A half billion dollar health care/sports development proposed by a local start-up developer at the site of the old Indianapolis airport terminal won't get a green light this week when the Indianapolis Airport Authority's board meets this week as earlier news reports indicated. Airport board chairman Kelly Flynn cited discussions he has had with Mayor Joe Hogsett in an e-mail to other board members according to the IBJ for delaying action on the proposal. "In conversations with the mayor’s office, it has become clear that in order for us to be successful in putting this land back on the tax rolls, we need to take a step back," Flynn wrote to other airport board members.
Some might think Hogsett's trepidation over the proposal is the developer's lack of a track record, but the real reason for his concern is based on that proposed 18,000-seat soccer stadium and the developer's plan to pursue attracting a major league soccer team to Indianapolis to play there. That proposal has Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir's head spinning. Ozdemir is seeking public financing for a downtown stadium for his minor league soccer stadium. If Athlete's Business Network went forward with its soccer stadium deal, that would dash Ozdemir's dreams of a publicly-financed stadium downtown for his Indy Eleven.
As you would only know from reading this blog, as U.S. Attorney, Hogsett blocked a public corruption probe of Ozdemir, and he has appointed people with very close ties to Ozdemir to key positions in his administration. Specifically, he blocked a probe into the misuse of federal grant money awarded to the City of Indianapolis that the corrupt Ballard administration funneled into Ozdemir-owned projects. Hogsett's efforts to block the ABN deal has much more to do about assuaging Ozdemir than it has to do with his concerns about the viability of ABN's proposal.
4 comments:
It is past time for all readers to obtain their very own set of spiral bound lined notebooks so as to keep a journal of all of the lies that have been coming from Lying Joe. Include in your journal entries the half truths. Note well, however, that a similar journal comprised of Ballard's versions would now be too heavy for one person, unaided, to lift.
So, the public gun range cannot be sustained? Look at the thin lies offered us. Lying Joe needs practice as he might be able to fool city Clowncilers but they tend to be easily gulled. Those die hard Republicans who elected Ballard (it sure wasn't the corrupt local Republicans) might as well jump ship or, like their national counterparts, jump to Trump. There essentially no longer exists a Marion County Republican Party-the brand has been destroyed and the parasites on top of that dung heap will have to learn how to subsist on dung.
Yes, Anon 7:53!!! "There essentially no longer exists a Marion County Republican Party-the brand has been destroyed and the parasites on top of that dung heap will have to learn how to subsist on dung.
And a great deal of "thanks" for that goes to David Brooks, TJ, and Bob Grand, in my opinion.
A troika of attorneys who turned law on its head for "client" and personal gain. Pawns like the Walker-Hallowwell union to profit off boobs like Ballard, the best interests of the voting taxpayers be damned.
State side, look at Bosma and Clark to name just two attorneys of similar political ilk.
I certainly wouldn't put it past Hogsett to delay this deal for the reasons you've put forth. That said, this deal is so incredibly bad and unlikely to succeed that even a career Indianapolis political hack like lying Joe would be foolish to go on the record in support of it. The developer looks like he's making this up on the fly. What's truly embarrassing is that this city is so desperate for any type of development that they got all excited about it in the first place. There's simply nothing to this proposal and it's as obvious as it gets.
Ballard never would never have nixed a deal that lined the pockets of developers and corporate lawyers. Taxpayers are ahead on this one as a successful letter of intent would have put us all on the hook for a project that made no sense. Thanks Joe!
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