What does a city do when its farm gets too popular for one property? Fishers is answering that this fall in two places at once. At the AgriPark on Florida Road, a store announced nearly two years ago is finally due to open. Near Allisonville Road and 106th Street, the city has signed a 20-year lease on airport land for a second farm. Read together, the two projects split the AgriPark's work. The original site is filling up with indoor, year-round uses, and the new one is planned around fields and trails.
Florida Road Is Becoming a Building as Much as a Farm
The AgriPark opened in 2020 as a 33-acre urban farm owned and run by Fishers Parks, with farm animals and fields of free you-pick produce and flowers. By late 2024 it had outgrown what a barn and open fields could support. That November the city announced an $800,000 multi-purpose building just west of the existing barn, with indoor restrooms, classroom and programming space, and a country store.
The 2024 announcement put numbers on that pressure. Over 35,000 visitors came that season, 30% of them for the first time, and guests helped harvest more than 150,000 pounds of produce, including nearly 4 acres of sweet corn. In May 2026, Current described the farm as drawing about 30,000 visitors a year. Either way, attendance is in the tens of thousands for a park whose regular weekend hours run only four hours a day.
Building construction was set to finish by May 2025, with the store held back until "later in 2026." The plan calls for a store and coffee shop carrying specialty and seasonal food products from local vendors. At the city's 2027 budget presentations in early September, Fishers Parks said the Country Store was slated to open in October 2026, and the city was interviewing a manager that same day. As of October 4 there is no announced opening day, published store hours or named manager. October is the target, not a promise.
The budget presentation also described what the building is for. The store and the space around it will support retail sales, workshops, school programs and community events. School programs already have a partner in Hamilton Southeastern Schools, which runs agricultural science and sustainability programming at the AgriPark. A coffee bar and indoor classrooms give Florida Road reasons to visit that don't depend on what's ripe in the field.
October Is Mostly Programmed, Not Open
On a calendar, this month at the AgriPark looks busy. For anyone planning a casual afternoon visit, it looks a lot more closed. The farm's posted regular schedule is:
- Wednesday to Friday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Saturday and Sunday: noon to 4 p.m.
- Monday and Tuesday: closed
The AgriPark is described as open year-round, with hours that change by season. In October, though, ticketed events take over most of the public days. The Fall Festival on October 3 and 4 just wrapped. It had a corn maze, animal encounters, games, crafts, music, food trucks and campfires, with $5 resident admission. Next come the overnight Campouts, four sessions over two weekends:
- Friday, October 9: 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday
- Saturday, October 10: 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday
- Friday, October 16: 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday
- Saturday, October 17: 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday
Each group gets a 25-by-25-foot campsite with a fire pit, a movie, activities and breakfast. Resident registration is $75 for a group of up to six.
The park's notice lists public closures of September 30 to October 4, October 9 to 11, and October 16 to 18. Regular hours return only on October 7 and 8, between the festival and the first campout weekend. From the start of the festival through October 18, that leaves two weekdays of ordinary public access. The farm's most popular formats take up the whole property when they run. That's part of why a second site makes sense.
You-pick runs on its own rules all year. It's free, it happens only when produce is available, it's first-come, first-served, and the AgriPark posts each day's offerings on its social media stories. Fishers Parks' public calendar shows no AgriPark workshops in November, so the Country Store's opening may be the next public event at Florida Road once the campouts end.
AgriPark West Is Being Planned Around the Fields
The second farm sits on 36 acres off Allisonville Road, near 106th Street, owned by the Indianapolis Airport Authority. The Board of Works unanimously approved the lease at its April 28 meeting, after the city had spent more than 18 months negotiating with the Airport Authority. The lease runs 20 years with an option for 10 more. It will cost the city about $1.5 million over the 20 years, at $6,534 a month. The site was first announced in spring 2025 with a tentative spring 2026 opening, which slipped when negotiations ran long.
Jack Reardon-McSoley, the city's director of recreation and wellness, told the board the west site's topography means it will look different from Florida Road. He described the plan this way:
"What you can kind of expect is trails to explore the whole property. We will be working with engineering to have a different access road or entrance into a parking lot, a gravel parking lot. And then we do want to develop a good chunk of the land for produce for you-pick. And then eventually livestock, we might have some sort of metal pole barn structure."
There's no store, no classroom building and no festival grounds in that description. It starts with trails, a gravel lot and a large share of land for you-pick, with livestock as a later step. At Florida Road, by contrast, the newest money went into indoor space. The two sites are heading in different directions on purpose.
The September budget presentation updated the timeline. AgriPark West is projected to open in spring 2027, and clearing, fencing and other visible site work should begin soon. No public report has confirmed that work has started. Neighbors near the property had raised concerns, and Fishers Parks Director Marissa Deckert said the active parts of the park are planned mainly on the road side of a creek that crosses the property. The current plan puts no animals or other intensive activity near the homes beyond the creek, though native plantings or passive trails could eventually go there.
The other open question is getting to the site on foot. Engineering and Parks are discussing a safer pedestrian crossing of 106th Street, with no final design or construction schedule announced. For households west of the site, that crossing will decide whether AgriPark West is a walk or a short drive.
What Changes for Each Side of Fishers
For people near Geist and Florida Road, the next few months should bring a farm that's easier to use in winter. The building already has indoor restrooms and programming space, and a store and coffee bar are due once a manager is hired. In May 2026, Current described it as a year-round country store with a coffee bar and locally produced items, which fits a park that stays open through the off-season.
For people on the west side, AgriPark West puts you-pick fields and walking trails off Allisonville Road. Today the city's only farm is the Florida Road site on the east side. Its first season is projected for spring 2027, which matches the spring planting calendar the original farm has run on since 2020.
Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness described the 2024 expansion as part of the AgriPark's role in connecting residents "to the land, the food they eat, and the importance of sustainable agriculture." If the projected dates hold, Fishers goes into 2027 with two farms. One will have an indoor building and a store, and the other will be mostly open fields.
Watching AgriPark West go from an approved lease to cleared ground near 106th Street is part of how Kelly Todd Group keeps up with Fishers, block by block. If you live near Florida Road or Allisonville Road and want to know what these park projects could mean for your own street, start with an instant home valuation and a conversation with our team.
