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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA property at the heart of the Hogsett administration’s efforts to build a new Major League Soccer stadium has been acquired by an affiliate of the Herb Simon family.
The parcel, a parking lot at 355 E. Pearl St. of just six-tenths of an acre, was purchased in mid-December for $1.59 million by 101 S. Alabama Development LLC, according to property records from the Marion County Assessor’s Office. The lot, largely used for event parking at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, was sold by electric company AES Indiana.
The Simon-related holding company in 2024 purchased two other properties—parking lots at 301 E. Washington St. and 101 S. Alabama St.—that city officials have identified as being important to Mayor Joe Hogsett’s ongoing effort to develop a stadium on the east side of downtown Indianapolis.
The mailing address for 101 S. Alabama Development LLC—600 E. 96th St.—is the same as Simon Equity Partners, The Herbert Simon Revocable Trust, the Stephen H Simon Charitable Foundation inc. and Simon Spokenote Investment LLC.
Herb Simon and the Simon family are majority owners of Pacers Sports & Entertainment, parent of the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever.
The Pearl Street property bears the address city officials have cited for the proposed stadium, It is also directly west of the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport, which the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development is expected acquire for redevelopment purposes in 2026, after it is decommissioned from aviation uses.
Additionally, the city is in the early stages of buying the 80-space lot on Washington Street, with the Metropolitan Development Commission approving a measure to pay 101 S. Alabama Development LLC the average of two appraisals for the property, at a maximum cost of $4.76 million.
The Simon group also owns the 1,100-space surface parking lot directly south of Maryland Street, and adjacent to the Pearl Street lot, acquiring that parcel in late April. A representative for the family said at the time that the purchase was unrelated to the city’s soccer endeavors and instead could be used for future development or event day parking needs for Pacers Sports & Entertainment. The city has not publicly moved ahead with efforts to buy that property.
The three Simon-owned parcels are thought to be integral to the city’s stadium effort, although Hogsett has said a stadium would only be built if Indianapolis secures an invitation to join Major League Soccer. A stadium would require at least 15 acres, experts have told IBJ.
In late August, Fort Wayne businessman Chuck Surack purchased the La Quinta Inn at 401 E. Washington St. for $14.53 million as part of an effort to slow the city’s acquisition of property.
Surack is a co-owner of the Indy Eleven soccer team, whose own plan for a stadium district at the former Diamond Chain Manufacturing Co. site along the White River the Hogsett administration decided to abandon in favor of the Market East district property. Surack has also been opposed to the closure of the heliport, as he owns Sweet Helicopters, which is among the most active users of the facility along with IU Health’s Lifeline operation.
A funding mechanism for a stadium project must still be approved by the State Budget Committee—a vote is expected in the next few months. The state committee will determine whether the city’s plan to create a new professional sports development area tax-capture district (which would use state and local taxes generated by properties across downtown to pay for bonds on a new stadium) has sufficient funding.
The investor group for a would-be MLS bid has yet to be publicly identified, although Hogsett has said he would like the members’ identities to be made public before the state considers the funding request.
A representative for the Simon family declined to comment Friday.
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good work Simon team
I used to work for AES and it amazed me that IPL would abandon a substation and then never sell the property, There are dozens of sites just like this one all over the city. In this case sitting on the property seemed to pay off. But it was always been hinted to me that these former substation sites may be environmentally contaminated and if IPL/AES didn’t sell them, they didn’t have to test for or remediate any potential contamination.
These sites used to house transformers. The transformers contained oil. PCBs used to be mixed with the old to stabilize it. I had heard that “back in the day” handling the oil could be a little sloppy and sometime some of it was just drained into the site, or even sprayed on the gravel to kill the weeds.
If I was Simon I would make sure that they had environmental testing done before they closed on that sale!
Pretty sure Simon and AES probably knows what’s going on Dan. This way it might get paid for as part of the stadium project cleanup, just like most of the remaining contaminated parcels near the railroad.
Weird how Simon keeps finding these key parcels and buying them on the cheap from government entities. They must be great business people doing their research…….
AES Indiana is not a government entity. It is a subsidiary of Virginia-based AES Corporation, a Fortune 500 power generation company.