Business View Magazine | September 2020

224 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020 entrepreneurs. “We were doing well with the suburban environment - good schools, low taxes, safe communities - all the things that a person who is starting a family or who has a family wants,” Fadness asserts. “But could we create an environment that the 24-30 year old would find attractive? So, we urbanized our downtown significantly over the last seven to ten years. We had about half a billion dollars worth of development, either completed or under construction – a mixed-use, walkable environment. Also, you can’t discount the folks who are empty nesters who have the time and money and want to live in a more urban environment. So, we can actually cater to anyone at whatever point in their life, or lifestyle, that they choose to be in. I think that’s been a concerted effort and it has helped us attract a lot of educated, talented people.” Baumgartner elucidates on Fishers transition from a small bedroom community to a bustling live, work, and play metropolis. “It was a great place to live, but you would leave each day,” she states. “You knew you were safe and that it had great schools, but that wasn’t going to continue to help us grow as a community. Especially over the last ten years, with our redevelopment, we’ve created a sense of place in our downtown we call our Nickel Plate District. There’s $200 million worth of new redevelopment projects underway, right now, and one of the main infrastructure projects that’s going through our Nickel Plate District and connecting the rest of the community is our Nickel Plate Trail. We had your basic trail system and great parks throughout our community, but we had an old railroad that wasn’t in use and it was a lengthy process to get that converted, but that’s our prize centerpiece, right now. It will connect to the larger trail system. It’s another resource for people for a walkable environment; a place to get out and enjoy and not have to drive a car.” Fishers has also taken an aggressive posture concerning sustainability – yet another reason that it continues to remain attractive