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Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration is serious about the possibility of turning the proposed Indy Eleven soccer stadium property into a park or a memorial site to honor its history as an early cemetery grounds rather than let it be developed, the mayor’s spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
The nearly 20-acre downtown site on the east bank of the White River is being developed by Keystone Group as an entertainment district anchored by a 20,000-seat soccer stadium for the Indy Eleven, but that stadium is now on hold as the Hogsett administration focuses on trying to land a Major League Soccer team with a different set of owners at a different downtown site.
The property was home to a baseball park from 1914 to 1917 and the Diamond Chain Co. manufacturing complex from 1917 to 2023, but before that, it was the site of portions of at least four former cemeteries for much of the 1800s.
The company revealed late Wednesday that archaeologists have discovered 87 remains in the excavation of a six-acre portion of the site in what it is considering the first phase of construction of project.
Earlier Wednesday, Chief Deputy Mayor Dan Parker said in a letter that a one-acre site on the property that the city is using for the construction of the Henry Street Bridge may contain up to 650 remains.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett told reporters Thursday that he would like to see the “sacred ground” become a park or a memorial. On Friday, city spokeswoman Aliya Wishner confirmed to IBJ that the city would like to buy the property from Keystone and explore the possibility of leaving the land relatively undeveloped.
“Yes, the City is serious about the potential to create a memorial park amenity on the former Diamond Chain site,” Wishner said in an email. “When considering the potential future profit of a development located on this hallowed ground, any assumptions or analysis would be incomplete without taking into account the significant anticipated costs necessary to appropriately and respectfully remove the individuals who were left behind more than a century ago and reinter them on a dignified site.”
Keystone, however, says it still intends to proceed with development of Eleven Park after moving remains to another cemetery.
In a statement, Keystone Group Senior Director of Communications Alexandra A. Miller reiterated that the company has committed to placing memorials at the Eleven Park development and at Mount Jackson Cemetery, the planned reinterment site for the remains it finds.
“We are eager to begin the process of gathering input from members of the community who share in our vision of lifting stories of the past with dignity on a respectful timeline and are focused on the history,” the statement said.
Hogsett had previously appeared supportive of the Eleven Park development, even attending the ceremonial groundbreaking last year. But in recent days, his administration has revealed that the archaeological work and the volume of remains at the former cemetery site might be more than many expected.
In response to a request for comment on the mayor’s decision to advocate for forgoing development of Keystone’s portion of the site, Wishner pointed to a line in Dan Parker’s May 22 letter to Keystone, in which the city expressed interest in purchasing the land.
“While it was known at the time of the Eleven Park proposal that the Diamond Chain site was once the location of several cemeteries, after more than a year of historical research conducted in partnership with the community, including the establishment of the Community Advisory Group dedicated to advising the City and Keystone about Greenlawn Cemetery, we now have a greater understanding of the site,” Parker wrote in an email.
The letter does not include a specific price for the 20-acre site, into which Keystone has told IBJ it has invested more than $26 million over the past two years. The city said it would pay an average of two appraisals for the site.
While supportive of leaving most of the site undeveloped, the administration still plans to go ahead with the Henry Street Bridge project, which would connect Elanco Animal Health’s upcoming headquarters to downtown.
Public Works Director Brandon Herget said the one-acre bridge worksite the city owns will likely cost $12 million to excavate. The administration estimates, in collaboration with contractors and historians in a community advisory group, that there are about 650 remains located just in the right of way for the bridge project.
Keystone said its archaeological costs on its part of the property are expected to be much lower, with the estimate on their end of “below seven figures.”
Herget said a consultant for the city, Crawford Murphy & Tilly, estimated there are roughly 650 skeletal remains and an additional 420 burial shafts within the right of way. Factored into the $12 million estimated excavation cost is the cost of human remains removal, exploration of burial shafts, analysis of human remains, reburial of human remains, curation and analysis of artifacts, transportation, cold storage, coffins for reinterment and labor costs.
Herget said that cost has been known to Hogsett administration leaders, district City-County councilor Kristin Jones and community members in the advisory group for about six months.
“The conversation in December was not necessarily about number of bodies and remains, it was about the budget for that,” Herget said. “And then, over the past few months ,we have been transparent within the community advisory group about those challenges, including—as they care deeply about the remains and history of the site—going deeper with them about the level of impact on remains and artifacts and such.”
The process of reinterment for the city is still far off. Aside from boring for the bridge that unearthed remains last year, it hasn’t broken ground on the portion of the site on the other side of the White River. The next phase, work on the bridge itself, will begin in July. The portion that would impact the cemetery is the connection of the bridge to Kentucky Avenue.
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If that’s the case for the site, then sounds like the bridge shouldn’t be built either.
There has to be something going on at the GM site for this to be going on.
What would any other major city look like if no one ever developed over cemeteries? The site has already been developed for over a century! The hypocrisy with the bridge is so blatant. What’s the real story between Hogsett and Ersal?
Very good question.
You bring up some very intriguing points and the part about what’s really going on with the mayor and Ersal is the million $$ question we all want to know…….
Ersal had a golden ticket with Ballard and has bought off most of the legislature as well, with his few critics like Luke Kenley retired. Its probably mostly politics mixed with some real concerns that Keystone is not up to the task for this major development.
^^^^^ Matt wins the truth prize.
Too bad the city didn’t retain the option to designate which acre they would reserve for the bridge project. Seems like they picked the worst place as it relates to how many people are buried there.
I’m sure our ancestors who forged their way through dense Indiana woods to create the foundation of our city would be against a 20 acre park in such a prime location that’s poised for once in a generation development. Reference the partnership announcement today by Purdue and Elanco. This site is the key to connecting the Elanco Campus to downtown and with a potential major impact to the underutilized white river waterway that could further tie in the Zoo and Victory Field. Reactionary, short term vision again by Joe.
No doubt. The guy is not a leader, he’s a “johnny come too late to the party”, elected by the dominant Democratic portion of our city who doesn’t seem to understand that we need a mayor to just do his job and lead this city. Mayor Hogsett has not value outside of his elected position so I suspect we’ll see him bring his “ideas” too late to the table again and again for several more terms.
Or: finally, someone asks a developer to prove he can finance a project. And: Another “or”: we can’t be paving over burial sites. Especially graves where we buried black folks long ago. It’s disrespectful and unnecessary.
This was reported by IBJ on 4/26, so why should anyone believe Hogsett wants to use the site as a memorial? Why isn’t this being referenced as part of the reporting on the city attempting to buy the Diamond Chain property? “Hogsett identified two potential sites: the former Diamond Chain manufacturing site on the southwest side of downtown where Indianapolis-based Keystone Group, owned by Indy Eleven majority owner Ersal Ozdemir, has been planning the $1.5 billion Eleven Park stadium district; and at the site of the Downtown Heliport on the east side of downtown.”
Right, the Mayor said they offered two potential sites to MLS with one being the former Diamond Chain site. They are lying through their teeth. Taking the Hogsett administration’s word on anything is risky business these days. They are playing political games right now. It’s unseemly.
Another reactionary move by a mayor with no vision. He has been treading water for years now and we continue to let him ruin our once vibrant downtown. Our city needs stronger leadership!
City will probably pull the eminent domain crap to steal the property from Keystone. Keystone better get their appraisal of its property because the 2 the City gets will be a couple of low-ball jokes.
Maybe honoring history with a mall monument at the entrance would honor past ,present and future. Leaving it undeveloped is obsurd to growth and honor to past and present.
John M.
+ 1
To not develop that prime piece of land as a connector to Elanco, White River
State Park, and the zoo is extremely short sighted.
High Rise Apartments and retailing would be a great fit for a portion of
that property. The views and the proximity to the stadiums and the other
amenities is to good to pass up.
Why is everyone so sympathetic to Oz? He owns the property and the team so go ahead and build it. Guess what? He can’t finance w/o more subsidies from the City. Is that so hard to grasp?!
Yeah, he’s a weasel. He doesn’t have city’s best interests in mind. His developments are always overbudgeted crap, and always come up short in so many ways. Just saw a commercial on all this. Unbelievable. This will not end well. Oz is killing the city’s chances of landing an MLS team. He is shameless.
Yeah, especially since the city pulled the run out from under him…
I’m reading lots of comments supporting Oz and chastising Hogsett. That’s what I mean by sympathetic.
The City backed away when the deal was deemed uneconomic to the City. I don’t think that’s pulling the rug out from under it. Oz can still build but he now knows the site will be prohibitively expensive (and probably difficult to finance even w/o the cemetery issue).
As far as transparency, do you know whether NDAs exist and prevent the City from making the details public?
They should make the development equitable and it should include an open bar only open to the mayor and his staff.
If there was such a big problem with remains on this site, how come we didn’t shut down Diamond Chain? How come we re-zoned the area? This is getting stupid. I think the whole “there are remains on the site”, and “MLS won’t build on this site” is just more smoke screen to devalue the property so the City can grab it at a lowball price.
Too many stupid and just barely believable things are being said here from the city. I will have to hand it to the Mayor, at least he remembered that a good lie always has some little kernel of truth to it.
But really, I have no idea what the truth might be, at least not with a subpoena of all of the city emails on the subject.
If Mayor Hogsett wants to have a mid-life crisis, he should just save the taxpayers the time, trouble and money and go buy a Porsche!
On April 25, the Mayor did save the taxpayers time, trouble and lots of money. The irony is not lost that most of the Oz supporters here would be the first to complain about high taxation and misuse of tax dollars.
Let’s face it , the mayor has something against keystone and this is his way of getting back at them. Did keystone not pay a kickback to the mayor! Idiot Joe, way to look out for the city development. Just think of the number of people that will be coming to our city because we have a park! Tourism will be on the rise!
Are you serious, Patrick D? Ridiculous comment about the Mayor.
Any consideration to the thought that our city was approached by a qualified owner to bring an MLS team?
Any consideration to the thought that the current ownership may not get a bid for a team?
This seems very reminiscent of when the Waterside Project went south and the City threatened eminent domain take the land away from Ambrose Property Group.
Wrong answer. Move the remains and build.
+++++++11111111
The potential of that site is far to great just to leave it idle.
That literally is the last large piece of undeveloped property
downtown.
Bosh. It’s not even the last large undeveloped parcel in the Stadium neighborhood. See: Valspar/Lilly Industrial Coatings site and the new “truck marshaling yard and staging area” for LOS.
the area is perfect for redevelopment especially a stadium. Hogsett is really coming off as snake.