By Brendan O'Shaughnessy
The Indy Star

The Near-Northside site of the former Herron School of Art will retain its historic role as an arts and cultural center under a redevelopment plan the city will announce today.

City planners chose a team led by Mansur Real Estate, LLC to turn the historic art school campus into a contemporary art museum, a new charter high school with an arts focus, artist lofts and single family housing.

The Metropolitan Development Commission still must approve the plan to redevelop the vacant 3.5-acre site. In 2003, the city received the Herron site in exchange for land it gave Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. The school's 800 students moved to a new facility on the main campus in June.

"Now we will have an active site with people living, going to school and patronizing the arts rather than an empty building," said Deputy Mayor Melina Kennedy. "We wanted a positive impact for the neighborhood that kept intact the history of the site."

The Mansur plan calls for the former Herron Museum building in the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Street to be rehabilitated and leased to the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art. A proposed charter school called Herron High School will use the main building north of the museum and the museum's basement.

The plan also calls for six artist lofts on the north side of the campus, six new townhomes along the 1700 block of Pennsylvania Street, and two single-family homes on Talbott Street.

Kennedy said the reuse committee that studied the two proposals preferred Mansur's because it called for a lower density of housing units that was more consistent with the neighborhood.

The biggest winner may be the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, which will go from its current 1,100-square-foot facility at 340 N. Senate Ave. to a space that is about 25,000 square feet.

"It's a great opportunity for us," said Jeremy Efroymson, the museum's executive director. "We'll be able to greatly expand our size and programming and can have a much larger impact.