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At the end of the day, the city and airport authority can simply return any FAA grant money received for the heliport and close it. The city only received $6.71 million from the FAA since 1983 for the heliport, which is much less than it plans to spend on subsidizing a new soccer stadium.
Give back the money and tell the corrupt and inept FAA to go take a flying leap—the agency has much bigger issues to focus on, like maintaining a safe national air transit system, which it is failing to do.
And, then we have Mr. Walking Ethics Violation Todd Rokita getting involved in this. He has no business being a lawyer (he should be disbarred), let alone the state Attorney General.
What Chris said. A heliport is perhaps the worst use of that site, and Surack knew that site was for sale for years and didn’t act. Let Surack buld a heliport on the Diamond Chain site, or elsewhere, at his own cost.
Rich men who don’t live here trying to hold an entire city hostage because they want to keep their publicly-subsidized toys. They need to be taxed into oblivion.
Amen!
Sounds like Surack and his group of followers think that this property is so incredibly rare and valuable that it is worth huge $$$ (at least to him). I suggest a 6-month option be sold to him to purchase the property for something in the $60-80 million range to close in less than 12 months with no contingencies. It would be a bargain for him.
absolutely let Mr. Surack make a private purchase of this land for any amount north of his last offer. Put it on the tax rolls. Let him make his improvements. Enforce noise restrictions to protect the folks who occupy apartments and homes on the flight paths. And then, when the MLS deal is all worked out and the stadium project being put together, exercise eminent domain at the price calculated by the appraisers and which the city is paying. Or suggest he talk to his good buddy Ozdemir to take part of the Diamond Chain property (maybe the part that isn’t a graveyard) and build his personal landing pad there…
Why does Airbus care about a heliport in downtown Indianapolis? Their planes can’t land there.
Airbus also makes passenger and military helicopters (their subsidiary was formerly known as Eurocopter).
Why does ana attorney general and US Senator get involved in this? Sinmply politics as they would like to control Indy. If this businessman is so interested, buy his own land and operate. Progress downtown is enevitable, let it happen. This guy is the only one using this facility that otherwise just sits. FAA agreed so let the city progress.
$$$
If keeping heliport in Indianapolis is such a good idea, the Sunlight Coalition should pool their money and start a business. The taxpayers aren’t interested in funding their BS.
A bump in the road for the mayor’s plan to affect a land grab for the family of his biggest financial supporters?
The Simon’s bailed out Dick Lugar and Steve Goldsmith by saving the Pacers and keeping the team in Indianapolis. Hard to be a sports capital of the US if you can’t keep the one professional franchise you have.
They’re the only family well-capitalized enough to land an MLS franchise. The Indy Eleven will fold in a few years, they can’t maintain the fan interest they had even a few years ago.
The Simon’s are investing large money in re-doing the CSX site which has sat dormant for decades which will help downtown as a whole.
Are they politically connected? Sure. So are Ozdemir and Brad Chambers and several others. What’s Chuck Surack done for Indianapolis other than pine for the days when Big John Gillis was relevant?
Congratulations to Chuck Surack and his team for the latest round of good news as they push back against the asinine decision to remove yet another major piece of Indy’s transportation infrastructure. Interesting to see the commenters on every one of these heliport stories express their contempt for rich people – as if they are the only ones who will be served by an aviation hub in the middle of our fair city. We normal readers of the IBJ have no problem with successful folks coming to our city in their helicopters; in fact, we invite exactly that and wish for more.
Pray tell Richard who are the normal folks served by the heliport? Yes, we will wait, The heliport gets less than 5 flights a day.
And, rich people have no problem coming to Indy on their private planes, and they have several airport options where to land them around the city.
The pushback, mainly from one old turkey, can be ended real quick. The city should simply give back the relatively modest amount of FAA funds it got for the heliport, and then the FAA can’t say boo about it.
But, it is interesting how easy it is to bribe the federal government nowadays (case in point with the FAA “reopening” its decision to approve the closure). The Mayor should just say the city will name the new soccer stadium after Trump, and then the city would likely get a federal grant to build it.
The heliport is NOT a major piece of Indy’s transportation infrastructure. It is seldom used, by some accounts five flights a day. And those folks aren’t “normal readers of IBJ”…they are people who like to show off their toys. Chuck Surack doesn’t contribute in a meaningful way to the economic success of Indy. If having a heliport is so important to him, he should build one somewhere else. Like Diamond Chain. But he wants to keep his taxpayer subsidized, relic to a transportation concept that never materialized, privileged little plot of land. Like the trolley tracks and train tracks that supported the transport system in Indianapolis and Central Indiana, this is the physical manifestation of an idea that has come and gone without ever having really benefitted the citizens of Indianapolis.
Trolleys were a benefit for Hoosiers for some period of time before the automobile.
I just find it ironic how the same people who want IndyGo to die yesterday are the same ones advocating for a heliport. I mean, just be consistent.
It is absolutely baffling to me how much time and effort has gone into trying to prevent closure. It really does feel like the “rich vs the people” for the use of this important piece of land. The overwhelming majority will not have any benefit from a heliport. Its essentially a convenience for ultra wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Whether this is a soccer stadium or not is besides the point. Please close this heliport so that we can have development of a key stretch of our downtown with the opportunity of more density surrounding it (that also lacks now due to heliport restrictions on building height surrounding it). This site divides our downtown. I live less than mile away and it serves as a boundary for walking routes due to its lack of development, dark tunnel to pass under. Unite our city. This should be a no brainer. Expect nothing less from Braun and our senators who always show they are on the side of the ultra wealthy few over the overwhelming majority of constituents.