John Tuohy

john.tuohy@indystar.com

The developers of a proposed medical complex and stadium near the former Indianapolis airport terminal site said they will try to bring a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to Indianapolis.

Craig Sanders, co-founder of Athletes Business Network, said he has been in talks with MLS to get a team for the planned 20,000-seat stadium near Washington Street and High School Road. He said he already has identified a management team to run the club if the MLS approves.

“We believe we have as good a chance as any (city) to make that happen,” Sanders said.

Sanders previously had said he was in discussions with professional teams and leagues about moving to Indianapolis but did not specify what teams or leagues. A spokesman for the MLS did not return calls Friday seeking comment.

The timing of ABN’s proposed $500 million sports and medical complex corresponds, roughly, with MLS’s expansion plans. The league announced in December it planned to expand by four teams to 24 by 2020 and to 28 teams sometime after that. The teams in line to be added by 2020 are Minnesota, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Miami, but the remaining candidates are unknown.

The airport site complex would be built in two phases, with medical buildings, including the ABN Global Center for Brain Health, and a 250-room hotel finished by 2020. Phase II would include the stadium, which also would be used for concerts, another 250-room hotel and sports-themed entertainment and retail. The five medical buildings would employ 3,000 workers and house specialists in substance abuse, sports medicine, orthopedics and sports medical technology.

Wooing a stadium to the airport likely would complicate Indy Eleven’s place in the pecking order of additions to the MLS. Indy Eleven is in the North American Soccer League, considered a lower tier, but has been seeking a larger stadium that could make it more attractive to the MLS.

An Indy Eleven spokesman said a representative from ABN asked the team in early 2015 if it would consider moving to an airport stadium. But the team told ABN and other suitors it preferred a downtown stadium, said John Koluder, in an email.

Koluder couldn't forecast what ABN's push for a team would do for Indy Eleven's chances of MLS inclusion. The team, he said, was concentrating on upgrading to first division standards.

Koluder said it was unlikely Indianapolis could support two teams, regardless of what leagues they played in.

"Having two professional soccer teams operating in a relatively small market such as Indianapolis would be a less than desirable set up for both clubs," Koluder said.

ABN lawyer Joe Scimia and Sanders said the stadium would follow a trend of building pro stadiums on campuses with medical and entertainment components.

In Green Bay, Wis., Bellin Health, the official health care partner of the Green Bay Packers, will operate a 30,000-square-foot sports medicine facility within the Titletown District. In Texas, Baylor Scott & White Health is bringing a 200,000-square-foot sports medicine center to The Star, the new home of the Dallas Cowboys in Frisco.

Sanders said it would cost ABN about $125 million in franchise fees and other costs to join the MLS, and the league still would need to do a market study to make sure the city could support a pro team.

The ABN project was chosen as the winning bid to develop the airport-owned land, but it stalled Feb. 19 when the airport board said it wanted to take a closer look at the plan. Community leaders questioned whether the plan was a good fit for the area and if the ABN group, which was formed seven years ago but has not completed a large development project, has the financial backing necessary.

Aaron Gadous, managing director of Ziegler Investment Banking of Chicago, which is involved in the project, said the investors in the project are reputable but also said he could not identify them before the airport board gives the preliminary go-ahead for the project

“We have been involved with ABN for six months, and what we saw here, we liked," Gadous said. “There have been a number of conversations, and there is absolutely a way to get this financed.”

Gadous said the investors would be in three groups: one for the medical component, one for the hotels and one for the stadium. For Ziegler, Gadous said, it would be much like lining up financing for a city’s master development plan in which disparate businesses are built near each other in a targeted area.

ABN would enter a 50-year lease agreement with the airport and pay $378,400 per year in rent for the Phase 1 property and $637,500 a year for Phase 2.

The airport board is scheduled to vote on the plan March 18. If it approves a nonbinding letter of intent signed by ABN, the company would have 75 days to enter a "definitive agreement." ABN would have to provide the airport board with equity, debt and financing commitments before the agreement is executed. ABN also would pay the airport a nonrefundable $250,000 option fee for Phase 1.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317 444-6418 and follow him on Twitter: @john_tuohy.

$500M sports medicine complex chosen for airport site