A local attorney filed a lawsuit today challenging a city maneuver that cleared the way for private redevelopment
of Pan Am Plaza. The suit, available here as a PDF, argues that the city's December 2007 move to reduce a restrictive
covenant to 10,000 square feet from 88,000 square feet was "illegal and unauthorized" and robbed taxpayers of about $6 million.
The city bought the properties known as Square 88 in 1985 and gave them to the Sports Corp. in exchange for a covenant restricting
development on the plaza for 30 years. The agreement gave the not-for-profit the option of paying a $3 million fee ($6 million
when adjusted for inflation) to opt out after 20 years. But in December, the Metropolitan Development Commission and DMD Director
Maury Plambeck agreed to waive the covenant without a fee to help facilitate redevelopment of the crumbling plaza.The lawsuit says DMD hid the implications of the move and failed to refer the decision to the City-County Council, as required by state law. The suit also claims that the city still hasn't paid off bonds used to pay for the land, opting instead to roll them into bonds used for Circle Centre mall. Attorney Paul K. Ogden is asking for a $6 million judgment to reduce the city's current debt load and additional damages to cover attorneys' fees and expenses. Ogden is the same attorney who sued the Capital Improvement Board over the proceeds of an auction of RCA Dome memorabilia. IBJ first reported on the promised Pan Am lawsuit in a July 12 story.
Back to Top
IBJ Conversations
26 Comments
Add Comment
Glad someone is standing up for taxpayers.
I never claimed that Indianapolis is a great city. Projects need help here. Badly.
I've seen many cases of government doing the wink wink nod nod to developers and setting aside old agreements. A private company would not be able to wriggle out of a deal that provided for the $6M payment without the help of the government intervening.
Kte can make this go easily without any incentives. For God's sake, it's in the ehart of downtown and is right next to a new $1.5B stadium/convention center expansion.
Why hasn't the Sports Corp disclosed the sale price?
You're criticism of the lawyer asking for money betrays your bias against class action suits or the plantiff's bar. That's fine. But your opinion falls on deaf ears if you don't follow it up with a substantive argument on the merits of the case.
Also the fact that a non-profit sold it, means the property can now pay property taxes. So, even more taxes go to the coffers...
I don't see any negatives to this opportunity. Only positives...
No shill ( I assume that is what you meant) for the City. If his intentions are truly altruistic and he is looking out for the taxpayer, then offer to take it for free. Many attorneys do that for all sorts of clients. Otherwise he looks like he is just trying to make money off the taxpayers.
It is unfortunate that an entity like this has fallen on hard times and when given assistance is blasted. The fact that we as a community didn't support the World Basketball games and sent them on a downward sprial of debt, is unfortunate. We should have bailed them out at the time. Not try and assist when they have had to sell off all their assets to pay off the debts.
Oh, and my money is on Susan too.
No one says you have to think Ogden is being altruistic to support his idea that it's wrong to give the handout at taxpayers' expense. It's enough to say that someone sees something isn't right, and is in a position as an attorney to do something about it, and, yes, earn a handsome sum if he wins. That doesn' t taint his argument in my mind. Now, if you're a shill, you attack the guy saying it's wrong rather than state your case on why it's right to let them out of the deal.
This site would be developed anyway sooner or later, and the fact that private development will increase the tax base is true whether the ISC gets a sweetheart deal or not.
Finally, who cares who they picked out of the crowd to be the represetative of the class action. Could have been anyone. Irrelevant.
Ogden did not sue over the Simon for one big reason. No chance he would win. The park was always a temp use until a development deal came along. Same with the so called Lincoln Park. You won't see Ogden sue on it. The problem with people like Kahlo, is now some developers are afraid to put in temp parks because they are afraid he will go after them when they develop them. They are now going with parking lots to bank the lots.