Georgia Street Promenade in Indianapolis: What's Open and Next

Between Illinois Street and Capitol Avenue, Georgia Street no longer carries cars. The block now has turf you can walk a dog across, tables under trees and limestone boulders at the Illinois Street end, and a long raised bench that doubles as a small stage. The ribbon was cut on Friday, Oct. 9, with Mayor Joe Hogsett and convention, tourism and downtown leaders on hand.

That block is the finished part. Two blocks to the east, the stretch between Meridian and Pennsylvania is partly closed while a Ritz-Carlton goes up, and the city only began taking bids on its promenade extension the same day as the ribbon-cutting. The block between them, in front of Circle Centre Mall, has no start date. Georgia Street is being rebuilt from its two ends toward a middle that is still on hold. For anyone downtown, that means the corridor will feel finished in pieces for years.

The finished block was built for convention clients, and the public gets it in between

Who the promenade was built for explains why it works the way it does. The Capital Improvement Board, which owns the convention center and the city's pro sports facilities, paid for the $9.1 million project mainly to give convention visitors an outdoor event space. IndyStar reported that in its Oct. 14 story on the opening. CIB Executive Director Andy Mallon put it plainly in the board's announcement: event planners had "long expressed their desire for an outdoor event area," and the promenade "will be closed when in use for private events but otherwise open to the public."

So the public schedule is whatever is left over. The CIB says the block is open to the public from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily when no Indiana Convention Center & Lucas Oil Stadium event has booked it. If you're heading over for lunch during a big convention week, check the convention center's event calendar first.

The block has four named zones, running west to east:

• The Garden sits right outside the convention center's Georgia Cube entrance. It covers about 16,170 square feet of pet-friendly turf, and it's the part most likely to get tents and staging during events.
• The Terrace is the paved middle-west section, roughly 6,125 square feet with tables and chairs.
• The Lawn has about 6,548 square feet of pet-friendly turf, seating, trees at both ends, and a permanent 38-foot platform bench meant for performances.
• The Grove borders Illinois Street, with shaded tables, trees and limestone boulders.

For dog owners in the Wholesale District, the two turf zones are the practical news, because the southern edge of downtown has had very little green space. IndyStar described most of that area as parking lots and streets around the convention center, Lucas Oil Stadium and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with the bigger green spaces sitting north of Monument Circle. That stage-ready bench on The Lawn hasn't had public performances announced for November or December yet, so for now it's mostly a very long place to sit.

Then the hotel next door opens six bars and restaurants

The promenade runs right up to the Signia by Hilton Indianapolis at 101 W. Georgia St. In its October update, Hilton calls it the city's tallest hotel and says it's taking reservations for stays starting December 9, 2026. That date moves up the Feb. 1, 2027 start in Hilton's April announcement. For a reader on the street, the hotel matters more than the plaza does, because it adds a full set of places to eat and drink on a block that had none.

IndyStar's dining report lists six concepts expected to launch with the hotel in December, with reservations through OpenTable and the Signia website:

1. Rosewater's is the ground-floor lobby bar along Georgia Street, serving upscale snacks and spirits distilled from Indiana corn. It's the only venue that faces the promenade directly.
2. Heartwood is a supper club-inspired bar and grill on the below-ground level, named for Indiana's sycamores. It opens for breakfast and lunch and adds dinner in the spring.
3. Slipstream is a nod to Indiana racing: coffee, pastries and grab-and-go sandwiches all day, also on the lower level.
4. Torchlight is a two-story cocktail lounge on the 37th and 38th floors, with a mezzanine and an outdoor terrace over downtown. Devon Tarby of the hospitality group Gin & Luck is helping build the cocktail menu, and the name comes from the torch at the center of Indiana's state flag.
5. Deck on 5 is a seasonal bar beside the rooftop pool.
6. Club Signia serves meals and evening cocktails just below Torchlight, but only for select hotel guests.

Hilton's culinary announcement pitches the venues to locals as well as travelers. Club Signia is the one clear exception. Hilton hasn't said whether people who aren't staying at the hotel can use the poolside Deck on 5, and since it's described as seasonal, a December opening wouldn't mean much for it anyway. That leaves four venues a downtown resident can count on. Only one of them, Rosewater's, opens onto the street. The other three sit either underground or 37 floors up.

A seventh restaurant from an outside ownership group is planned for summer 2027. Heartwood's dinner service in the spring and that summer opening mean even the finished west end will keep filling in through 2027.

The east end is coming, but on a 2027 and 2028 clock

The other end of the street is moving, just more slowly. Between Meridian and Pennsylvania, Boxcar Development, an investment group led by Herb Simon and the Simon family, is building a project with Marriott and Live Nation on the former CSX site. The January groundbreaking announcement describes:

• A 15-floor, 176-room Ritz-Carlton, projected to open in early 2028, with a spa, terrace, upscale restaurant and lobby bar
• A Live Nation music venue holding 4,000 people, targeted for completion in fall 2027
• New retail space

A short walk from there, Boxcar and Opry Entertainment Group announced in April that Ole Red is coming to 231–235 S. Meridian St. Per the Pacers' announcement, it's a 37,000-square-foot bar, restaurant and live-music venue with two stages and a rooftop bar, projected for late 2027.

The CIB wants the promenade to keep running east until it connects the convention center to Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Bids on the Meridian-to-Pennsylvania segment are due Nov. 6. No construction start or finish date has been announced yet for that segment. If the segment follows the bid closely, the plaza would arrive around the time the music venue and hotel start drawing crowds, which are the crowds a pedestrian block is built for.

The middle block is waiting on the biggest project of the three

The block between Illinois and Meridian holds up the whole corridor. It fronts Circle Centre Mall, where Hendricks Commercial Properties plans Traction Yards. Visit Indy describes it as a $600 million plan to turn the mall into an open-air neighborhood with retail, dining, entertainment, housing, offices and public plazas. IndyStar's Oct. 14 report said the promenade extension will skip this block for now because the redevelopment is still waiting on a start date.

The published finish dates don't match either. Visit Indy's project page gives a 2029 Phase 1 opening, while its construction update page, last updated in July 2026, says 2030. Visit Indy describes the work running through 2030 as the current phase of Hendricks' mall renovation, so treat either year as an estimate.

That's why the order matters. Both ends are tied to hotels with fixed opening dates and to the convention business that pays for the plaza, while the middle waits on the largest and least scheduled project on the street. Until it moves, a walk from the new lawn toward the Fieldhouse goes from a finished plaza, past a block that still looks the way it did before, and then into the construction zone around the Ritz.

How the street changes from here

Here's the order things are lined up to arrive, based on the dates published so far:

• Now: The west block is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, except during private events.
• Nov. 6: Bids are due for the Meridian-to-Pennsylvania promenade segment.
• Dec. 9: Hilton's first bookable night at the Signia. Rosewater's, Heartwood, Slipstream and Torchlight are expected to open with the hotel in December.
• Spring 2027: Heartwood adds dinner.
• Summer 2027: An outside group opens a restaurant at the Signia.
• Fall 2027: Target completion for the Live Nation venue. Ole Red is projected for late 2027.
• Early 2028: Projected Ritz-Carlton opening.
• 2029 or 2030: Published estimates for Traction Yards, with no start date yet for the promenade's middle block.

For the next few months, the parts of Georgia Street you can actually use are one dog-friendly block from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and, starting in December, a lobby bar on the street with a cocktail lounge 38 floors above it.

If you live in or near the Wholesale District, or you've been thinking about downtown and wondering how all this construction fits together, I'm happy to talk through what each block's timeline could mean for you, with no pressure at all. Andrew Prince works across Indianapolis and Central Indiana, and I'm always up for a lunch on The Lawn. Let's Connect.