Businesses on Mass Ave considering adopting a designated outdoor refreshment area

INDIANAPOLIS — Downtown business owners along Massachusetts Avenue are exploring the possibility of a designated outdoor refreshment area, or DORA.

Several communities across central Indiana have started adopting the relatively new phenomenon, but this would mark the first DORA in the Circle City and the second in Marion County.

Mass Ave has long been a cultural staple of downtown Indy, known for its food, drink and shopping scene. It draws in crowds day and night.

“I go out to lunch, sometimes dinners with buddies. We’ve been trying to hit different spots down here, really anywhere we can get our hands on where it’s new food, new experience,” described Anthony Cockle, who lives downtown.

The Mass Ave Merchants Association is weighing whether or not to add a DORA in the area, which could spice things up even more.

“People would be able to go into an establishment, purchase a drink to go in a designated cup and to enjoy that drink within the boundaries of the DORA during a timeframe that is allowed,” said Mass Ave Merchants Association Treasurer Jeff Stroebel.

The DORA would consist of a mile-long stretch of Mass Ave from New York Street to I-65 and I-70. It would be in effect from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Customers would pay a $1 fee per drink for a marked one-time-use cup they could carry in public.

“This will actually increase the regulation of outdoor drinking,” Stroebel said. “It will provide some structure on that and provide some safety measures that aren’t in place right now.”

Stroebel said a DORA could also have a substantial impact on business.

“They’re able to have events like sip and shop where someone can go into an establishment, purchase a cocktail, purchase a beer in a specially designated cup and then stroll the avenue,” he described.

Regular visitors to the area like Cockle said it could be a great way to get people to venture from one business to the next, so long as the DORA is well monitored and regulated safely.

“It’d be pretty cool,” he said. “You’d be able to hang out, go to new places all because of that freedom, I guess. That’d be awesome.”

The Mass Ave Merchants Association is still talking to businesses and people who live in the area before moving forward with the idea. If the group decides to add the DORA, it will ultimately need final approval from the City County Council and the state’s Alcohol and Tobacco Commission before getting the green light.

Noblesville just launched its DORA last week. The Zionsville Town Council also just introduced a similar proposal last week. Westfield , Carmel , Bargersville and Speedway have also gone through the process of establishing DORAs as well.

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