Officials with New Palestine say there is still no official word on when a high-end apartment complex will break ground in New Palestine.
NEW PALESTINE — It’s been well over a year since the town council approved a developer’s $3.9 million bond to help build a $61 million apartment complex. While approval for the bond was issued in April of 2023, the developer, who had waited months for approval, has yet to break ground on the project.
Becovic Management Group of Indiana, which has proposed to build a “high-end” apartment complex next to the Hancock Health Wellness Center has not given town officials a firm date on when its proposed $61 million apartment complex project might officially break ground.
At the request of the council — which is comprised of four new members who were not part of the council that passed the project in the spring of 2023 — developer Muhamed Becovic visited town officials during a recent council meeting in June.
Council secretary Chad Molinder invited Becovic to come in and meet the new council and told him they wanted him to know the new council members are excited about the project. Becovic’s goal with coming to talk with the council was to assure town officials he planned to move forward with the project despite delays.
“We’re looking forward to getting started, but we’re still going through some preliminary work,” Becovic said while standing before the council.
Becovic then noted high interest rates as part of the reason for the delay and said he hoped rates might be taking a downturn in the not-too-distant future. He also noted there had been a few design changes since the project was first proposed in 2021.
“We’ll have the same amount of units and the same amount of buildings, but we decided to take out one of the three-story buildings on the south-side (by the Wellness Center) area to make all the buildings the same height, but we’ll make a presentation on that,” Becovic said.
Council president Teri Reed pressed Becovic, asking him what his timeline was, and he stated that he hoped to be building in 2025.
“But, we’re still going to go ahead and do all the preparations as far as getting our permits in place for when we start breaking the ground, and we’re hoping by then the rates settle so it makes sense for our numbers,” Becovic said. “We are seeing some softening, not so much in Indianapolis, but in Chicago and Jacksonville, and that’s been exciting.”
New Palestine Town Manager Jim Robinson said had the old council, which he noted dragged their feet on approving the project, been quicker to pass the proposal, Becovic could have locked in a much lower rate and the project would have been well underway by now.
“Basically the last council drove him into a new economical environment,” Robinson said. “Interest rates were low back in 2021 when he first came to the town asking to build here, but by the time everything got wrapped up in 2023 interest rates were out of hand and that really hurt the project.”
Still, Robinson noted he feels good about the apartment complex being built after having several conversations with Becovic.
“He’s still planning on building here,” Robinson said.
The proposed $61 million upscale apartment complex is supposed to be built on 27 acres behind the Hancock Wellness Center complex near the southwest corner of U.S. 52 and CR South 600W. Approved plans for the complex said they’ll build 102 single-bedroom, 148 two-bedroom and 32 three-bedroom units with preliminary rent figures ranging from $1,100 to $1,900 a month.
Robinson noted another developer, Keller Development is building a two-story senior apartment building just north of proposed Becovic site on CR South 600W. That property is located at 3985 South 600W near the northwest corner of of U.S. 52. Those apartment will have caps on monthly rent fees for residents 55 and older based on income.
Robinson noted the Keller Development project was approved after the Becovic project but has moved faster thanks to creative government financing.
“At this point, we’d like it best if both projects were coming up out of the ground and moving forward,” Robinson said.
