What's Hot | On the Map: Indianapolis, Indiana
What happens to a ballpark when the team leaves?
In Indianapolis, a 1931 ballpark that sat vacant after its team left in 1996 became apartments. Sources describe the historic shell kept, the infield marked in concrete, and ticket windows turned into closets and pantries. The lesson: reuse the structure's own character.
Every building is built for one crowd. Some find a second.
Perry Stadium opened in Indianapolis in 1931. Renamed Bush Stadium in 1967, it sat vacant after its team moved out in 1996. A conversion that began in 2012 turned it into the apartment community Stadium Lofts.
The reporting describes what was kept. A 2013 Ballpark Digest article says the ticket windows became closets and pantries, the Art Deco columns and iron turnstiles mark the main entrance, the infield is marked in concrete, and each unit kept its original stadium seat number. A 2012 construction trade article describes apartments numbered like ballpark sections and seats, built within the shell and historic facade.
The developer's current page lists studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.
What it shows: a structure with a strong identity gives a project its story and its unit mix at once. The capital goes toward preserving what cannot be rebuilt, and the demand case rests on the one thing a new building cannot offer: a past.
The question worth asking: what in this structure is worth keeping, and what does it cost to keep it? Ask for the design drawings before pricing the idea.
If you are weighing a building with an unusual past, send the address, and we will pull the county record and the history alongside you.