Fantasy Land

LESS THAN three years ago, the future of the General Motors stamping plant site looked as shiny as a new Chevy Camaro. Although the 103 acres across the White River from downtown had been vacant since 2011, the city and a trust formed to oversee the land were determined to attract a transformational development. A call for proposals went out nationwide. Dreamers proposed everything from an aquarium to a theme park. And the winning idea came from hometown Ambrose Property Group: a massive $550 million mixed-used neighborhood it eventually named Waterside.

The plan was unapologetically ambitious for a company with fewer than 30 employees and no experience attempting something on that scale. Initially, it called for 250 apartments, a hotel, and office and retail space. “This is a tremendous milestone for the citizens of Indianapolis and Marion County, the Valley neighborhood, and our downtown core,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a press release at the time. The excitement about the site’s potential only intensified in January 2018, when Amazon announced Indy was one of 20 finalists in a competition to land its second headquarters and up to 50,000 jobs. Few cities would be able to offer a plot so large and close to downtown.

But Amazon never came, and neither did Waterside. Aft er committing to a 15-year plan that would