Ice Miller has walked away from its planned headquarters tower in the Bottleworks District, ending a lease agreement with developer Hendricks Commercial Properties in October after years of construction delays. The downtown Indianapolis law firm, which had signed on as the sole tenant for an office building at the northeast corner of 10th and Bellefontaine streets, north of the Bottleworks Hotel, now says the project no longer fits its needs and is considering other downtown options but may remodel its existing space at OneAmerica Tower and stay there.
Ice Miller Chief Managing Partner Joshua Christie said the project “just no longer meets our needs,” adding that Hendricks did not meet the lease’s timeline and deliverables, according to IndyStar. The firm had announced plans in June 2025 to relocate from OneAmerica Tower in the Mile Square to the Bottleworks shopping and entertainment district by late 2028, but repeated construction delays forced Ice Miller to extend its current lease through 2028 instead.
IndyStar describes the planned building as an 11-story office tower with 85,000 square feet of office space and six floors of public and private parking, set to open in 2028 with Ice Miller as its only tenant. That description differs from earlier coverage of modified plans: the Indianapolis Business Journal reported in September 2025 that the proposed building had been revised to nine stories, with about 86,000 square feet of office space and roughly five parking floors holding more than 300 spaces, at least 100 of them reserved for public use.
Firm Will Stay Downtown, Decision Expected by Year's End
Hendricks did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why construction was repeatedly delayed, the station’s report notes. Ice Miller, meanwhile, says its headquarters will remain downtown no matter where it lands next. The firm was founded in downtown Indianapolis in 1910 and has occupied space in OneAmerica Tower for more than 40 years, and Christie said the firm may ultimately remodel its current space there rather than relocate at all.
Christie said Ice Miller has a couple of other strong downtown options under consideration, though he declined to identify them. The firm, which now has 325 employees in the city, hopes to decide on its next home by the end of this year. Christie added that Ice Miller wants a vibrant downtown and is excited to remain part of it, per the same account.
A Setback for Bottleworks and a Bigger Redevelopment
Bottleworks District, which opened in 2020 in the former Coca-Cola bottling plant complex, has grown into a downtown destination for dining, shopping and entertainment. Ice Miller’s departure casts doubt on the future of the proposed office tower and marks a setback for the district’s growth, and it also complicates Hendricks’ broader ambitions: the developer is separately leading a $600 million redevelopment of Circle Centre Mall that calls for an open-air plaza with housing and retail space.
Hendricks has run into shifting plans at Bottleworks before. In 2021, the company told city officials it would scrap earlier housing plans for Bottleworks Phase II in favor of fully commercial space, and construction on that phase did not break ground until summer 2022 — around the same time it had originally been expected to finish, according to Indianapolis Monthly. Hendricks has said it leased the entire 100,000-square-foot Phase II building within a few months of pivoting to office space.
Downtown Office Market Already Under Pressure
Ice Miller’s exit comes as downtown Indianapolis grapples with rising office vacancy. Downtown office vacancy hit 23.9% in the second quarter of 2026, up from 22.9% a year earlier, according to Inside INdiana Business, which cited Cushman & Wakefield figures. Nationally, office vacancy across 79 mostly urban U.S. markets reached 21% in the first quarter of 2026, up from 17% in 2020, per Axios.
Developers have responded with conversions: ongoing projects are turning 350,000 square feet of downtown office space into housing or hotels, according to Inside INdiana Business. Axios reports that the top seven floors of Capital Center South Tower are becoming a Moxy Hotel and that Circle Tower is planned for conversion into an AC by Marriott later this year, according to Axios. Those two hotel conversions alone are expected to remove nearly 200,000 square feet of vacant office space from the market. Despite the vacancy increase, downtown's residential population has grown, reaching 30,819 residents — up 1.16% since 2025 — as the area has also added 300 apartments since 2024, a 2.4% increase, Inside INdiana Business reported.
The broader numbers show a mixed picture for the city's center. Indianapolis' central business district lost 203,000 square feet of office occupancy in the first quarter of 2026, largely because IU Health vacated its space at Landmark Center as services consolidated at a new medical campus, Axios reported. Meanwhile, the suburbs posted their strongest quarterly office growth since 2018, adding 357,000 square feet, with Republic Airways' move to a $200 million headquarters on North Meridian Street helping drive gains in Carmel.
