If you've been driving past the corner of I-69 and 116th Street for the past year, you've watched steel go up, seen the crane come down, and read at least three separate press releases naming the same restaurants. Thompson Thrift broke ground on The Union at Fishers District in May 2025. Since then, the developer has announced Piedra Mexican Steakhouse, Kitchen Social, Niku Sushi.Kitchen.Bar, Everbowl, Racha Thai, The Oakmont, Flower Child, Dot Sugar, and a still-unnamed fine dining concept from Cunningham Restaurant Group, the Indianapolis group behind Rize and BRU Burger Bar. As of the most recent reporting in late July 2026, not one of them has a confirmed opening date, and the development's own developer map has already added two more names, Jeni's Ice Cream and Tous les Jours, that nobody at either company has confirmed.
That gap between announcement and open sign is the part worth understanding if you live anywhere near this corner. The lease signing is not the milestone that matters. It's just the first of several, and the ones that follow are the ones nobody puts out a press release for.
What's actually been confirmed, and when
The paper trail on The Union goes back further than most residents realize. Piedra signed the first lease at the site in June 2024, more than a year before construction even started. Kitchen Social and Niku Sushi followed in September 2024. The AC Hotel by Marriott, Indiana's first, was announced in February 2025. Everbowl, Racha Thai, The Oakmont, Renova Aesthetics, and Sweathouz were all named as confirmed tenants at the May 2025 groundbreaking ceremony, alongside Mayor Scott Fadness. Cunningham Restaurant Group and Flower Child signed on in January 2026, with Dot Sugar joining the same announcement.
Here's how that timeline lines up against what's actually open, based on the most recent reporting available:
| Tenant | Type | Announced | Confirmed open as of July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piedra Mexican Steakhouse | Upscale Mexican | June 2024 | No |
| Kitchen Social | Casual international | Sept 2024 | No |
| Niku Sushi.Kitchen.Bar | Upscale Japanese | Sept 2024 | No |
| Everbowl | Fast-casual acai | May 2025 | No |
| Racha Thai | Upscale Thai | May 2025 | No |
| The Oakmont | Modern American | May 2025 | No |
| Flower Child | Fast-casual bowls | Jan 2026 | No |
| Dot Sugar | International desserts | Jan 2026 | No |
| Cunningham Restaurant Group concept | Fine dining + bar | Jan 2026 | No, concept still being finalized |
| Jeni's Ice Cream | Ice cream | Unconfirmed, shown on leasing map July 2026 | No |
| Tous les Jours | Bakery | Unconfirmed, shown on leasing map July 2026 | No |
Nine restaurants with an official lease announcement. Zero with a confirmed open date. That's not a criticism of the project. It's how mixed-use retail construction actually works: leases get signed a year or more before buildout, and buildout follows the shell of the building, which follows the vertical construction, which follows the parking structure. Thompson Thrift's own commercial portion was targeted for completion in late 2026, meaning even the earliest-signed tenants have been waiting on a building that wasn't ready to receive them.
The hotel that moved its own opening date
The clearest evidence that announcement timing and reality timing are two different things is the AC Hotel by Marriott itself, the development's anchor.
Thompson Thrift announced the hotel in February 2025, and through the spring and summer that followed, the company's public target for the commercial portion of The Union, hotel included, stayed at late 2026. Then, at the October 29, 2025 groundbreaking ceremony, with Mayor Fadness, Fishers Economic Development Director Megan Baumgartner, and Hamilton County Tourism President Karin Radcliff all in attendance, coverage of the same event put the hotel's opening in early 2027 instead.
Vincent Dora, president of Dora Hospitality, the local firm that will own and operate the property, called it a milestone for the state:
"My partners and I are proud to be here today to break ground on the first AC by Marriott in the state of Indiana."
That's a genuine milestone. It's also a project whose own groundbreaking announcement quietly pushed its opening back by several months, in the same news cycle where the shovels went in the ground. If the anchor hotel's timeline can move at its own celebration, a sandwich shop's timeline can move too, and nobody is going to issue a press release when it does.
The corner that never slips
A mile and a half east, the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater and the surrounding Nickel Plate Trail have spent the same eighteen months doing something The Union hasn't: hitting their dates.
The Fishers Blues Fest returns for its 14th year on September 5 and 6 at the amphitheater, free admission, no tickets required, food and drink vendors on site. The 2026 Summer Concert Series closes out on September 12 with Niko Moon, the same night the Geist Half race series runs its 1-mile, 5K, 10K, and half-marathon routes. The Fishers Arts Council's Juried Exhibit of Hamilton County Artists opens with a Second Friday reception on September 11 at the Art Gallery inside City Hall. And on September 13, the Nickel Plate Cultural District hosts its 7th annual Harvest Fest, stretched along the Nickel Plate Trail between the Hamilton East Public Library and Cafe Patachou.
There's a smaller one worth knowing about too: Fishers Parks is hosting Park After Dark on September 4, an evening 21-and-over hangout at Geist Waterfront Park from 8 to 11 p.m., with MashCraft Brewing pouring and a fire pit going. Bring your own seating. No registration required.
None of these are new ideas. That's the point. They're recurring, they're programmed by the city and its parks department rather than leased to a national chain waiting on a building permit, and they run on the calendar they said they would. If you want a reliable Fishers weekend in the first two weeks of September, this corridor is the one to plan around, not the one still waiting on its first open sign.
What to actually watch for
If you live near The Union and want to know when a restaurant is actually about to open, the press release is the least useful signal available to you. Better ones: a change in the parking lot's fencing, hiring signage in a storefront window, a health inspection posted publicly by Hamilton County, or simply lights on after dark in a space that's been dark for a year. The Union Flats, the 251-unit apartment community built above the retail space, is still targeting late 2026 for its first residents, which means the retail beneath it likely won't be fully staffed and open before people are living upstairs.
None of this means The Union won't be worth the wait. Nine restaurants and a boutique hotel is a real addition to what residents on the west side of Fishers have to choose from on a Tuesday night. It just means the corner's own timeline has already proven it can move, publicly, at its own groundbreaking. Treat every remaining "opening soon" the same way: as a target, not a date on your calendar.
If you're thinking about what a corner like this means for a home nearby, or you're weighing a move to be closer to it, The Spillman Group knows this stretch of Fishers block by block. Schedule a free consultation and we'll walk you through what's actually changing here, not just what's been announced.
