Creative agency plans move to historic Lockerbie building

330 N. College Ave.

Indianapolis-based marketing and communications agency Well Done Marketing plans to move from its longtime headquarters in Fountain Square early next year to the Lockerbie Square Historic District.

The firm will move to 330 N. College Ave., to occupy an 8,100-square-foot building constructed in 1861 that was once home to businesses operated by well-known interior designer and historic preservationist Sallie Rowland.

The two-story Italianate-style structure was acquired in August for $1.6 million by 330 N. College LLC, a partnership between Lisa Vielee, president of Well Done, and Deylen Realty Inc. principals Craig and Todd Von Deylen, who are partial owners of the GC Murphy Building at 1043 Virginia Ave., where Well Done currently occupies about 5,100 square feet.

“This building provides everything our people wanted: to stay downtown, the non-traditional space, the opportunity to bike or walk to work if they live downtown,” Vielee said, noting she’s known for about 18 months that the company would need to move because it has outgrown its existing space.

Well Done, which appeared on IBJ’s Fast 25 list recognizing the area’s fastest-growing businesses, plans to complete its move to the building in January 2024.

Vielee said while she doesn’t have immediate plans to add employees, the new space will allow Well Done to eventually grow from about 40 employees to as many as 50.

“Our leadership tries very, very hard to balance internal capacity … until we know we can hire someone who can be here for a longer duration, not necessarily just because of one project,” she said. “So right now I don’t have any plans for additional growth, but if we need people—if we have the capacity and we have meaningful projects—then we’ll add them, and this space gives us the opportunity to do that.”

Vielee said the Von Deylen brothers have been “extremely supportive” of the firm and helping find a larger space for Well Done’s continued growth.

“We went together to see the building, because they were looking for another investment property and we were all like, ‘Maybe we can make this work,’” she said. “Then they asked for me to get involved on the investment side, so I’ll be both an owner and an occupant of the building, which is really exciting.”

The building was most recently occupied by Vision 3, a media company focused on using virtual and augmented reality for education and entertainment applications. That firm vacated the property at the start of the pandemic.

The building at 330 N. College was built by Frederick Simon in the 1860s as a grocery store and living space, according to Evan Finch, a writer for Well Done Marketing who researched the history of the structure extensively for the company. Simon operated the grocery until he was shot in front of the building in 1900 by another member of his lodge, succumbing to his injuries a few days later.

It was sold a few years later by Simon’s daughter and son-in-law to another grocer, who moved out a few years later, Finch said. It changed hands multiple times until 1923, when it was acquired by painter and interior decorator John G. Broerse, who turned it into a furniture refinishing business.

Sallie Rowland bought the building in 1978, operating her design firm from the building until outgrowing it in the early 1990s and selling it to environmental engineering firm Keramida Environmental.

Well Done’s Vielee said the work done by Rowland in renovating the building made it possible for the agency to move into the building. Well Done is making some improvements to the interior decor, as well as adding an ADA-compliant restroom and a private office space on the first floor, but most of the building will appear as it did when Rowland’s firm occupied the space.

“It’s just really held up well in the decades since her team moved in and renovated it, which is just fantastic,” Vielee said.

While there’s a lower concentration of commercial activity along College Avenue than there is in Fountain Square, Vielee painted the move as advantageous, noting the proximity of other creative agencies nearby. She also said the relation to Massachusetts Avenue would be beneficial for the firm.

Eric Ahonen, a broker with Meridian and Market Commercial Real Estate, represented 330 N. College LLC on the acquisition.

The designer on the project is Carson Design, and the contractor/construction team is Kort Builders.

Rowland, who retired from day-to-day operations of Rowland Design in 2003, was a business pioneer in Indianapolis. She was co-founder of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, first woman president of the Economic Club of Indianapolis, first women campaign chair for the United Way of Central Indiana and first woman president of the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission.