Muncie mayor: ‘The tide is changing’ in east central Indiana
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Officials in Muncie are bullish on the future for both their city and the entire east central Indiana region.
About 300 people gathered Tuesday at the Horizon Convention Center for IBJ Media’s Engage East Central Indiana event, and Mayor Dan Ridenour touted what he says is a resurgence in the region, citing recent estimates of population growth in several counties.
In Muncie, specifically, Ridenour said the city has seen population increases in each of the last three years, according to U.S. Census estimates, after 50 years of declines.
“We are in a trajectory—slowly but upward—and that is a big change,” the mayor said.
Ridenour, now in his second term as mayor, told Inside INdiana Business that addressing the demand for housing has been a big part of his administration. He said developing key partnerships with state and local government, as well as other organizations, has been a crucial part to that plan.
“We’ve had great success with the tax credit programs, and we’ve got our first development under construction right now. That’s one that’s both affordable and market [rate] at the same time,” the mayor said. “We also put in a subdivision All 34 lots of this subdivision are sold. No houses yet, but they’re all sold. We do have some building permits, and we’ve got some other things coming.”
In July, Indianapolis-based TWG Development LLC broke ground on the $27 million, 120-unit Kilgore Place apartment complex. The city said the project, when complete, will include resident services that promote professional development and personal growth.
But Ridenour said the demand for housing is there in Muncie. Nearly 100% of the city’s downtown residential space is occupied, and officials are seeking READI 2.0 funding to add more housing options.
“We have some great employers, large employers that have a big regional focus, like Ball State and IU Health Ball Hospital. We built an apartment building downtown that has just 55 units, but it was the first new non-student apartment complex since 2003. Seventy percent of the people who moved in were people who either already worked at Ball State or worked at IU Health Ball Hospital, and so we know there are people who would move here if we have the housing.”
Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns, who participated in a panel discussion with other local leaders at the Engage event, agrees that Muncie and east central Indiana are on an upward trajectory and have been for the past decade.
But Mearns said in addition to affordable housing, other challenges remain such as educational attainment and health outcomes.
“Here in east central Indiana, we’re lagging some statewide averages in [population health statistics]. So we want to work with our partners at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, with Ivy Tech, with the Reid Hospital system, to improve those outcomes for the people that we serve all across east central Indiana, because it’s the right thing to do for those people and their families,” Mearns said. “But we know that will also help attract new businesses and will enable existing businesses to grow and prosper.”
Ridenour added that it can’t just be additional housing that attracts people to Muncie; other amenities have to be in place.
“We’ve added four splash pads to some of our local parks. We’ve added two new parks. We have tone of the largest trail systems,” he said. “Then you have Ball State and everything that comes with that. There’s entertainment. There’s sporting events. There’s arts and culture. There’s all those wonderful things that come with Ball State. So we just need to sell that better, and we’re doing what we can to make that happen.”
We’ll have more from the Engage East Central Indiana event on this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.