Jefferson Shreve, the founder of Storage Express, is tearing down an old hotel in Indianapolis and building a mixed-use development that will include the company’s headquarters, a self-storage facility, and possibly a hotel or restaurant. Shreve purchased the 9-acre plot near Interstate 465 and U.S. Route 31 in November for $1 million at a lender-ordered online auction, according to the source. Two other Illinois properties were included in the purchase price.

The hotel was developed in 1966 by Jim Dora Sr. as a Holiday Inn. It later became a Ramada Inn and then operated as an independent Cavalier’s Resort in 2011. The hotel was closed in 2013 by order of the Marion County Health Department after small fires were set within the property by squatters. Other vandalism included the theft of scrap copper.

The property had been on the foreclosure list for a while after the Texas lender that held the mortgage also collapsed. It later came under the control of an Illinois bank that acquired Texas lender’s assets, the source reported.

The mixed-use development will include storage units and an 8,000-square-foot office building on the north end of the property. The company’s current 3,000-square-foot office is on U.S. 31 about a half-mile north of the hotel. Demolition of the hotel began in January and is expected to be complete in April. Construction on the office building won’t begin until additional developments have been secured, Shreve told the source.

“You’ve had this overgrown, boarded-up hotel there for the past four years. I think it would be a pretty ripe piece of property for something bright and new,” said Shreve, who represents District 23 on the City-County Council of Indianapolis-Marion County, in which the blighted property is located.

Shreve consulted with Steve Delaney of Sitehawk Retail Real Estate to help determine possible uses for the site. “There is enough land for him to do his operations and still sell off the balance to another user such as Cracker Barrel or a restaurant that likes interstate exposure,” Delaney told the source in an e-mail.

Founded in 1992, Storage Express owns and operates 87 self-storage properties in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.

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