Developers break ground on $500 million, 500-acre project that could redefine Avon

Developers broke ground last week on a 500-acre, mixed-use development Avon officials hope will become the new heart and central gathering place of the Hendricks County town.

Republic Development, the group behind the project, proposed five distinct neighborhoods and a core shopping district within the larger Easton Grey site along White Lick Creek. Four of the areas will be single-family homes, with a fifth neighborhood, named The Haven, reserved and designed for residents aged 55 and older who are primarily empty nesters. Houses within the community cost between $300,000 and $1 million.

The crowning jewel of the community will be the 65-acre Riverwalk District, receiving its name from the creek and trail nearby, which will house a mix of apartments and townhomes, commercial space for restaurants and Avon's new civic center and town administration building.

The $500 million development sits off the main roadway across the center of Avon at the intersection of U.S. 36 and N County Road 371 E. Two single-family homes occupied by a farmer and his daughter used to sit on the land, along with hundreds of acres of farmland.

Republic Development President Richard Arnos said he envisions the district as a walkable oasis, where residents can arrive home from work, change clothes and walk to dinner for a night out.

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"The best towns and cities in America and around the world today have places where people can meet and gather, have fun and create great experiences, and that makes those places really desirable areas to live," Arnos said at the ceremonial groundbreaking, standing on what would become the Riverwalk district.

Avon officials and Republic began working on the project together in 2019, following guidelines set out in the town's 2018 Comprehensive Plan to establish walkable gathering places similar to nearby Brownsburg and Plainfield.

"We have places where people can drive up, drive to, and drive through. This is completely different," said Town Manager Ryan Cannon. "People are going to walk around together and be able to have events that are really community centric."

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Avon played an active role throughout the project planning and eventually committed to moving the town administration to the center of the site in the later stages of the 5-year build-out process. The school corporation, township staff, chamber of commerce and town administration will all work in the new building, which will double as a community event center, Cannon said.

The state also bought into the project, committing more than $5 million in financing. Developers secured $2.93 million in tax replacement credits, $887,000 from the state's initial round of READI funds, and are awaiting another $1.5 million from the READI 2.0 funds for the town civic center.

In addition, the Indiana Department of Transportation agreed to move a traffic signal one block to the east to provide easier access to the site.

Construction work is already underway on homes in The Haven. Arnos added that some residents in the "empty nester" homes had children who bought a property in the single-family areas.

The development is expected to open in phases with components of the Riverwalk District and the civic center opening around August 2026.

Republic Development has led other high-profile mixed-use projects in Indianapolis suburbs, including the $1.5 billion, 750-acre Saxony Village in Fishers and Jackson's Grant Village, a $400 million mixed-use development at the intersection of Spring Mill Road and 116th Street in Carmel.

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Alysa Guffey is a business reporter covering growth and development for the Indianapolis Star. Contact her at amguffey@gannett.com or follow her on X: @AlysaGuffeyNews.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Developers break ground on $500 million, 500-acre project that could redefine Avon