INDIANAPOLIS — RecycleForce, an electronics recycling facility that employs formerly incarcerated individuals and provides job training, recently announced it will soon begin building a new plant on the east side at Sherman Park. The property formerly housed the RCA plant until being acquired by the city and torn down in 2017.
The new building will include office space, a loading dock, and space to disassemble and process materials. Meticulous Design + Architecture designed the building. Groundbreaking is expected sometime this summer and completion in 2022.
The RCA plant on the corner of Michigan St. and Sherman Dr. was once a manufacturing facility that employed up to 8,000 people in its heyday. Parts of it were first built in 1920, and it grew to a sprawling complex that pressed records (including Elvis Presley’s), manufactured sound equipment, and radio equipment. RCA closed the plant in 2000, and a few businesses moved into the aging building, including RecycleForce. An investment company purchased the 50 acre parcel, but after discovering contamination, let it sit vacant. In 2012, the city acquired it for past taxes and in 2017 demolished the existing structures in hopes of giving new developers a clean slate from which to work.
