ROC Building Owner Makes Shocking Claim: City Paid Him Up Front Under Secret Deal

WTHR's Sandra Chapman sat down and interviewed the owner of the former Eastgate Consumer Mall, which the City of Indianapolis leased under an $18 million deal in 2011 before the Super Bowl in a rush to establish a regional operations center ("ROC") for the city's Department of Homeland Security, as well as the headquarters for IMPD's east district command. Alex Carroll makes a shocking claim that he got all of his money for the lease up front for a long-term lease agreement under which the city assumed virtually all liabilities and expenses under a secret deal he worked out with Mayor Greg Ballard, former Public Safety Director Frank Straub and the City-County Council. Earlier this month, Straub's successor, Troy Riggs, announced that the city was pulling up stakes and moving the ROC and east district command elsewhere due to unsafe conditions in the building which he blamed on Carroll despite lease terms that clearly imposed those obligations on the city to remedy. Here's an excerpt from Chapman's story tonight where Carroll made shocking allegations that should have people at the highest levels in the City-County Building shaking in their boots:

Metro police officers were forced to evacuate the east side facility because of ongoing fire concerns. But that hasn't stopped the flow of city taxpayer dollars.

Now, the landowner claims he was given a secret deal that put a chunk of money into his hands up front . . .

It's no secret former Public Safety Director Frank Straub signed the public contract.

"This was not built in the shadow of a box," said land owner, Alex Carroll. "If it was unsafe, why are they waiting a year and a half to say it's unsafe?" 

Carroll insists there were plenty of eyes on the deal.

"It was Frank Straub, it was the mayor, it was the City-County Council, it was everybody," Carroll said.

"They all said yes?," asked 13 Investigates.

"They all said yes," Carroll said, emphatically.

Mayor Greg Ballard and his staff don't want to talk about the ROC. The city overlooked the unfinished business there in 2011 and used the site as security headquarters for Super Bowl XLVI.

But Carroll says this lease deal is different. He says the city got a bond and is paying the bank nearly $60,000 a month for rent . . .

Carroll already got a good amount of his money. Now for the first time, he reveals he was paid a secret amount up front by the city to lease the Eastgate Mall property, as part of a confidential agreement.

"We've been paid," Carroll told 13 Investigates.

"Are you saying then that you guys have already received the $18 million?" questioned 13 Investigates.

"It's not $18 million," Carroll said of his share.

That $18 million price tag is what the city will pay for the loan, including principal and interest over 25 years. Not even Carroll thinks that's a good deal.

"It doesn't seem like a very prudent way to spend taxpayer money. We had nothing to do with drafting the lease," he explained.

It's a bit confusing, but Carroll seems to be claiming that the City secretly agreed to pay him an unspecified sum of money up front under a secret deal, and the $18 million referenced as the cost for the city's investment in the ROC and east district command is what the city is actually paying over a 25-year term in the form of monthly payments in the amount of $60,000 to repay the bank for the money it borrowed to invest into improvements to the building. The mayor's office has claimed that those payments have been paid into an escrow account with a bank, which completely contradicts Carroll's claims. What Carroll is now threatening to sue the city over are nearly $1 million in improvements to the building he says that he made at the city's request which he paid out of his own pocket. Those obligations rested with the city under the terms of the lease Carroll maintains.

 

Carroll's disclosures are a real bombshell and raise serious concerns of impropriety that occurred at the highest levels of city government. Clearly, the Mayor and the City-County Council misrepresented to the public the deal it entered into with Carroll. The lease agreement that has been released to the public gives the impression that those monthly payments are being made to Carroll and not to a bank, and it makes no mention of the up front payment Carroll says he received. Campaign finance records also show that Carroll made large campaign contributions to Mayor Ballard and two key city council members who pushed the deal to benefit their districts, Councilors Ben Hunter (R) and Mary Moriarty Adams. It is incumbent upon Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry to immediately convene a grand jury to investigate and get to the bottom of what transpired with this shady transaction. The people of this city are being told they must have their taxes raised to shore up the city's budget to properly fund public safety and then we learn that tens of millions of dollars were simply squandered in this poorly-executed, if not illegal transaction.