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Chris O'Malley

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Pizza Express stores changing name amid court battle: New Hot Box Pizza poised to expand into Fishers

Locked in a court battle with its Bloomington affiliate, the company that runs Pizza Express stores locally is renaming them and expanding into Fishers. Indianapolis-based Pizza Head LLC has renamed Pizza Express stores downtown and in Broad Ripple as Hot Box Pizza. Menu boards and store interiors have been revamped. Meanwhile, Pizza Head is negotiating a lease for a Fishers location, said Gabe Connell, one of three partners in the firm. Exterior sign changes at existing stores were almost complete….

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Political upstart unloads auto dealership

Eric Dickerson, the Republican trying to unseat Julia Carson in the 7th congressional District, plans to sell his north-side Buick dealership to Ed Martin Automotive Group as early as next month. But the dealership could become a campaign liability even if it’s sold.

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Ethanol backer harvesting investors: Cardinal, others see biofuel potential, while skeptics see risk 982 1372 1071 1392IBJ’s Life Sciences & Biotech Magazine looks at the future of biofuel production in Indiana. SECTIONB

IBJ’s Life Sciences & Biotech Magazine looks at the future of biofuel production in Indiana. SECTIONBDuring one day this month, Randolph County farmer Troy Prescott drove hundreds of miles to visit three western Ohio towns-gladhanding potential backers gathered at a VFW hall, an armory and a restaurant. And just a few days ago, in Fishers, he spelled out his vision to more than 50 people, some wearing suspenders and down-on-the-farm twangs. Prescott isn’t running for Congress, but his 25-city road…

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Is it back to the future for Indianapolis transit?: Cars killed vast ‘interurban’ system decades ago, but 21st century congestion could spur its revival in some form

A century ago, central Indiana had an electric rail network that dwarfed even the most ambitious rapid-transit schemes of today’s urban planners. The “interurban” was a vast system that would easily cost tens of billions of dollars to duplicate. By 1920, hundreds of miles of track radiated from Indianapolis. Some crossed state lines, to Dayton, Ohio, and the Chicago area. Today, all that’s left of the electric railroads are tree-covered rail beds or the crumbling piers of bridges, such as…

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Indiana Rail Road on track for customer growth: Acquisition of Canadian Pacific line brings more jobs

What little some people see of active railroads these days is when they catch a glimpse of Indiana Rail Road Co.’s Ferrari-red engines pulling hopper cars from downstate coal mines up to Indianapolis Power & Light’s Harding Street generating station, south of town. “People feel like railroads are a dying industry,” said Thomas Hoback, founder and CEO of Indiana Rail Road, the 20-yearold freight concern based in Indianapolis. Looks can be as deceiving as the speed of a locomotive approaching…

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Honda poses pay dilemma: New auto plant’s higher wages likely to force other employers to pay up or lose workers

GREENSBURG-Companies from Cincinnati to Indianapolis hoping to drive home business from Honda Motor Co.’s 2,000-employee plant might want to watch for an economic pothole hiding up the road. Giant auto plants plopped onto the prairie, while buying hundreds of millions of dollars in goods and services from companies in the state, also tend to swallow workers from established employers. That likely will force some Indiana employers to jack up wages and benefits to retain and attract workers pining to wear…

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Golf club member tees off investors: Lawsuit over $7.4M in losses casts light on little-regulated world of penny-stock promotion

By the time he graduated in 1985, Tony Altavilla ranked third in career touchdown receptions at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, an all-male institution that likens itself to the best conservative liberal arts colleges of New England. His star rose again recently, when the member of Carmel’s Crooked Stick Country Club led a committee that helped the Pete Dye-designed course score the 2009 U.S. Senior Open Championship. But the Wabash man and golfing buddy of the affluent now finds himself in…

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“No habla ingles”: Immigrants who want to advance find many programs to help them learn English

No habla inglesImmigrants who want to advance find many programs to help them learn English Osvaldo Escobedo was hungry to learn English. It was bad enough when he couldn’t advance at the Nissan Motor Co. plant in Aguascalientes, in central Mexico, because he couldn’t converse in the business language of English. Later, when he came to the United States, he couldn’t eat much more than what he could pronounce. “When I go to restaurant, I ask [for] ‘coffee and doughnuts….

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Hazmat conference to stress preparation: Topics include corporate readiness, Katrina lessons

Organizers of the Indiana Hazardous Materials & Environmental Safety Conference are hoping Hurricane Katrina’s demonstration of mass destruction will be a wake-up call for businesses and communities ill prepared for disaster. Corporate participation in the 18-year-old conference has waned a bit in recent years as hazardous and safety planning became more standardized. Some companies have become too detached after outsourcing their emergency preparation to consultants, said Stephen Nash, chairman of the Indiana Forum for Environmental Safety, which sponsors the June…

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Ex-wife gets big chunk of tech firm: Divorce settlement doesn’t give Interactive’s Kyle Brown influential voting rights

Kyle E. Brown received 3.9 million shares, or 23.9 percent of outstanding common shares, under a property settlement approved Feb. 14 in Boone Superior Court. At recent trading prices of around $9.60, that stake would be worth about $37.4 million to Kyle Brown. That still leaves Don Brown as the largest shareholder, with 4.8 million shares, or 28.6 percent, of the business communications software company he co- founded in 1994. In recent weeks, Kyle Brown has been reducing her holdings-selling…

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Suit puts One Call on hold: Firm placed in receivership as lender seeks $21 million

One Call Communications has been placed in receivership, a day after a lender for its 2002 management buyout filed a lawsuit alleging the Carmel long-distance and operator-services company owes it more than $21 million. The May 11 lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis by Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank appears to be the knockout blow for a telecommunications firm accused by several states of violating consumer protection laws in billing and collection practices. Also looming is a proposed $1.1 million fine…

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ATA reorg a bonanza for lawyers, financial firms: Court still must decide whether to approve $21 million in fees and expenses sought in case so far

Lawyers and other professionals have asked for more than $21 million in fees and expenses for their work on ATA Holdings Corp.’s reorganization, in what appears to be the most expensive case ever in U.S. District Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana. But fees and expenses might rise to $33 million after a handful of remaining professional firms file their claims by the end of this month, said James Carr, a veteran Baker & Daniels attorney who quarterbacked…

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Refiner enjoys oil boom: Calumet Specialty Products sees stock price take off

Indianapolis is headquarters for Little Oil-Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP. Few locally have heard of the west-side refining and petroleum products company, let alone of its Jan. 25 initial public stock offering that raised $144 million. Calumet is controlled by an equally obscure group of families that still own the bulk of company shares. Yet shares of little Calumet-sales last year of $1.3 billion-are up 40 percent since the January IPO intended to fuel acquisitions. The appreciation is partly due…

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