which is serving as the project manager and design lead.
“The town has just gone through a planning process about what Bargersville means to people and the committee focused on those responses,” Newport said. “They want to maintain homage to the farm community and still elevate their game and park space and areas for people to come to town and enjoy the amenities. The design committee was in concert with those ideas.”
The stage will be located on the north end of the plaza, and will have an elevation of 18 inches. While CrossRoad Engineers designed the DriveHubler.com Amphitheater in Franklin, which has a taller stage, the Bargersville stage is meant to be enjoyed not just during events, Newport said.
“The Franklin amphitheater is a much larger space and area. You don’t see that stage being for everyday use,” he said. “With this stage area, we want to attract every day hanging out use from people in town, but it can also be a stage. It’s large enough to hold a bigger act but I think it will get a lot of smaller acts.”
The back of the stage will feature a native plant prairie and a limestone block sign at the north entrance welcoming people to Umbarger Plaza. The rest of the plaza develops to the south, including a moderately sloped lawn bordered by trees, walking paths and seating areas.
“It’s a narrow area to deal with. We wanted a lawn for everyday use, you can put blankets on the lawn for lunch, and there’s a slope about three feet tall at the south end of the lawn,” Newport said.
The south end of the plaza will feature an arrival area with public restrooms, seating and lighting. There will be a variety of seating, including curved benches with back support, oval seating and long benches that don’t have backs, all of which will be wood with steel framing, according to a presentation from CrossRoad Engineers.
“The arrival plaza we want to be a bit of a gathering area where there’s more of a volume of seating. The lawn area has less seating but we’ll still have some for everyday use,” Newport said. “The lawn itself can be seating and then on the north end, there are landscape areas for people who like trail walking or people who want to go to a peaceful area or read a book.”
During festivals, food trucks will be able to use Baldwin Street, which borders the plaza to the east, he said.
“I could see them shutting down the street,” Newport said. “They could use the street to have vendors, which makes sense for these big events. Parking is accessible down at the south end and there are other parking areas you can get to from there.”
Final decisions on items such as plant types and lighting fixtures will likely be made later this month, so town officials can accept bids this fall. The plaza should open about a year later, he said.
When the plaza opens, it will serve as a prime gathering space for Bargersville residents, Town Manager Dan Cartwright said earlier this year.
“Our parks department will be actively working on bands, concerts and downtown activities,” Cartwright said. “It’s going to be a place you can go to near downtown establishments and on a pretty night you can sit in the park.”
