Westfield-based Hudson Investing wants to develop two apartment buildings housing 40 units each just west of Ridge View Apartments in Fortville.
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FORTVILLE — The new owner of an apartment community wants to expand with two new buildings housing 80 units.
Indianapolis-based Hudson Investing is pursuing the development, called Ridge View West, on about 4 acres just west of the existing Ridge View Apartments located at 550-801 North School St. in Fortville.
New Ridgeview LLC bought Ridge View Apartments last year. Kent Ritter, who leads that company and Hudson Investing, said at a Fortville Town Council meeting earlier this week that about $500,000 is being invested in improving the property, including renovating all unit interiors, as well as some exterior improvements.
Now he also wants to develop two buildings over 47,000 square feet each to the west of the existing apartments. The buildings would flank Main Street, which currently doesn’t exist through the property, but would be part of the project. The buildings would be two stories on their north and south ends and three stories in the middle. They’d each have 40 market-rate apartments made up of a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, most of which Ritter said would be two-bedroom.
The two new buildings would have over 120 on-site parking spaces.
Ritter said the new buildings would allow for on-site management for them and the existing Ridge View Apartments, something currently lacking on the property.
“The high-quality nature of the development will attract quality residents to Fortville by offering a higher level of finishes and amenities than are available among Fortville’s current apartment communities,” Hudson Investing said in its letter of intent for the project filed with the town.
The firm is asking the town to rezone the property eyed for the new buildings to a planned unit development, which would establish specific development standards for the development.
The Fortville Area Plan Commission will have a public hearing for the proposal during its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 28 at the Fortville Community Center, 400 W. Church St., during which the commission will make a recommendation on the rezone to the town council.
The council approved the rezone on first reading and will consider a final approval at a future meeting after the plan commission makes its recommendation.
Adam Zaklikowski, Fortville planning and building director, said he supports the project.
“This would be all market-rate,” he noted of the apartments. “I would say from everything that we’ve been hearing from the development community that there’s a need for new high-quality market-rate housing in the town, so this would presumably fill that need.”
He added that another benefit of the project would be connecting a gap on Main Street, making it easier for residents of the west side of the nearby Timber Ridge neighborhood to get downtown and for emergency vehicles to get back and forth.
“I think it could be a great project for the town, and we’ll see what the community thinks of it at the public hearing on June 28,” Zaklikowski said.
If approved, it would be one of two new apartment developments in Fortville. MVAH Partners of West Chester Township, Ohio, is bringing a 50-unit building to 215 S. Madison St. called Madison Lofts for tenants making between 30% and 80% of area median income. MVAH plans to apply for funding assistance from the state to add a senior apartment building at the location too.
