INDIANAPOLIS — In an attempt to reduce by half the number of potential downtown locations for an imagined soccer stadium and protect the sanctity of four historic cemeteries literally long buried under an industrial site, the City of Indianapolis has offered to buy the Diamond Chain property from Keystone Group and Indy Eleven Owner Ersal Ozdemir.
In a letter obtained by FOX59/CBS4, the City seeks to, “right the wrongs committed more than a century ago,” by purchasing the nearly 20-acre site on Kentucky Avenue on the southwest side of downtown from the soccer team owner who envisioned a $1.5 billion public/private partnership soccer stadium/mixed-use development on the land.
That plan has hit snags with the discovery of an untold number of burial sites on the property dating back to the 1800s.
The City purchased a one-acre strip of land from Keystone Group connecting the east bank of the White River with Kentucky Avenue along the path of a planned Henry Street bridge off-ramp at a cost of $2 million.
The letter to Keystone estimates the City’s budget to recover approximately 650 sets of remains on its one-acre strip at $12 million.
The total number of remains buried on the rest of the property and the costs to recover them, not to mention the outcry from families and historic preservation activists, have motivated the City proposal to, “purchase the remaining portion of the site from Keystone at fair market value.”
Of course, such a purchase would also effectively end Keystone’s quest to develop the Diamond Chain site for a soccer stadium and surrounding development while also leaving Mayor Joe Hogsett’s recently announced proposal for the Indianapolis Heliport property on the southeast side of downtown quite literally “the only game in town.”
Last month Hogsett announced he had recently met with the leadership of Major League Soccer to gauge their interest in bringing the highest level of the U.S. version of the “World’s Game” to Indianapolis.
Hogsett said a publicly owned stadium and committed local ownership would be keys to the bid.
An undefined ownership group is reportedly being recruited which could pay the MLS expansion fee anticipated to exceed $500 million.
Hogsett’s site would be a stone’s throw from Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the home of the Indiana Pacers as well as the soon-to-be-demolished former Marion County Sheriff's Office and Jail which would open up a significant site for a potential hotel or other development near the City-County Building, City Market and former City Hall, all of which are historic downtown Indianapolis buildings in the midst of their own redevelopment.
A City-County Council committee will consider establishing a Professional Sports Development Area taxing district for the mayor’s site on May 28 with referral to the full Council in early June for consideration before being forwarded to the Indiana House Budget Committee by the end of the month.
During Tuesday night’s Game One of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Pacers and the Boston Celtics, Indianapolis basketball fans saw a television commercial asking viewers to sign virtual petitions urging the mayor to back the Diamond Chain site as the only “shovel-ready” location for a proposed stadium and development.
For Keystone Group's full statement, click here.
Jennifer Pavlik, Chief of Staff and Senior VP of Keystone Group, released the following statement Wednesday afternoon:
"For weeks, Keystone and Indy Eleven have requested to sit down with Mayor Hogsett’s negotiation team, and the response has always been the same: rather than discuss facts and negotiate in good faith, city officials would rather spread misinformation through press releases and play games with your tax dollars.
For more than fifty years, Indianapolis has achieved great success because it benefited from leadership that saw value in bringing the business and civic community together around bold ideas and big projects. Unfortunately, this current administration’s embrace of divisive politics and bare-knuckle intimidation with the City-County Council that have no place in our city.
We intend to correct the record as it relates to our ongoing efforts to work with the community to offer peaceful reinternment for those buried in a site that for over a century has been disregarded and disrespected. Rather than respond to Mr. Parker’s last-ditch effort to salvage the bungled rollout of a half-baked idea, it is our hope Mayor Hogsett will once again retake the reins of his own administration and join us in a thoughtful, adult discussion on the future of soccer and downtown development in our state’s capital city."