Turner Woodard has a passion for historic preservation and has breathed new life into Indianapolis-area historic buildings through his philanthropic efforts.
Turner Woodard, a real estate executive who has offices in Carmel, recently donated $100,000 to Indiana Landmarks, the organization devoted to saving historic buildings and landmarks across the state.
The donation, which honored former Indiana Landmarks President Marsh Davis and was presented in the name of the Woodard Van Riper family (Woodard’s mother, Edna, remarried and took the Van Riper surname), was just the latest in Woodard’s history of supporting historic preservation across the state, including buildings in Carmel.
Woodard is a champion of adaptive reuse of historic buildings. His interest in historic preservation came from his mother, who was a preservationist. He also had an early interest in vintage cars.
His love of cars has never faded. He has his own team in the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association, and his interest in vintage cars was easily translatable to historic buildings and helping to improve the neighborhoods they are in.
“Preservation works in many ways, but certainly to stimulate neighborhoods where you start fixing up one thing, fixing up another, and hopefully that catches on,” he said. “That’s a real driving force, and that’s kind of how it happened.”
Woodard’s best-known example of adaptive reuse is the preservation of the Stutz Motor Car Co. factory at 1060 N. Capitol Ave. in downtown Indianapolis. In 1993, he saved the 400,000-square-foot building from demolition and turned it into a hub for business incubators.
Woodard sold the Stutz Motor Car Co. factory in 2021 and had to reinvest the proceeds into something else for tax purposes. That’s where his connection with Carmel began.
Woodard bought the former Rich Furniture building at 1030 S. Range Line Road, the Keltner Business Plaza at 520 W. Carmel Dr. and the Horton Fan factory building at 201 W. Carmel Dr. He has applied adaptive reuse to his Carmel properties and moved his headquarters to Carmel, too.
“I just thought that I would try and apply lessons learned downtown to these properties. And (then-Carmel) Mayor (Jim) Brainard and some of the locals weren’t quite sure about it,” Woodard said. “I think what I had done in the past sort of allowed them to say, ‘Hey, let’s see what’s going to happen.’”
The former Horton Fan factory is now home to The Dink House – a recreational facility – as well as other businesses in building next to the Monon Greenway.
“It’s vibrant as can be,” Woodard said.
The former Rich Furniture building – now called the Turner Jeffrey Building – is also home to several businesses as well as some of Woodard’s prized vintage car collection. Keltner Business Plaza continues to serve multiple businesses.
Real estate executive continues commitment to historic preservation