Indianapolis Developer Isaiah Pruitt Breaks Ground on 350-Unit Affordable Housing Project

Indianapolis developer Isaiah Pruitt broke ground this week on a 350-unit mixed-income housing development on the near east side of the city, the largest project of his 16-year career and one of the biggest affordable housing developments Indianapolis has approved in recent years.

Pruitt, founder of Pruitt Urban Development, built his early reputation renovating bungalows in near east side neighborhoods before moving into larger multifamily projects over the past decade. The new development will set aside 60 percent of its units for households earning below the area's median income, with the remainder offered at market rate.

"I grew up two blocks from this site, and for a long time this was just a block of boarded-up houses that nobody wanted to touch," Pruitt said. "Being able to bring housing back to this specific corner of the city means something different to me than it would if this were just another project somewhere else."

The $85 million project is financed through a combination of low-income housing tax credits, a city redevelopment loan, and private equity, a capital stack Pruitt said took nearly three years to fully assemble given the complexity of layering public affordability requirements with private financing. Construction is expected to take approximately 24 months.

Pruitt Urban Development currently has three other projects in various stages of planning across Indianapolis, though Pruitt said none approach the scale of the near east side development. City housing officials have pointed to the project as a model for future mixed-income developments in neighborhoods that have seen limited new construction investment in recent decades.