Second downtown soccer site taxing district gets preliminary approval

INDIANAPOLIS — The Metropolitan Development Commission, without comment, passed a Professional Sports Development Area designation for a site on the southeast side of downtown Indianapolis for Mayor Joe Hogsett’s alternative location on which to build a professional soccer stadium and accompanying mixed-use development.

One downtown PSDA already exists on Kentucky Avenue at the location of the former Diamond Chain factory as Indy 11 and Keystone Group owner Ersa Ozdemir’s proposed home for a potential Major League Soccer franchise.

Such a designation would permit the collection of site-specific tax revenues to be redirected for paying off the bonds Indianapolis would purchase for the publicly financed stadium.

City officials have said they don’t think Ozdemir has the financing wherewithal to complete the surrounding mixed-use development and meet the MLS franchise fee price tag that most recently reached $500 million.

“I am well aware that this venture presents no guarantee,” said Hogsett last Thursday when he made the announcement of his alternative site bid at the current downtown Indy Heliport along Pearl Street. “But every great achievement in our city’s history has begun where opportunity was met with action.”

City-County councilwoman Kristen Jones, who represents the west side of downtown, said the city and the council should stand by their original support of Ozdemir and the Indy 11.

”We already have an approved development for such a site,” said Jones. ”This is about my district. This is about my community. This is about my neighbors. This is about the many fans who showed up today to show this city that they want the original PSDA and Allocation area and honor the commitment that we’ve already passed. They want the 11 Park built as planned regardless of which jerseys are worn on that field.”

I asked Jones what was wrong with having a backup site and giving a new potential ownership group the choice of which location to call home.

“What’s wrong with it? Because we don’t want an alternative. We want to honor the commitment we already have,” she said. ”I don’t have an answer as to what’s wrong with the first one. We’ve spent 10 years planning for the first one.  And I don’t have an answer as to what’s wrong with the first one.”

Lena Hackett owns a historic office building on South New Jersey Street that would be displaced by the Hogsett proposed second site, and she’s already turned down one bid to buy her property.

”I’m not gonna flip. I won’t have money now for the building. I won’t have money afterward for the building. I’m out nothing,” said Hackett.

Hackett said as a soccer fan, she sees greater development potential if the city throws its full weight behind Ozdemir’s plans.

”It’s really about community impact and economic development for the surrounding community. That happens on the westside,” she said. ”So if the city would put all of the effort behind that site with the Major League Soccer team, and advocate for the site you already approved, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

The city faces a June 30 deadline to advise the Indiana House Budget Committee that it has designated a second potential special taxing district for a soccer stadium, but first, the proposal must pass the City-County Council which Jones said stands squarely behind the Indy 11 project.

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