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Keystone Group on Wednesday hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for Eleven Park, a $1 billion development that’s set to include a 20,000-seat stadium, office space, apartments, retail, parking and public spaces on the southwest side of downtown Indianapolis.
The project is set to occupy the 20-acre Diamond Chain manufacturing site along Kentucky Avenue, just blocks from Lucas Oil Stadium, with some portions—including the stadium—expected to be completed in mid-2025. Demolition on the Diamond Chain facilities has not yet started.
The ceremonial groundbreaking marks a milestone for Keystone and Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir, who has sought to build the team its own stadium since 2015. At that time, a project was proposed for the General Motors stamping plant site across the White River, where Elanco Animal Health is now building its headquarters.
Wednesday’s ceremony was attended by state and local officials including Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, City-County Council members Vop Osili and Kristin Jones, Attorney General Todd Rokita, Secretary of State Diego Morales and several state legislators.
The project now is set to include more than 600 apartments, 205,000 square feet of office space, 197,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants, a hotel, public plazas and green space and thousands of parking spaces. It will also feature a 4,000-seat event venue.
“Now rising from a formerly underutilized portion of our downtown, Eleven Park is a transformational riverfront development that will make a permanent mark on our city’s skyline and its impact will be felt by generations of supporters, visitors and residents who will soon be able to enjoy its world class amenities,” Ozdemir said in prepared remarks.
“With this groundbreaking, we are thrilled to mark a crucial milestone in the project, creating a new live, work, and play neighborhood for our city and region that has been a decade in the making.”
The project in 2019 received a boost from the Indiana State Legislature, which approved the creation of a new professional sports development area that allows for taxes to be captured to help pay for the stadium, as long as Ozdemir foots at least 20% of the bill for the structure.
The project’s lead designer is Populous, while Browning Day is the architect of record. AECOM Hunt will be the construction manager for the stadium portion of the development.
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Who will be working in this office space? Why not 2000 condos and apartments along with a grocery to grow downtown?
I agree. New office construction is probably a mistake.
While skyscraper offices may not be in vogue right now, office space is still in demand. That is why Bottleworks, for instance, is now increasing new office capacity in its second phase of construction. Additionally, more large companies are requiring employers to return to the office at least two or three days a week if not full-time. Ersal Ozdemir is no dummy. He obviously has seen data that indicates new office space at this development will be a draw and a money-maker.
Yeah, Brent is right.
The problem with the central core of Downtown is that there was too much office space in one small place and not enough of anything else. Before anybody knew what COVID was, much of the area immediately surrounding Monument Circle – with the exception of tourists taking a peak at Soldiers and Sailors Monument – died after 5PM on weekdays and stayed dead on weekends. When COVID caused a shift in the office market, the land use flaws of this part of Downtown became obvious. But the market is adjusting.
There are several projects underway to convert office buildings near Monument Circle into hotels and apartments. This will likely continue until the area around Monument Circle is a mixed-use district. At the same time, parts of Downtown that have bars, hotels, and apartments are adding office space and becoming even stronger mixed-use districts. Hendricks doubled down on office space in Bottleworks Phase II to take advantage of companies wanting to stay Downtown, but with less space and in a more lively area. This is the exact same thing that Keystone/The Eleven are trying to replicate and they will probably be successful.
If these trends continue for another few years – that is if office space keeps popping up on the outskirts of Downtown and hotels, apartments, and bars keep popping up around monument circle – we will have a very strong Downtown that is extremely resilient to big market shocks.
(And in many ways, Downtown was pretty resilient to the market shock that was COVID. More apartments and hotel rooms came online during COVID, but Downtown hotel and apartment occupancy rates back to 2019 levels. It’s the office space that is clearly still struggling, but developers are adjusting to new office realities as I pointed out above.)
This will spur plenty of other development!!!!
Amen. 100%. Agreed.
2025 Headline: Why hasn’t Keystone done anything with Eleven Park
Always so positive, Eric.
Any word on how they are going to properly handle the remains of Black soldiers from the civil war era buried on those grounds? They relocated the white people decades ago.
https://www.ibj.com/articles/henry-street-bridge-plan-could-pave-over-historic-black-graveyard-historians-say
https://www.ibj.com/articles/community-joins-call-for-deeper-look-into-historic-black-cemetery-at-bridge-site
They will handle it correctly.
Perhaps building an office tower in the middle of downtown is, in itself, not the greatest idea. But when you can live, work and play all within a 500 feet radius, it’s a totally different ballgame (no pun intended). Go Ersal!! Go Indy Eleven!! Go Indianapolis!!
There is a certain amount of humor when mentioning “Attorney General Todd Rokita, Secretary of State Diego Morales” in the same breath, as they took time out of their respective busy schedules.
They are trying to get some shine because they know it’s gonna be nice and they wanna act like they were apart of Big Things!!! Straight Busters!!!!
I hope that there is a very extensive dig / survey of the property before any constructions starts to find and relocate any unburied graves and gravestones from the former Greenlawn Cemetery that was on this property. As several graves and gravestones have been found on that property over the years respect is owed to the dead and their families.
This is an impressive project for the city and would definitely make Indy more attractive in several ways. Im certain the area will attract people who aren’t even soccer fans. I just hope it’s built exactly as the renderings.