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At the end of 2013, officials in Marion County announced plans to build a criminal justice complex that would house criminal courts, jails and other offices in one location. By mid-2015, the plan was dead. Some attorneys weren’t sold on the idea of locating the complex out of the heart of downtown Indianapolis. (The former GM stamping plant just west of downtown was selected as the location.)
The $1.75 billion center couldn’t get approval from the Indianapolis City-County Council, even after developer WMB Heartland Justice Partners presented pared-back plans to reduce the overall cost.
“Council leadership sustained a six-month coordinated effort to block this project from public vetting, while simultaneously attacking the administration for a lack of transparency,” said David Rosenberg, then-deputy chief of staff for Mayor Greg Ballard’s administration and his point person on the justice center, after the June 9 vote. “Of course, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss the justice center proposal in a constructive, public setting. But that opportunity has yet to materialize with the council.”
Ballard, a Republican, did not seek a third term as Indianapolis mayor, and several council members have said that’s a reason not to saddle a project of this magnitude on a future administration that had no input on it. Some councilors also criticized the process as lacking community input and council involvement in determining whether a public-private partnership should be preferred over traditional public-infrastructure financing options.
And even though the justice center proposal died, the city of Indianapolis is still on the hook for more than $11.2 million on consultant and contractor fees, which includes several Indianapolis law firms that worked on the project.•
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