Home » Authors » Tammy Lieber

Tammy Lieber

Articles

Centre Properties, state nearing agreement: Retail center at 96th and Allisonville closer to reality after years of legal wrangling

Indianapolis-based Centre Properties LLC is beginning to move dirt on 96th Street just west of Allisonville Road, a sign that a battle over developing part of a 220-acre site may be nearing an end. In late March, Centre dropped a lawsuit it had filed in mid-2004 against the Indiana Department of Natural Resources over the agency’s reversal of a permit granted to Centre. That permit would have allowed Centre to fill in 15 acres of White River floodway to build…

Read More

Special Report: Buying blind: Lack of oversight leaves state in dark on real estate deals The state of Indiana knows how much it’s spending to lease property statewide -nearly $40 million a year. But it doesn’t know if that’s too much.

The state of Indiana knows how much it’s spending to lease property statewide -nearly $40 million a year. But it doesn’t know if that’s too much. State contracts for third-party real estate services give government officials few safeguards to ensure they’re paying a fair price for office, laboratory and storage space outside of state-owned buildings, those in the industry say. And state administrators have no control over seven-figure commissions paid to two Indianapolis real estate brokers in the past decade,…

Read More

Festival prepares to kick off with help from friends: Groups met in the middle to make theater on the Fringe

The plays are hardly household names: “A Midsummer Night of Fairies and Asses.” “Fresh Meat.” “Hooray for Speech Therapy.” Ditto for the performers: Ganas Theatre Productions. Master of Trades. Too Much Free Time Productions. That’s the point of Indianapolis Fringe Theatre Festival, a 10-day, 30-troupe, 150-show whirlwind of plays that people may never see again performed by groups from around the world. The inaugural festival kicks off downtown Aug. 19, the culmination of a twoyear effort that brought together myriad…

Read More

Condo wave a ripple locally: Shelved conversions show area not following in national footsteps

Condominiums are hot. Apartments are not. In many cities, that current market truism among would-be renters has led to a wave of conversions of apartment complexes to condos. But not in Indianapolis. To date, only a handful of apartment complexes have successfully made the leap from rental to for-sale, notably Lion’s Gate at 86th and Meridian and Ladywood Estates near Emerson Avenue and 56th Street. Much of the reason has to do with the affordability of single-family housing in the…

Read More

Who’ll fill it?: Nordstrom a possibility for Ayres space

Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Dillard’s may be candidates to fill pending department store vacancies at Castleton and Greenwood Park malls if smaller retailers don’t end up filling the void. The merger of the Federated and May department store companies that’s creating the vacancies is the latest move in a decades-long trend of consolidation in the industry. Some observers speculate a nondepartment-store retailer could end up occupying the space after the L.S. Ayres at Castleton Square and Macy’s in Greenwood close…

Read More

MSA redevelopers set to make another run at tower: Project takes on new moniker as it rolls out redesigned condominium plans

With a new name, new floor plans and a new marketing team, the developers of the former Market Square Arena site are gearing up to make another go at building a high-rise condominium tower on the east side of downtown. Developers hope the new designs, crafted with the assistance of Chicagobased Mesa Development LLC, will jump-start the tower, now more than a year behind schedule and saddled with a lien from a former key player. The first phase of One…

Read More

Office sales shatter records: National investors spend big in string of real estate deals

National buyers hungry for commercial properties have started focusing on second-tier markets like Indianapolis, a trend that’s resulting in quick sales at prices previously unheard of here. One and Two River Crossing sold as a package in early July for $41.6 million, or $203 per square foot, setting a new high-water mark for Class A multitenant office space in the Indianapolis market. Before the River Crossing sale, the sales record for suburban office space was $145 per square foot-a mark…

Read More

Man Alive plans big growth: Chain expects stores to double by 2007

Locally based athletic apparel giant Finish Line Inc. is laying plans for an aggressive expansion of Man Alive, the local hip-hop clothing chain it bought in a surprise move six months ago. Man Alive is expected to balloon from 38 stores to 78 by the end of next year. Eventually, Finish Line CEO Alan Cohen said, Man Alive could grow to 400 stores nationwide, providing Finish Line with an avenue for growth as its own rapid expansion begins to play…

Read More

South downtown parking lot eyed for mixed use: Project slated to include ground-floor retail, with residential or office space above

A Lafayette developer has a parking lot on the southeast corner of Meridian and South streets under contract with plans for a mid-rise, mixed-use building. Developer John Teibel plans to purchase the 1.4-acre lot from local investors Robert and Karen Dittemore, who have owned the lot for several years, said Scott Langdon, who is representing the couple. The lot is across the street from Eli Lilly and Co.’s Faris/Brougher complex. Plans call for the first floor of Meridian Overlook to…

Read More

Builders pine for acreage: Earlham expects big bucks from land freed by deal

Like vultures circling a lone man in the desert, local developers and home builders are jockeying to swoop in and take 413 acres of prime Carmel land when owner Earlham College gives it up following its settlement with Conner Prairie. But Earlham, recognizing the prominence of the last large undeveloped tract in eastern Carmel, isn’t going gently. Interested parties-more than two dozen, at last count-will be required to undergo a formal proposal process before one can feast on the farmland….

Read More

Furnace maker picks Indy as hot spot for distribution: Lennox to move Illinois, Ohio operations to east side

Lennox Industries Inc. is giving Indianapolis a vote of confidence as a logistics hub with plans to move distribution of its commercial heating and cooling products from facilities in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, to the east side of Indianapolis. Although the distribution center is relatively small at 60,000 square feet, Lennox is one of a few companies that have abandoned distribution centers in other cities in favor of Indianapolis’ low cost of real estate, central location and interstate access. Last…

Read More

Precedent plans spec office: Building signals improvement in north-suburban market

The Precedent Cos. is preparing to build a 100,000-square-foot office building in its namesake office park near 96th Street and Keystone Avenue, several local real estate experts said, further evidence of the north-suburban market’s recovery. The building would mark the first new speculative office construction in the park since the mid-1990s, just before Indianapolis-based Precedent sold the park’s 19 buildings with 1.1 million square feet of office space to Philadelphia-based Berwind Property Group Inc. in 1998. That sale didn’t include…

Read More

Trade zone gets bigger: Expansion should help Duke, Anderson lure tenants who export, import goods

An expansion of Indianapolis’ foreign trade zone to include Duke Realty Corp.’s west-side industrial parks might not result in a flood of new tenants for the local developer, but it’s expected to help economic development officials lure firms that ship goods by truck and rail. Officials of Duke and central Indiana economic development agencies were to announce on June 3 that the local foreign trade zone has been expanded from 5,500 acres around the Indianapolis International Airport to 7,100 acres….

Read More

MSA condos co-developer calls it quits: CTE 2nd partner to abandon $140M project; remaining firms expect new designs in June

With a deadline looming for a redesign of Market Square Towers, another of the project’s developers has pulled out and has filed a claim on the property for $3.2 million it says it’s owed by Market Square Partners. Chicago-based Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineering Inc. filed the lien April 8 to secure its claim on money the company said it spent on design and engineering services and other preliminary project work. CTE, whose representatives once served as the public face of…

Read More

After 5 years, USTA ready to serve up 96th Street HQ: Raymond James, First Merchants sign on as tenants

The locally based Midwest division of the U.S. Tennis Association is preparing to break ground on a 25,000-square-foot headquarters and hall of fame building on East 96th Street after five years of planning and courting tenants. The two-story office building was first conceived in 2000, but has been held up more than four years by a search for other tenants during a soft office market. The organization recently scored two tenants, Florida-based Raymond James & Associates Inc. and Muncie-based First…

Read More

Mansion tenant’s HQ networks with history: Levey building’s interior design mixes new with the old

At the Louis Levey Mansion on North Meridian Street, the blending of past, present and future greets visitors as they walk through the heavy arched doors of Networks Financial Institute’s headquarters. In the entry hallway, a receptionist with all the latest technology on her desk sits under a Victorian-era stained-glass skylight. Around her, contemporary art hangs next to elaborately carved wood molding on the walls. Futuristic glass-and-chrome lighting fixtures hang from the ceilings, one of which has an original painted…

Read More

Stutz’s future includes condos: Developer envisions high-rise, nightclub as part of biz center

Stutz Business Center owner and visionary Turner Woodard last month rolled out a 10-year master plan for the Stutz that could bring condominiums, retail and a high-rise tower to the former auto-manufacturing plant at 10th Street and Capitol Avenue. Right now, Woodard concedes many of his plans are dreams. But with a blossoming life sciences corridor just to the west along the Central Canal, Woodard said he wants the 80-year-old Stutz to continue to be a hub of activity as…

Read More

Ex-Meridian CEO takes top talent to new firm: AHM Graves, Carmen fold into Resource

The sudden departure of Samuel F. Smith II from locally based Meridian Real Estate is proving to have a ripple effect in the local brokerage community. Smith’s new firm, Resource Commercial Real Estate, is up to six principals and 12 full-time brokers weeks after its official launch, and partners hint there may be more to come. Two small firms, Carmel-based AHM Graves Commercial Real Estate Services and Carmen Commercial Real Estate Services, have merged with Resource. The new company is…

Read More

Sales, new spec space in the cards at Intech: Intech One and Two likely to fetch top dollar, draw national interest, investment broker says

Two years ago, Lauth Property Group Inc.’s Intech Park was arguably the most prominent sign of central Indiana’s soft office market. The northwest-side park’s largest buildings, Intech One and Two, had entire floors vacant and awaiting completion. Acterna LLC was pulling out of its 140,000-square-foot building, a retreat symbolic of the technology bust’s effect on the larger suburban office market. Today, helped by a robust investment market and Intech’s recent state designation as a certified technology park, Lauth hopes the…

Read More

Developers plan spec industrial on heels of new deals: More big leases are expected in coming months

For months, local industrial brokers have reported an uptick in activity from potential tenants in the modern bulk-industrial market. With the start of the second quarter, tirekickers seem ready to sign on the dotted line. Three large-scale industrial deals in Plainfield kicked off the second quarter, prompting developers to release plans for more speculative bulk-industrial development this year across the metro area. “The activity in the first quarter is setting up the second quarter for a lot of closings,” said…

Read More