PROJECT

Downtown Muncie

Partners from across the city are focusing on downtown and surrounding neighborhoods to draw students and community members to the heart of the city.

The board of directors of Muncie Downtown Development Partnership doubles as committee members for the Downtown Muncie Project Management Team (PMT). This PMT strives to connect our community and cultivate a vibrant downtown.

The Downtown PMT is instrumental in hosting numerous large events each year, such as ArtsWalk and Fire Up DWNTWN, that draw residents from all across the city, county, and region into the central city. The PMT is also charged with creating a downtown culture and atmosphere that positively effects economic development efforts through programming, beautification, and advocacy.

Several members of the PMT, over the years, have also been instrumental in encouraging growth of downtown by locating their businesses or campus in the central city. For example, Ivy Tech Community College greatly expanded their downtown footprint in 2019 with the construction of the George & Frances Ball Building and the renovation of the Fisher Building. Also in 2019, Accutech Systems Corp. relocated their 100-plus employee company into a cornerstone downtown building and cemented Muncie as a regional hub for the tech industry.

Downtown Muncie
Project Management Team

Muncie Downtown Development Partnership executive director, Next Muncie liaison

Representatives from Community Organizations:

tokar.law LLC
Open Door Health Services
First Merchants Bank
DeFur Voran
Ivy Tech Community College
Accutech Systems Corp.
Carrie Wright Silk Gifts & Gallery
The Community Foundation of Muncie & Delaware County
Ball State University
George & Frances Ball Foundation

COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP

Project Initiatives

Erskine Green Training Institute

EGTI is the first-of-its-kind postsecondary vocational training program in the nation. Housed at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in downtown Muncie, the program trains individuals with disabilities for careers in hospitality, foodservice, healthcare, and inventory distribution.

Muncie Three Trails Music Series

Multiple community partners collaborate to bring national award-winning music artists to downtown’s Canan Commons each year in this highly anticipated free music series.

Living in the Central City

Many partners are engaged in the development of the White River Canal District into a thriving multi-use district at the north end of downtown along the river, among other unique housing projects Downtown. Just west of Downtown, ecoREHAB and Muncie Land Bank have been working with the City and engaged neighbors to revitalize the historic Old West End neighborhood, rehabbing vacant homes and providing for neighbor’s needs.

Ivy Tech Community College

A $30M campus investment to bring new students downtown, grow medical/educational training and pathways, and make new housing, office, and commercial more feasible.

Renovations to Fisher Building including community ballroom, hospital and physical therapy clinic simulation lab, labs for the schools of nursing and health sciences, and more.
New IU Health School of Health Sciences and the Ball Brothers School of Nursing
New Ivy Tech building, now known as the George and Frances Ball Building, housing Chesterfields, a public café, culinary school, chocolate laboratory and administrative offices.

Beautification

Over the years, MDDP has been instrumental in the beautification of downtown through coordinated efforts that supported historic facade restorations, streetscape updates, public art installation, and the creation of public plazas.