INDIANAPOLIS — The new Indy Eleven Stadium and park broke ground in downtown Indianapolis on Wednesday. The one-billion-dollar projects will change the skyline.
The 20,000-seat multipurpose stadium that will be the new permanent home of Indy Eleven. The development will also include over 600 apartments, 205,000 square feet of office space, over 197,000 square feet for retail space and restaurants, a hotel, public plazas with green space and public parking garages.
The project has been in the works since 2019.
“Every time there is a new addition to downtown it offers the potential to really continue to push what Indianapolis has to offer because we know our peer cities aren't slowing down," Taylor Schaffer the President and CEO of Downtown Indy Inc. said.
The new stadium is located across the street from Lucas Oil stadium at the old Diamond Chain Factory. It’s something city leaders say will expand the boundaries of downtown.
"It's part of the ecosystem pushing what had previously been thought of as the boundaries for that experience,” Schaffer said.
However, the old Diamond Chain Factory comes with a lot of history. Local historian Leon Bates says its the site of a former cemetery, where several African Americans are buried.
"What kind of bothers me is I keep hearing people especially city officials say they thought everyone was moved. And I am not sure how much investigation was done before we got to this point to where they are actually about to do work, " Bates said.
The city and state say they are committed to making sure any remains they come across will be treated properly, a narrative Indy Eleven has echoed.
"I'm very comfortable going forward that the proper dignity and care and respect or if any remains are found and that's an if underlined,” Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb said. “They will receive the due care that they have long deserved and not had since they've been buried.
"We are going to follow every letter of the law with the highest level of integrity and international standards we've made that commitment,” Greg Stremlaw the President & CEO of Indy Eleven said.
But Bates says, this is something the city and developers should have thought about before moving forward with the project.
"If the city and especially the cities consultants would have bothered to ask, we could have avoided a lot of hurt feelings,” Bates said.
Indy Eleven doesn’t have timeline on when we can start seeing construction equipment moving on the site, but they do say the stadium will be finished by 2025. For more information about the project click here.
