The Capital Improvement Board (CIB) of the city of Indianapolis is making progress on a complex expansion and development project involving the Indiana Convention Center, a venue that offers 71 meeting rooms, 11 exhibit halls and three multipurpose ballrooms as well as an additional 183,000 square feet of exhibit space and 12 meeting rooms at the connected Lucas Oil Stadium facilities.
Faegre Drinker is representing CIB’s interests in the expansion, which includes the development of two new hotels — one with 800 rooms and the other with 600 rooms — and a new 50,000-square-foot ballroom space on Pan Am Plaza that will be connected to the existing convention center by a pedestrian skybridge.
The matter has necessitated coordinating with numerous entities, including city leadership, the bond bank that issues the requisite financing, and numerous other parties whose authorization is required for the project to move forward. The 150-page project agreement that will direct the expansion and development work, and that includes exhibits and construction plans, was finalized after 18 months of negotiations.
The Metropolitan Development Committee approved the more than $150 million in bond financing on October 7, 2020. The bond will fund only the publicly owned portion of the project and will be paid back through Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds. The remainder of the expansion will be privately financed.
