Circle City Industrial Complex gets a new name
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Circle City Industrial Complex, located at 10th Street and Brookside Avenue on Indy’s near east side, has been renamed the Factory Arts District.
The sprawling property covers 16 acres and includes two commercial buildings — 1125 Brooksive Ave. and 1011 Massachusetts Ave. — and two large parking lots.
The building on Brookside Avenue, renamed Factory Arts North, is home to more than 150 tenants, including small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and a large space for artists The space on Massachusetts Avenue, which will be named Factory Arts South, is set to open in late fall with more than 30 tenants, including restaurants, offices, and event space.
Current tenants include Bee Coffee Roasters, Centerpoint Brewing, Circle City Metalworks, 8th Day Distillery, and the Fowling Warehouse.
Formerly the home of the Schwitzer manufacturing facility, the property was named the Circle City Industrial Complex upon Schwitzer’s departure in the 1990s. Teagen Development bought the property in 2015.
“As the building changed, we realized that the name ‘Circle City Industrial Complex’ just didn’t describe what was happening inside these walls,” Teagen Development Vice President Rachel Ferguson said in a release. “Spaces that were once filled with machines and equipment, that were used to test engines and fabricate parts, are now filled with craft brewers and distillers, art studios, galleries, and small businesses. We wanted a name that would better reflect the grassroots community happening here.”
Like many things in the Circle City, the property has links to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500.
The manufacturing facility’s founder, Louis Schwitzer, was a brilliant enginner, inventor, entreprenuer, and philantrophist. He won the first auto race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Aug. 19, 1909, and went on to design the engine for the Marmon Wasp that Ray Harroun drove to victory in the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911. The Louis H. Schwitzer Award for Engineering Innovation and Excellence is presented at IMS each May prior to the running of the Indy 500.
Schwitzer, who was born in Austria-Hungary (now Poland) in 1880, died in 1967 at age 87 and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.