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Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has no plans to jump into a dispute between the Hogsett administration and Indianapolis-based Keystone Group about the future of a 20-acre parcel that for more than two years has been eyed for the development of a new downtown soccer stadium.
Holcomb told IBJ on Friday that while he is hopeful Indianapolis will secure a Major League Soccer club—an effort Mayor Joe Hogsett formalized during a public address on April 25—the city will have to do so without having him play facilitator.
In particular, Holcomb said he is hoping to avoid wading into the disagreements between Hogsett and Keystone founder Ersal Ozdemir’ over the future of the Diamond Chain Manufacturing Co. site on the eastern bank of the White River.
“It’s a little misguided to think that myself or the state” should play a role in the talks over the future of the Diamond Chain site, Holcomb said. Neither Hogsett nor Ozdemir have publicly lobbied to bring Holcomb into the discussions.
In 2019, the Indiana Legislature passed a bill that Holcomb signed into law that authorized financing for a professional soccer stadium. The law, which was tweaked in 2021, allows the City-County Council to create a development zone to capture state and local tax revenue that can be used to pay off the bonds for stadium construction. Ozdemir lobbied for that legislation to fund a stadium for the Indy Eleven soccer organization he founded and which plays in a league below the MLS. Ozdemir promised lawmakers he would create a mixed-use district around a stadium to help generate revenue to pay for it.
Through a subsidiary, Ozdemir’s Keystone Corp. bought the Diamond Chain site, tore down the manufacturing operations there and cleared the property to begin building the stadium, hotel, apartments and commercial spaces that were part of his Eleven Park plan. Last year, Holcomb and Hogsett attended a groundbreaking event for the project. But earlier this year, the city ended negotiations with Keystone over the incentives and other terms for the project. Weeks later, Hogsett announced that the city would pursue an MLS franchise with a different group of investors.
Then on Wednesday, the city offered to buy the 20-acre property at fair market value—the average of two independent appraisals. But Keystone quickly rejected the overture—which came in a letter from Chief Deputy Mayor Dan Parker—and called it a political scheme.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the Hogsett administration told IBJ the mayor now wants to leave the Diamond Chain site undeveloped. Instead, he is proposing a park there to commemorate people who were buried on the property a century or more ago when the land was used for cemeteries. Keystone said this week it has discovered 87 burials at the site and is working to reinter the remains at Mount Jackson Cemetery, which is operated by the Wayne Township Trustee’s Office.
Meanwhile, the Hogsett administration is urging the City-County Council approve a second development zone for a stadium site on the east side of downtown, at or near the Downtown Indianapolis Heliport.
Holcomb said is staying out of all of the controversy.
The governor said while he would “love to see Major League Soccer in our central Indiana region,” it wouldn’t help for him to step into a spat between the state’s largest city and one of its most prominent private developers.
Ozdemir has said he’s invested at least $26 million to prepare the Diamond Chain site for his ambitious $1.5 billion Eleven Park project, which he said could have been used to woo an MLS franchise.
But the city has said the only way the league will consider Indianapolis is if the project occurs on another site—specifically the parcel the city is assembling near 355 E. Pearl St., by the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport.
Multiple sources familiar with the situation told IBJ there is “no path forward” for Diamond Chain as the site of a soccer stadium, and that Major League Soccer would sooner bypass Indianapolis before such a site was used.
Efforts to secure a new taxing district for the heliport site are moving their way through the local legislative process, with a vote set to go before a City-County Council committee on Tuesday.
Holcomb said that should the City-County Council approve the new development district, the State Budget Committee will play a role in approving that map and the state in capturing and distributing the tax revenue.
“We’ll be prepared for [the zone details] when and if it appears on the agenda, as a state,” he said during an interview at the Indiana Global Economic Summit on Friday. “Because I’m not in that negotiation, … I don’t have right now [the ability] to set up the deal to then take to” the State Budget Committee.
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Smart move.
Nice try. The PSDA requires state approval so the Gov has to be involved if the City seeks a new or changed area.
Are you sure it needs “the governor’s” approval or simple the State. As an architect, all of my commercial projects have to have “State Approval” but the governor is not involved.
Neil, the PSDA required State legislation, which means the legislature and gov signature. I assume changes (or new area) will require same. Someone can confirm.
This really highlights an important issue – people don’t understand the PSDA and that it diverts significant city and state tax dollars from the 11 development (and Keystone Market St hotel) back to Keystone to pay for the stadium.
A memorial park is a wonderful idea.
No it isn’t.
Well it’s becoming obviously clear that Keystone didn’t do their homework and thought the city wouldn’t do their homework on their end. I really wanted to see Eleven Park developed but if the MLS league has already said they won’t approve Indy for an expansion on the Diamond Chain site, then that’s the end of that. Ozdemir over played his hand in this one and at the very least picked the wrong site on the banks of the white river. Having a water front stadium would of been nice but I guess the city had to do what’s in its best interest and whatever helps the city secure a spot for MLS expansion, The writing is on the wall as more details come out. I now see why the mayor is so confident after leaving the meeting in NYC
At least keystone and Hogsett are in an equal playing field. Equally Incompetent
Smart man. This is a bit like a whizzing contest with a skunk.
Aaron Freeman could learn from Governor Holcomb.
Has there been any public comment from MLS about either site?
The article mentioned that the only site that will work is the site on the east side of downtown but I did not see anyone from MLS quoted.