Finance, Utilities, and Rules Committee Meeting on Presidium 3 Project - May 13, 2026
Finance, Utilities, and Rules Committee Meeting on Presidium 3 Project - May 13, 2026
The Finance, Utilities, and Rules Committee met on May 13, 2026, to review two ordinances (D-28-15-26 and D-28-16-26) regarding the vacation of right-of-way for the Presidium 3 project. The discussion focused on changes to the project since initial bond approval, including revised parking counts, a shift in TIF allocation from 95-5 to 100% developer capture, and the use of park impact fees for public deck spaces. The committee voted unanimously to send both ordinances to the full City Council with a positive recommendation.
Discussion Items
- Presentation by Henry Mistetsky (Carmel Redevelopment Director): Mistetsky outlined key changes: the office building grew from 63,000 to 100,000 square feet (with a first floor plate that could become retail), the hotel remains at 125 rooms but now has a Hilton Tapestry flag, spa, and restaurant, multifamily units increased to 154 (from 150–160), with 26 age-restricted units on the top floor (all two-bedroom, previously 30–40 mixed). Parking spaces decreased from earlier plans; the garage now provides 440 spaces (372 underground, 68 on the podium). A detailed parking utilization chart showed peak demand (10 a.m.–2 p.m.) with conservative assumptions (e.g., 35% of apartment residents present, 85% of office users, 75% restaurant, 50% hotel). The garage is 80% open to the public (first-come, first-serve) and includes 20 extra spaces for city vehicles. The TIF bond amount remains the same, but the split changes from 95-5 to 100% developer capture to offset reduced tax revenue from multifamily due to state law changes (Senate Enrolled Act 1, providing up to 36% deduction through 2031). The vacation of right-of-way splits the city parcel into three parts to facilitate land transfer while protecting the city with clawback provisions.
- Developer Tony Burkla (Presidium developer): Burkla emphasized the project's uniqueness as the first in Indiana combining a five-star hotel with apartments sharing amenities (spa, pool, fitness). He noted that the 26 age-restricted units are now all two-bedroom penthouses, and the office space has attracted multiple LOIs. Parking was reduced to avoid costly utility relocation and to improve garage efficiency. He committed to better wayfinding for public parking.
- Councilor Green: Asked about parking assumptions for age-restricted units (likely single car per unit) and noted that higher-end hotels generate fewer overnight cars. Clarified that the parking ratio based on beds (not units) is more accurate.
- Councilor Minor: Inquired about the reduction in parking spaces (due to utility relocation and placing hotel on grade). Asked about the valet plan for the hotel—Burkla confirmed valet will operate within the garage without dedicated spaces. Minor also questioned the TIF split change; Mistetsky explained it compensates for the state law reduction in multifamily property taxes. Minor expressed concern about traffic on Veterans Way and suggested future traffic calming.
- Councilor Royal: Asked about the TIF split change, requesting a dollar value for the 5% difference (not immediately available). Highlighted the importance of the office space for attracting new businesses. Commended the observation deck as a potential icon. Asked about the park impact fee (PRIF) credit used for the public deck spaces; Mistetsky confirmed it was approved by BPW prior to this project version.
- Councilor Taylor (Chair): Asked about total development cost ($123 million), TIF component (up to $19 million), and bond amount (unchanged at ~$19 million). Discussed the impact of state law on multifamily tax revenue. Suggested engaging a third-party parking consultant for future projects to validate assumptions, but noted the current counts are based on industry standards vetted by LVR. Emphasized the need for clear wayfinding for public parking. Also noted that the hotel flag (Hilton Tapestry) will not cannibalize Hotel Carmichael due to different market segments.
- Councilor Minor (additional): Asked about hotel conference space (5,000–6,000 sq ft, small). Expressed concern about the green space at Presidium 1 becoming a dog run and urged programming of public spaces at Presidium 3. Mistetsky noted that a new building with wine/coffee bar will activate that space.
Key Outcomes
- Motion: Councilor Taylor moved to send both ordinances (D-28-15-26 and D-28-16-26) to the full City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Green seconded. The motion passed unanimously (3-0, with Councilor Warrell absent due to another commitment).
- The ordinances will proceed to the full City Council for final action on the vacation of right-of-way and related land transfer.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome to the Finance Utilities and Rules Committee Committee meeting for Wednesday, May 13th. We will call the meeting to order at 5 32 p.m. We have two items on our agenda. Both are uh vacation of right-of-way regarding the Prescinium 3 project ordinance D-28 15-26 and ordinance 28-16-26. Today our focus will be reviewing uh the changes to the uh changes to these uh projects related to the structure of the TIFF financing and components of the project. We have Henry uh Director Henry Mistetsky here that has a presentation to review uh the overall changes. So uh if the committee's okay, uh we will turn it over to Henry to present. Um thank you, uh committee chair uh Taylor Henry Mistetsky, um Carnal Redevelopment Director. This is a uh Presidium 3. This is the last action item related to the Persinium 3 project in front of City Council. This was introduced on a previous Monday. This had already been um looked at in land use committee and was voted back to council with the positive 4.0 recommendation. So I'm hoping just to kind of quickly go through the kind of similar presentation from last time and hit some of the points that were the conversation topics and land use that I thought would be helpful here. Um as a starting point, I do have the slide that the council had looked at when uh initially approving the bonds for this deal, and so I wanted to just very carefully go through the specific changes. The what used to be 63,000 square feet of an office building with dedicated 15,000 square feet of retail space has become a 100,000 square foot office building with obviously a first floor plate that could become retail just the same. There's also the same hotel that was there before with a 5,000 square foot dedicated restaurant. The multifamily units, there are now 154 of them, where previously we discussed 150 to 160. There are 26 H targeted units on the top floor of the project, where previously we discussed 30 to 40, and I'll get into that in just a little bit. There are fewer parking spaces than before, and I would like to spend some time talking about the parking chart. And generally the finances of the project change in that the TIFF bond amount is the same, but the TIFF split goes from 95-5 developer city to 100%. So this is the view looking north on rangeline of the hotel and the office building. There's another view with the multi-family, and I'll point this out a couple times. The this the stair tower that also serves uh as a public observation deck over the Japanese garden is uh pretty visible here in the center. This view, or really this view, also highlights the kind of the inarful in artful way that I initially at city council described the retail space where I said no more 15,000 square feet of retail space. So what you actually see in this picture is a 5,000 square foot restaurant there on the left, and the right is just an office floor plate on the office building. So in this image, there's a restaurant user there in the office building. So to say that there's no retail is really a mistake on my part because any amount of that first floor could just as easily become retail when the market calls for it. This is the view of the project from the veterans way side. So this does a good job of showing how Veterans Way is the entrance to the parking garage. When you're on the rangeline side, you come in at plaza level. I'll have another depiction here in a second that shows that. Um this also really shows how you can go from the garage through the covered walkway into the first floor of the hotel that also is uh looking over uh over veterans there. There's another shot of someone going to the hotel front lobby, can also walk under the under cover of the the deck so they don't get rained on straight to the parking garage or straight to that elevator tower that also serves as the focal point of uh movement circular uh human circulation throughout that project, but also creates a that's a public viewing deck there at the top. As discussed at uh city council previously, the parking pack fees are intended to go into essentially these public decks on top of the garage that face veterans way. That was a heavy discussion at land use. So what you're seeing on the left is the kind of the podium level. So you can turn into that from range line. You can see parking spaces around the office building. Again, that's apartments top left, office building top right, hotel at the bottom. So you really see at a podium level, we're maximizing the parking as much as possible. And then you can see there on the image on the right, that's the parking level. So you can see as much parking as we're able to fit into the garage we we have, and then you can kind of see the the walkway that's on the same kind of level as the garage that takes you straight into the lobby of the hotel. So that's all on the same same level. This is um might be slightly tough to see, but I thought it was a very useful conversation at land use, and if everyone's okay, I'm just gonna go through this chart. This is the parking chart for the Presidium 3 project. So I'll just kind of give a uh I'll go from the top down, kind of give a lay of the land. Uh the the very top graph basically explains the kind of users uses that we have here, and uh because that gets used for essentially parking ratio calculations. So we even though it's 154 apartment units, we are doing a count based on uh space per bed. So we have a 221 total beds, about a hundred thousand square feet of office, about a six thousand square foot restaurant uh related to the hotel. And you can see there's 372 spaces underground, 68 on top of the deck for 440 total.
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