Ask anyone who drives past 116th Street and I-69 most days what's opening next at The Union, and the answer depends on which press release they saw last. Piedra. Kitchen Social. Niku Sushi.Kitchen.Bar. Everbowl. Racha Thai. The Oakmont. Flower Child. Dot Sugar. A still-unnamed fine dining concept from the Indianapolis group behind Rize and BRU Burger Bar. Nine restaurants have signed leases at that corner, and none of the announcements has ever included anything more specific than a season or a half of a year for when the doors actually open.
That gap between a signed lease and an actual dinner reservation is normal in commercial construction, and it matters if you live anywhere near that corner, because it changes how you should plan the next two months. The restaurants are coming. They are not open yet, and the more reliable plan for October and November in Fishers is the city's own calendar, which already has real dates attached to every entry.
A Corner That's Been Filling Up on Paper Since 2024
Piedra, the upscale Mexican concept from Fishers-based Arechiga Restaurant Group, signed the first lease at The Union in June 2024, about a year before ground actually broke on the project. Kitchen Social and Niku Sushi.Kitchen.Bar followed that September, each with the same target attached to their leases: the first tenants expected to open in the latter half of 2026. Everbowl, Racha Thai, The Oakmont, Renova Aesthetics, and Sweathouz joined the tenant list as the project moved toward groundbreaking in mid-2025. Cunningham Restaurant Group, the Indianapolis hospitality group behind Rize and BRU Burger Bar, signed on in January 2026 for a two-story building with a 5,700-square-foot fine-dining room upstairs and a 2,400-square-foot bar below. Flower Child and Dot Sugar joined the same announcement.
"Each new lease underscores the strong demand we're seeing from best-in-class restaurant and retail brands."
That's Thompson Thrift's own vice president of development, Ryan Menard, describing the January signings. It's an accurate line, and it's also the same soft language every one of these announcements uses. "Expected to open." "Planned for." "Targeting." None of the nine has ever come with a date more specific than a half of a year. A restaurant signs a lease against a building that doesn't exist yet, waits for the shell, waits for its own buildout, hires and trains, and only then turns on the sign. The distance between the paperwork and the plate is built into how this kind of project works, not hidden inside it.
Late 2026 Was the Target. Late 2026 Is Now.
That target date is worth sitting with, because it isn't a rumor. It's the number Thompson Thrift and its restaurant partners put in writing, repeatedly, going back to 2024: the first tenants at The Union expected to open in the latter half of 2026. We are now most of the way through that window, and not one of the nine announced restaurants, the hotel included, has put out a specific opening date. That's not a broken promise. Leasing this far ahead of a building's completion is standard for a project of this size. It does mean that anyone treating "late 2026" as a date on a calendar, rather than a target that can still slide, is planning around a number that was never meant to be precise.
What Already Has a Date This Fall
While The Union's calendar stays soft, the city's own fall lineup runs on fixed dates that don't depend on how fast that corner finishes. The Fishers Farmers Market just wrapped its season at the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater, and Glow in the Park closed out the same weekend there. What's left on the calendar runs from here through Thanksgiving week:
- October 3 and 4: the Fishers AgriPark Fall Festival, an expanded scarecrow trail, campfires, and animal encounters on the 33-acre working urban farm.
- October 3 and 10: free Movies in the Plaza at the Fishers Event Center, Miracle and Hocus Pocus, both at 7 p.m.
- October 16: Indy Fuel opens its third season at the Fishers Event Center.
- October 31: Boo Bash, presented by GBC Bank, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the amphitheater, with official trick-or-treat hours from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and Fishers police patrolling neighborhoods.
- October 31 and November 1: the Fishers Arts Council's Día de Muertos observance at the Fishers Municipal Center, with a community altar, pan de muerto, and live music.
- November 7: free Recycling Day at Billericay Park.
- November 11: the city's Veterans Day ceremony at the Municipal Center theater.
- November 13: the Second Friday Gallery Hop through the Nickel Plate District, 5 to 9 p.m.
- November 20 through 25: the inaugural Big Ten Women's Volleyball Tournament at the Fishers Event Center, bringing the conference's top 15 teams to the arena that also hosts the Indy Ignite, with the championship match set for Thanksgiving Eve.
Every one of those has a street address and a start time attached to it today. None of it depends on a construction schedule finishing on time.
The New Restaurants That Did Open This Year
Fishers added real dining options in 2026. They just didn't land at The Union.
Vicious Biscuit opened its first Indiana location on January 19 at 106th Street and Lantern Road, a 3,000-square-foot franchise owned by local partners David Dessner, Steve Wise, Scott Liberman, and Neda Smith, operating as Biscuit Boys LLC. It's the chain's seventh state, and the ownership group has said Fishers will serve as their flagship as they build out ten more locations across Greater Indianapolis.
Jeff's Bagel Run is bringing its first Indiana franchise to Allisonville Road, just north of 116th Street, with a location under construction at 11745 Allisonville Rd. A company spokesperson has said the shop should be open soon.
Both openings prove the demand The Union is banking on is real. They also show that a lot of this year's actual new dining showed up in smaller storefronts on established roads rather than inside the biggest announced development.
The 106 Plaza Is Already Doing What The Union Promises
A short drive from that corner, The 106 Plaza has been open and running as a gathering space at the intersection of the Nickel Plate, Cheeney Creek, and The 106 trails. On the third Thursday of the month, residents show up between 6 and 9 p.m. for live music and a drink from Mashcraft Brewing or Niyyah Coffee. Free pilates classes run Fridays. It's a smaller, lower-key version of the walkable mixed-use gathering space that The Union's own marketing describes, and it's been running on its own schedule the whole time the bigger project has been under construction a few miles away.
If the plan depends on a specific date this fall, put it on the city's calendar rather than the developer's tenant map. The city's calendar already has the times attached. The Union still needs a few more months to catch up.
Heigl Real Estate Group keeps a running list of what's actually open at The Union as leases turn into open signs, along with the rest of what's changing on this side of Fishers. If you want to know what's real before it hits the local news, reach out.
