Downtown Indianapolis is getting a new headliner on the skyline, and it is rising fast. Fresh construction photos from Friday show the 38-story Signia by Hilton tower and the Indiana Convention Center expansion climbing over Georgia Street, with glass going in, concrete work stacking up and the first pieces of the massive ballroom enclosure locking into place. The shots make it clear this project is not just filling a block, it is reshaping the city’s convention footprint and the look of the core.
The new images land in a photo gallery from the Indianapolis Business Journal, shot by photographer Mickey Shuey. The gallery tracks crane work over the Pan Am Plaza site, steel framing spreading across the podium and the hotel’s silhouette starting to muscle its way into the downtown skyline.
What's being built
The project pairs roughly 143,500 square feet of new convention space with an 800-room, 38-story Signia by Hilton hotel, topped off with a 50,455-square-foot Grand Ballroom plus two smaller ballrooms. Visit Indy notes the work will add nearly 100,000 square feet of fresh meeting space. The group lists an anticipated exterior completion in fall 2026 and says reservations are already being taken for stays starting Feb. 1, 2027.
Construction progress
According to the hotel’s own fact sheet, the interior is quietly racking up milestones behind the construction fencing. Finishing work is complete on 48 guest rooms. Electrical work has reached the 28th floor, plumbing the 27th floor, drywall the 25th floor and tile the 18th floor. Outside the tower cores, the level five pool deck is in place and a monumental stair now links that podium to the street level lobby. Ballrooms and pre function areas are insulated, and north facing lobby glass along Georgia Street is already installed. At peak activity, project managers report as many as five cranes working the site at once.
City tourism officials say the project is already paying off before a single guest checks in. Visit Indy reports the development has helped lock in roughly $1.3 billion in retained convention business and spark about $1 billion in new interest, with groups booking dates several years out. They credit the expanded ballroom capacity and the added connected hotel rooms as key reasons national meetings are renewing or even upsizing their commitments to Indianapolis.
The latest photo gallery also nods to the heavy lifting that cleared the way for the tower’s rise. Before the vertical sprint, crews pulled off a record breaking foundation concrete pour in June 2024, a milestone that set the stage for everything now climbing skyward. The Indianapolis Business Journal reported that more than 7,300 cubic yards of concrete went into that pour, a logistical feat that helped keep the project on its planned timeline.
