CIB signs off on Pacers' $50 million practice facility

The Capital Improvement Board unanimously approved a contract Monday allowing the Indiana Pacers to build a $50 million practice facility on land owned by the CIB.

The CIB had already authorized parameters of the deal for St. Vincent Center, a five-story, 130,000-square-foot facility across from Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Pacers released renderings in August.

The building, scheduled to open in 2017, will replace an employee parking lot on Delaware Street.

Board President Earl Goode reiterated that the team is paying for construction and operation of the building.

Use of the land, however, had been given to the team in a previous agreement, he said. The value of that land is uncertain.

"Keep in mind that we're really repurposing this land," Goode told the board. "The Pacers ... had this land tied up through 2027 as it is. So it's not a piece of property that could be utilized for something else, at least until 2027. It's putting in a $50 million building and turning a facility that really has limited use into, hopefully, a very useful building, bringing jobs Downtown."

St. Vincent will offer medical and sports performance services to the general public in the building. Goode said St. Vincent will move 60 to 70 jobs Downtown "from the suburbs."

The facility will have two full basketball courts and offices for the Pacers and Pacers Sports & Entertainment, the team's parent company, which also puts on nonsports events at the fieldhouse. Pacers officials have said a state-of-the-art practice facility will help attract free agents and retain players.

A CIB lawyer told the board that if the Pacers were to leave Indianapolis, the agreement contains provisions allowing the CIB to buy or lease the practice facility at a predetermined rate.

Call Star reporter Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311. Follow him on Twitter: @markalesia.