LS Ayres opened the first discount department store, Ayr Way, on East Washington Street, shown here in 1966. [Historic Images Gallery]

The East Washington Street Partnership is a collaborative effort to foster sustainable economic development and revitalization along one of Indianapolis's most important commercial and industrial corridors.

Currently staffed by Englewood Community Development Corporation, in partnership with Near East Area Renewal, and Southeast Neighborhood Development

Efforts of the Partnership seek to partner economic revitalization with neighborhood revitalization in a manner that encourages residential and employment growth, improves property values and the local tax base, improves ecological quality, and promotes the transformation of a long-neglected corridor into a vibrant, mixed-use urban address.