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Jennifer Whitson

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Airport may pay $8.8 million for hotel: Deal pending; Westin won’t open until at least 2009

The Indianapolis Airport Authority board this month approved spending up to $8.8 million to help fund construction of a hotel connected to the midfield terminal set to debut Oct. 28. But delays in finalizing a deal with developer Mansur Real Estate Services means the $50-million-plus Westin will not be ready for guests until August 2009 at the earliest. The airport board picked Indianapolis-based Mansur to build the hotel nearly a year ago. “We’re still talking about what it’s going to…

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Members looking to make rain: Growing networking firm aims to be national player

A central Indiana business networking company that’s on a growth tear. Rainmakers Marketing Group Inc. more than doubled its membership to 1,100 in 2007 alone, and has added another 200 members already this year. Revenue is expected to surpass $600,000 in 2008. “The business model is simple,” said cofounder Tony Scelzo, 35. “We teach business people about growing a business.” R a i n m a ke r s ‘ events offer more than talking heads and forced interaction. The…

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Super Bowl bid group seeks public input

Organizers putting together Indianapolis’ bid for the 2012 Super Bowl have established a Web site – www.our2012sb.com – that they hope will become a breeding ground for public comments and suggestions to build their pitch. Also unveiled in a formal announcement of the bid this afternoon is a community advisory council that will gather ideas […]

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Super Bowl group aims to raise $25M

“It’s everybody’s Super Bowl” will be the theme for Indianapolis’ Super Bowl 2012 bid, which will be officially kicked off at a press conference this afternoon. Bid leader Mark Miles, president of Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, said the bid committee will fight a natural tendency to become insulated when strategizing to win the big event. […]

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Music for All moves beyond band contests: $495,000 grant to help beef up fund raising, advocacy

For years, the Indianapolis not-for-profit once known as Bands of America built a reputation for organizing a series of regional marching band competitions that culminates in a national march-off here each November. In 2006, the organization broadened its scope through a merger with an East Coast advocacy group, marrying performance-based evidence that music education has value with research-backed efforts to keep school programs around. Now Music for All’s research is making waves nationally, and the organization just landed $495,000 to…

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Local Girl Scouts take lead in national consolidation: Larger councils to mean more opportunities for girls

Last year’s merger of five area Girl Scout councils into one central Indiana organization has gone so well that it’s being used as a model for others to follow. Local staffers are being flown around the country-at national Girl Scouts’ expense-to coach other councils on how to achieve the same results. The local merger was the first in a national drive to consolidate far-flung and often uneven Girl Scout councils, reducing their numbers by almost a third. With the local…

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Pedestrian bridge to state park still in the works: White River venues think hotel complex will be a boost

Developers of the $425 million hotel complex downtown still are working out plans for a pedestrian bridge spanning Washington Street that will connect it to White River State Park. Merrillville-based White Lodging Co. and Indianapolis-based REI Real Estate Services proposed a connector-either a bridge or an underground tunnel-in early designs of the convention hotel complex at the southwest corner of West and Washington streets. Although later site plans did not include the link, REI President Mike Wells said the developers…

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Arts Council names ‘Great Ideas’ winners

The Arts Council of Indianapolis selected a large luminary project and a pair of open-topped silos as the winners of this year’s “Great Ideas” public art competition. The artists behind the ideas each will get $18,000 to bring their proposals to life. Indianapolis-based sculptor Jeffrey Martin wants to build two stylized silos along the Monon […]

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City to decide on bowl bid by mid-February

Mayor Greg Ballard this morning announced his leadership team for the 2012 Super Bowl bid but said the city will review the National Football League’s requirements before making a final decision whether to bid. Bids are due April 1. Ballard said a final decision about the bid will be announced by mid-February. Despite the hedging, […]

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Indianapolis entrepreneur finds way to combine exercise and work

Jerry Carr studied turf at Purdue University-how to grow some of Mother Nature’s best and how to design the artificial kind. After graduation, his jobs mostly kept him outside and active. But when he moved into a desk-bound sales job in 2006, he noticed more than the inevitable weight gain. “I couldn’t wait to exercise at the end of each day,” said Carr, 47. Feeling restless and unfocused, he brought a treadmill into his office. But he found that switching…

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Firm that sells sunglasses for large heads lands Wal-Mart deal

In March 2006, USA Today picked up a local newspaper’s profile of Indianapolis-based Fatheadz Inc., the company Rico Elmore
and two partners founded in 2005 to sell eyeglass frames for larger heads. That eventually led to the company’s big break:
A Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive read the article and ordered buyers to track down Fatheadz to make a deal.

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Fans give dancing a whirl: Many studios report seeing a boost in enrollment, younger students

As millions of television viewers have been swept up in the twirl of the ABC reality series hit “Dancing with the Stars,” local studios are cashing in on the craze as everyday folks try to learn to dance like fall winner Helio Castroneves. Dance studio owners said they’ve seen a surge in business since the television program debuted in 2005, and the tempo has picked up with each new season. Simply Ballroom owner Romaric Cansino said he surveys all new…

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City to announce Super Bowl point person

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard this week plans to name a point person to head the city’s bid for the 2012 Super Bowl. Ballard spokeman Marcus Barlow said today the mayor’s office has moved forward and that other leaders are falling into place. John Lechleiter, who will become CEO of Eli Lilly and Co. in April, […]

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Opie piece making a permanent home on Mass Ave: More businesses are playing a supporting role in burgeoning public art scene

Good news for fans of Julian Opie’s pop-art-inspired exhibit that ended a year-long run on city streets in September-Indianapolis is getting a permanent piece by the London artist to add to its growing public art collection. The work created for Indianapolis is called “Ann Dancing.” It’s reminiscent of the four-sided LCD display dubbed “Sara Dancing” that made its home at the northwest corner of Illinois and Maryland streets. But this female stick figure has a bit more juice in her…

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Eatery plans baby cuisine: L’explorateur chef developing line of frozen, gourmet infant food

Local restaurateur Neal Brown is entering new culinary territory this month, launching a baby food business from his upscale Broad Ripple eatery. The 37-year-old first forged new ground in the Indianapolis food scene in May 2006, when he opened L’explorateur, a hip restaurant that builds its avantgarde menu around locally grown food. His kid cuisine won’t be quite as cutting-edge as the grown-up grub-think elk tartar: raw ground elk meat seasoned and topped with herbs, capers, greens and braised, pickled…

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Permanent Opie piece coming to downtown

Good news for fans of Julian Opie’s pop-art-inspired exhibit that ended a year-long run on city streets in September-Indianapolis is getting a permanent piece by the London artist to add to its growing public art collection. The work created for Indianapolis is called “Ann Dancing.” It’s reminiscent of the four-sided LCD display dubbed “Sara Dancing” […]

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Children’s Theatre Institute getting its own stage: Space will host its plays, other performing arts groups

After nearly nine years of moving from stage to stage, the Children’s Theatre Institute is building its own 300-seat theater in hopes of becoming a hub for educational performing arts programs. The Indianapolis-based institute already has raised most of the $350,000 needed to transform 7,000 square feet of space at the Gene B. Glick Junior Achievement Education Center into a theater. Construction is under way. Our “vision is to do a full season of interdisciplinary performing arts in the space,”…

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Convention Center President Bob Bedell to retire

Bob Bedell worked behind the scenes for months–if not years–to make the case for expanding the Indiana Convention Center
and building a 1,000-room hotel nearby. But someone else will have to fill both venues with visitors. The 60-year-old Indianapolis
Convention & Visitors Association president has said he’ll retire at the end of June.

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Event planners revive venues: Oasis finds new use for eatery, spruces up Murat

When John Stowers was looking to move on from his job managing several nightclubs for an Indianapolisbased partnership in 2002, he and his wife, Patti, wanted to buy a bar he could run. In the process of venue shopping, they stumbled across a space for lease-The Terrace at Market Tower, a restaurant on the second floor of the office building at 10 W. Market St. Like other so-called amenity restaurants, The Terrace was more a perk for building tenants than…

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