More residents flocking to downtown Indianapolis - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Nearly all the residential rental properties in downtown Indianapolis are full. It's the first time in five years downtown living has been this popular.

Downtown Indy resident Amanda McDonald told Eyewitness News, "There is clearly something happening. People are coming and going and I like the fact that something is going on."

Amanda and Doug have lived downtown for the last three years. At $2,200 a month for their two-bedroom rental home, this "urban couple" is quite comfortable: "Everything is down here."

This fall Amanda and Doug will pack up and move even closer to the circle. The City Way construction project at Delaware and South Street caught the couple's eye.

The Buckingham development project has already taken deposits for all 100 apartments in the first phase of the $155 million complex. The entrepreneurs are excited about their move, and they think there's a bigger meaning behind "urban living."

"People have to come first for businesses to come. So, if there are people down here, there will be demand for business," said McDonald.

Terry Sweeney with Downtown Indianapolis Inc. tells Eyewitness News the downtown market is extremely popular. "What's really hot right now is the apartment market. We are about at full capacity," said Sweeney.

Some 97 percent all of residential rental property in downtown Indy is leased; that's the highest it's been in five years.

Sweeney tells Eyewitness News that between 400 and 600 new apartments are added each year. At $1.19 to $1.40 a square foot, downtown Indianapolis is a popular spot to sign a lease.

"We have been very fortunate. As we've added to inventory we are growing and more people from the outside are coming inside and we see that trend continuing," said Sweeney.

Developers have also noticed the success of downtown Indianapolis. In fact, the owners at the Cosmopolitan on the Canal are already working on their next building. By 2014, all of those cars will be gone, 450 units will be there, a Marsh grocery store and a parking garage for the one America building.

While you may see these commercial "for lease" signs downtown Indy, we're told the numbers are average: 17 percent vacancy rate for office space. Sweeney says it's another number that shows downtown Indy is on the right track.

Indianapolis Downtown Inc. says there will be 3,600 new or newly renovated rental units to pop up in downtown Indianapolis over the next five years. Of course, more units also means more construction.