For Cliff Carley, Sept. 11, 2001, is a date of great personal significance unrelated to tragic events. That’s the day the construction company owner bought a pair of Rocky Mountain elk and began raising the large deer on his northern Hamilton County property near Atlanta. Nearly five years later, Carley Elk Farm hosts Saturday tours for which visitors pay $5 to roam the rural acreage and help feed a herd that numbers about 50. On the way home, they can…
Honda Motor Co.’s decision to build a massive auto manufacturing plant near Greensburg has the small Decatur County town abuzz with excitement. But a company already entrenched there is making some noise of its own. MainSource Financial Group Inc. has increased assets an impressive 50 percent during the past year largely due to four acquisitions made by the publicly traded bank holding company. “We’re a little opportunistic,” admitted MainSource President and CEO James Saner. “We really want to grow, give…
An East Coast investment-banking firm is opening an Indianapolis office and has recruited three high-profile professionals who bring a wealth of experience to manage operations. Towson, Md.-based The Riderwood Group Inc. wants to help midsize companies raise $5 million to $200 million in capital, a range largely ignored here by outside rivals, firm executives said. “There really is not a national mid-market investment bank [in Indianapolis],” company President Mitchell Fillet said. “This is a place where the big firms have…
Health care experts don’t predict a surge in specialty hospital construction after a federal moratorium expires next month. Even so, the rift between competing industry interests is expected to intensify. Moratoriums on new physician-owned heart, orthopedic and surgical specialty hospitals dating back to the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 temporarily stalled the rapid growth of the facilities. In Indianapolis, three such hospitals-the Heart Center of Indiana, the Indiana Heart Hospital and the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital-opened between December 2002 and March…
Black business owner Bob Logan is one of four entrepreneurs chosen by the Indiana Business Diversity Council as inaugural tenants of its unusual new incubator, which caters solely to minority-owned businesses.
Linda Malkas’ arrival at the Indiana University School of Medicine four years ago is beginning to look like a coup for the city’s life sciences initiative. Armed with promising cancer research, Malkas helped found CS-Keys Inc., which last month received a $285,000 infusion from BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund and is poised to net a similar investment July 17 from Triathlon Medical Ventures in Cincinnati. The additional capital is critical to the startup’s continuing development of a biomarker that detects breast…
Harlon Wilson and Kurtis Rush originally intended their Indianapolis-based upstart business to provide 3-D animation for use in court cases. But if they had stuck to that business plan, Medical Animatics Inc. could not have produced the video to the hilarious “Urine Stream,” a song parody of Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” Here’s a sample of the chorus: So when you get the chance, undo your pants … And make a urine stream, gold and clean, oh it’s such a dream. Urine…
The “hot spots” that drive wirelessfidelity access-better known as WiFi-might be in for a cool-down. WiFi enables Internet users to log on without a wire connection, as long as they are in a hot-spot area. The sites have become so common that the number worldwide surpassed the 100,000 mark earlier this year, according to JiWire, a Web-based hotspot information provider. Thousands of businesses, universities and municipalities have invested in the technology. But wireless phone companies are challenging the technology with…
The lesson Amy Kurzekwa taught the folks at the downtown Gregory & Appel Insurance agency reaches far beyond what they learned about premiums and deductibles. Since 1992, she has taken the bus to her job there as a clerical assistant, performing such tasks as sorting and delivering the office mail and filling the copy machines. While most anyone can do that, Kurzekwa, 37, is irreplaceable to her co-workers. Her role in opening their eyes to the fact that people with…
The walls of Turae Dabney’s office at the Indianapolis Black Chamber of Commerce are covered in easel paper scribbled with enough notes to make an anal-retentive person dizzy. Though garbled to visitors, the pages hold the key to her vision for the organization she assumed leadership of as executive director earlier this year. “I do better if I visualize it,” she said. “It looks like a mess, but I know exactly what everything means.” The message she is sending to…
Forrest Gump owned a shrimp boat. Tim and Julie Connor have a shrimp farm instead. The couple, who live on 22 acres near Monrovia, are in their third season raising prawn, or large shrimp, from a pond on their property. The $4,000 they earned last year from selling 350 pounds of the crustaceans to the public is hardly enough to cause Tim, 47, to retire from the job he’s held at Allison Transmission for 28 years. But if the sideline…
When Roger Williams began approaching local not-for-profits early this year about his idea to post their volunteer opportunities for teen-agers on his Web site, many were skeptical. “What’s this guy trying to sell me?” they wondered. But six months after launching www.helpindyonline.com, part of his larger Emergent Leadership Institute, Williams has more than 80 charities promoting nearly 300 positions on his site for high school and college students interested in volunteering. The 36-year-old Carmel native and former youth pastor founded…
Amid the steady rumble of diesel engines, Ricky Smith parks his 18-wheeler among a raft of big rigs at the TA Travel Center in Boone County to relax and grab a bite to eat. It’s after 6 p.m., and the Tennessee resident is delivering grocery products on his weekly route that extends from Michigan to Georgia. Drawn by the opportunity to make more money, Smith ditched his job three years ago as a diesel mechanic to drive a truck. “I…
Buzzing With ActivityUnique Broad Ripple biz ready to offer franchises For business partners Wendy Reed and Pam Weaver, life these days is starting to look a lot like the frenzy their company name projects: Sugar Buzz. They’re not really hopped up on sweets, but the Indianapolis women are flying high nonetheless-buoyed by the glory of being featured in a national magazine and the promise of franchising their unusual mix of children’s parties and dropin day care. The longtime pals combined…
The Indiana Oxygen Co. building is highly visible to motorists traveling Interstate 465 on the northwest side, but the company’s forte isn’t as widely known. Founded in 1915, Indiana Oxygen is the oldest gas and welding supplier in the United States. But to the surprise of many, the medical relationship the name implies hardly exists. Despite the confusion, the company’s flame burns bright, as annual revenue this year will top $30 million. Part of Indiana Oxygen’s recent growth stems from…
Vivian Cain founded the Montessori Academy of Indianapolis five years ago, but for most of her life, she’s been a walking billboard for people striving to overcome obstacles. Cain, 36, operates the private school on the northwest side of Indianapolis. The academy, which Cain started with $40,000 of her personal savings, has grown to 100 students and could expand to include a second location. “When we first started, I opened and closed, and cleaned and cooked,” said Cain, who serves…
A nationwide effort that would let some insurance sectors push products to market quicker is set to become reality, after Ohio became the decisive state to enter the consortium earlier this month. The multistate compact for life insurance, disability, annuity and long-term care products creates a single point of filing for providers. The object is to cut down on the time it takes insurers to seek approval from every state in which they operate before introducing or setting rates for…
Max the golden retriever has lymphoma. But fortunately for him, the disease is not a death sentence. That’s because a pet insurance policy covered most of the $4,000 in chemotherapy and drug treatments needed to keep the canine alive. While the pet insurance industry remains relatively small, it is gaining popularity. From 1994 to 2003, the number of people purchasing health care coverage for their four-legged friends rose 76 percent, according to Veterinary Pet Insurance in Brea, Calif. Dr. Jim…
Building tradesmen in central Indiana don’t need a mind-numbing jobs report to tell them construction workers are in high demand. They need not look any further than their apprentice programs and union halls to gauge the industry’s health. The way the barometer works is simple: Full apprentice classes mean contractors are hiring and empty union halls mean they’re working. “When the benches are empty, that’s a good thing,” said Mike Kerr, a principal at locally based contractor F.A. Wilhelm Construction…
The imprint HKS Inc. will leave on the city with its design of the new Indianapolis Colts stadium will reshape downtown for years to come. But the high-profile project is also significant for the Dallas-based architectural firm because it represents the first time HKS has designed a professional football arena. Any questions the selection team might have had about the firm’s credentials were quickly put to rest, however. “[They] came and visited and said, ‘When you guys start looking for…
