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Tammy Lieber

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Trendy retailers targeting city malls: H&M picks Circle Centre; Williams-Sonoma Home eyes Fashion Mall

Two retailers in the early stages of national expansion efforts are eyeing Simon Property Group Inc.’s Circle Centre and Fashion Mall for new stores. Clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz plans to open an 18,000-square-foot store in Circle Centre this fall, and local retail experts say Williams-Sonoma Inc. is considering the Fashion Mall for one of its first Williams-Sonoma Home stores. Better known as H&M, Hennes & Mauritz is to clothing what IKEA is to furniture: hip, Swedish and budget-friendly. Since…

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Kite’s plan sparking controversy: Condos near Fashion Mall likely to face ‘battle royal’

A partnership headed by Paul Kite has ambitious plans for a mixed-use development featuring midrise condominium towers and retail space on the last undeveloped corner of 86th Street and Keystone Avenue. A proposal from PK Capital LLC, Kite’s partnership, calls for more than 180 condos and about 60,000 square feet of retail space on the north side of 86th Street between Haverstick Road and Keystone Avenue. The 10-acre property lies just south of Our Lady of Peace Cemetery and a…

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Kite Realty ponders future of Glendale: Mall’s lackluster performance could lead to overhaul, sale

Locally based Kite Realty Group Trust is exploring selling or redeveloping Glendale Mall, the company said in its annual 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those are among “several strategic alternatives” Kite is considering for the north-side shopping center, according to the March 30 filing, the most definitive acknowledgement by Kite to date that its redevelopment of Glendale in 2000 never fully took wing. Kite bought the mall in 1999 for $20 million and sunk another $11…

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Banker fits bill at art museum: Ex-Bank One CEO O’Connor leads facility through final stages of $74M expansion

Just over a year after retiring from the top position at central Indiana’s largest bank, former Bank One of Indiana CEO Lawrence A. O’Connor Jr. found himself giving up his newfound freedom to run another big business-the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Making the jump from financial services to arts and culture might seem unlikely, but O’Connor, who’s been serving as IMA’s interim executive director since November, finds himself at home running Indianapolis’ largest arts-related not-for-profit. “This is a wonderful place,”…

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New owner brings hope for Eastgate property: Demolition would pave way for redevelopment

Every end is a beginning, the proverb goes. Accordingly, the probable demolition of nearly vacant Eastgate Mall by new owners JTL Capital LLC isn’t causing much heartbreak among city officials and east-side residents. “I was thrilled to hear they plan to demolish [Eastgate],” said Ruth Ann Walker, a member of the Warren Township Development Commission. “It opens that parcel up for bigger and better things.” What that might be isn’t yet clear, and Dallas-based JTL so far has divulged little…

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Bankrupt franchise group sells stores to Burger King: 34 local sites now under Miami company’s control; Omni partners still operating other restaurants

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy case involving more than three dozen Burger King restaurants has resulted in one of the area’s largest Burger King franchisees’ selling 34 of its units to Miami-based Burger King Corp. Locally based Omni Restaurants Inc. and sister companies KD Development Inc. and Michael P. Frank Co. Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors in September 2004. Omni shuttered 12 of the 46 restaurants involved in the petition in an effort to regain solid financial…

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King Memorial Park area readies for redevelopment: Local contractor wants to build 50 homes in near-north-side neighborhood

A local investment firm hoping to capitalize on a resurgent near-north side is planning a 50-home, privately funded redevelopment project in the blocks surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park. Homevestors LLC, led by husband and wife Jerry and Carole Jaquess, has applied for city approval to build 50 single-family homes between 16th and 22nd streets just south of Fall Creek Place. “It’s the next logical area” for redevelopment, said Jerry Jaquess, a general contractor. Jaquess’ partnership is not affiliated…

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Y&L moving HQ to school: Ad firm to leave Massachusetts Avenue for renovated IPS building in Lockerbie

Advertising agency Young & Laramore is putting its highprofile Massachusetts Avenue building up for sale as it prepares to buy and occupy a former school building in Lockerbie Square. Y&L is listing its 17,000-square-foot building at 409 Massachusetts Ave. for $1.6 million, said Paul Knapp, the firm’s CEO. The building includes 4,000 square feet of storage space in the basement, leaving about 13,000 square feet as usable office space, Knapp said. The agency is leaving its headquarters behind after 15…

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Rehabs help schoolhouses rock: Threatened properties receive new life as apartments

As several local developers have discovered, some of the functional design aspects of school buildings also make attractive components of a successful apartment building. At least two north-side elementary schools closed by Indianapolis Public Schools in the early 1980s have been transformed into apartment communities, and another developer has found a niche turning old high schools in some of the state’s smaller cities into senior housing. By keeping the historic character of the buildings and serving a lower-income population, these…

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Help from Hollywood: ‘ER’ actor helping Broad Ripple buddies launch gastropub

Brugge Brasserie has the stuff glossy tabloid photos are made of-a hot new restaurant concept, a Hollywood actor-cum-restaurateur and a trendy locale. Brugge isn’t in Los Angeles, New York or London, however. It’s in Broad Ripple. The celebrity owner is Indianapolis’ own Abraham Benrubi, one of a group of childhood friends who are bringing what is possibly the Midwest’s first gastropub to the junction of Westfield Boulevard and the Monon Trail. Benrubi and Broad Ripple High School classmates Ted and…

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Barton House awaits renovation: Former nursing home to become housing

A long-vacant downtown nursing home is about to find new life as affordable housing. The Indiana division of the Salvation Army plans to convert the Barton House on the northeast corner of Delaware and Michigan streets into 30 apartments for lowincome families and space for some of the organization’s programs. The Salvation Army purchased Barton House and Carpenter apartments, its neighbor to the east, for about $500,000 each in late 1999, said Maj. Dennis Strissel, the Salvation Army’s divisional commander…

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End of an Ayres?: Federated’s planned acquisition of May likely to doom brand name founded in Indy

When Indianapolis residents talk about shopping trips to L.S. Ayres, they are as likely to mention a visit 30 years ago as an excursion last week to check out the new spring fashions. As retail options have spread beyond regional shopping malls, stores like Ayres are no longer considered at the forefront of fashion. So, while Lyman S. Ayres and the company he founded in 1874 are an important part of the city’s social history, in the present-day retail world,…

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Art for rent: LAMP sparks rental program: Gallery director hopes to spotlight local artists

Colorful or monochromatic, sober or whimsical, mundane or ephemeral. LAMP Fine Art Gallery Director Jennifer Kaye totes thick binders full of images of artwork espousing those qualities and just about every description in between. She hauls the binders to clients’ offices, helping them select the perfect work to hang in an office, lobby or hallway. Kaye is an artist and a gallery director, but she’s remade herself as a saleswoman for the launch of the downtown gallery’s art rental and…

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Department store consolidation likely means loss of major revenue source for newspapers:

Shoppers and mall owners aren’t the only ones preparing for fallout from the planned merger of Federated Department Stores Inc. and May Department Stores Co.-the advertising world is bracing for the impact, too. Newspapers will bear the brunt of it, experts predict. Observers need look no further for evidence than the Sunday circulars or the midweek pullout sections preceding a big sale. Locally, Macy’s, formerly known as Lazarus, and L.S. Ayres are both among the top 10 advertisers with The…

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Builders try retail approach: Estridge, Davis plan north-side home stores

Two locally based home builders are staking out retail storefronts in a bid to reach out to customers who might want to buy a new home while they’re picking up a gallon of milk or a pair of shoes. Carmel-based Estridge Cos. plans to open its HomeExperience store in Clay Terrace in late spring or early summer, while Indianapolis-based Davis Homes LLC in late April will move its showroom into a Krogeranchored shopping center at 96th and Meridian streets. For…

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Villaggio condos aim high: Proposed eight-story project targets downtown’s SE side

A developer with deep roots in the Fletcher Place neighborhood is setting its sights on an ambitious eight-story condominium project on the southeast side of downtown. Villaggio at Page Pointe calls for 65 condos ranging in size from 1,600 square feet to 4,300 square feet. Most units will sell for $265,000 to $530,000, with three penthouse units listed for more than $900,000. The first floor of the building will house about 20,000 square feet of retail space. A parking garage…

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Ex-execs fly solo: Horn, Shoopman, others trade big firms for small

As president of The Dura Cos. Inc., Paul Shoopman was responsible for a 155-employee company that brought in $75 million in revenue in 2003 and built as many as 700 homes a year in Marion and the surrounding counties. Last year, Shoopman won an Ernst & Young national Entrepreneur of the Year award and sold his company to publicly traded California-based KB Home. This year, he’s starting over. Shoopman, 51, opened Indiana Land Development Co. in early January. From his…

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Ashley makes home in former Galyan’s stores: Furniture stores to open in Greenwood, Carmel

Two former Galyan’s Trading Co. Inc. stores are set to find a new life in furniture. Ashley Furniture HomeStores will enter the market by occupying former Galyan’s stores in Greenwood and in Village Park Plaza in Carmel. The Greenwood store will have about 80,000 square feet and the Carmel store will be slightly smaller at 66,000 square feet, according to plans filed with the state. The HomeStores sell furnishings made by Arcadia, Wis.-based Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., but are independently…

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Project to link painter, Mandela: Nancy Noel collaborates on S. African’s Unity Series

In Africa, Nelson Mandela is called Madiba, a term of respect that connotes wisdom and a fatherly status. Through a twist of fate, local artist Nancy Noel is one of 39 artists from around the world who can say that, for a brief time, they called Mandela a collaborator. Noel is participating in Mandela’s Unity Series, the latest artistic effort from the South African revolutionary. To fans of Noel’s widely popular contemporary realism paintings of angels and Amish children, her…

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Eminent domain facing legal challenges: Supreme Court, Indiana legislature consider changes to economic development tool some say is unfairly used

The tool of eminent domain, increasingly used for redevelopment projects in Indiana cities and towns, could change significantly depending on the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case and a bill before the Indiana General Assembly. In Indianapolis, city officials are closely watching the cases and legislation. In recent years, construction of WellPoint Inc.’s operations center, redevelopment of the Link-Savoy and Blacherne apartment buildings, and Fall Creek Place have all involved eminent domain. Officials have also indicated they may use…

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