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NOTIONS: Emerging from Eden, wanting to head straight back

Last week, my wife Cherí and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a trip to Turks and Caicos. We walked for miles along the white sand beaches of Grace Bay, snuggled in a hammock at sunset, slathered on sunblock and, between us, polished off 10 books at poolside. By midweek, we’d finally chilled from the tension of the daily grind. Unfortunately, about that time, the anticipatory anxiety of returning home set in. “I don’t wanna go back,” was our…

Against odds, AlGalCo pursues ‘Holy Grail’ of power cells

A small West Lafayette technology startup has quietly unveiled a product that might, just might, change the world. At the
TechAdvantage Conference and Expo in Anaheim, Calif., on Feb. 20, Kurt Koehler, CEO, co-founder (and, for the moment, sole
employee) of AlGalCo LLC, showed off a pre-production hydrogen-powered emergency generator.

Mann, Opus team up to develop Ingalls industrial park:

Locally based Mann Properties is stepping outside its comfort zone of small office/flex projects to develop a 140-acre industrial park and logistics center along Interstate 69 in Madison County. Mann is teaming with Illinois-based Opus North Corp. to put together plans for 1.5 million square feet of industrial and office space near the town of Ingalls. The two developers are optimistic that ground can be broken yet this year on the $100 million project called I-69 Trade Center. A potential…

Housing slump puts Gramercy project in Carmel on hold:

The deteriorating housing market and Carmel’s plans to build more roundabouts have led The Buckingham Cos. to put the brakes on its ambitious Gramercy development project. The $500 million project set to begin in the spring now has no timetable. But when construction ultimately commences, it likely will begin with the commercial and retail portions rather than the home-building portion, as was originally planned, said Clyde Lee, a spokesman for the local developer. “They have revised the plans,” Lee said….

Streetcars work in Portland, but viability here uncertain

If the introduction of modern streetcars to one West Coast city can be replicated here, Indianapolis would see new, higher-density
housing and related retail and restaurants shadowing the line. Fallow areas crossed by the tracks would become fertile for
new investment. At least that was the case in Portland, Ore., a city mesmerizing to Indianapolis civic leaders, who last month
formed Downtown Indianapolis Streetcar Corp. They risk being run out of town on a rail: a streetcar line will cost…

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…

INVESTING: New Wall St. ‘product’ far from a sure thing

Financial securities often are called intangibles, since they lack physical attributes and thus are not easily described. That is why investment firms like to package investments into what they call “products.” Products lend themselves to more concise descriptions of what the investor is buying, and therefore a product is easier to sell. Mutual funds are probably the best example of an investment product. Now, products have entered the realm of hedge funds in the form of 130/30 funds. The numbers…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Green solutions can mean savings for building owners

Is going green incompatible with the bottom line? Not necessarily. In fact, since the signing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, your business can accelerate significant tax deductions by going green. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established a tax deduction for commercial build ings that reduce annual energy and power consumption. The deduction is available to a taxpayer for part or all of the cost of energy-efficient property that is installed in new or existing commercial buildings. The…

Commentary: Ice Miller finds gem in ag hire

Indianapolis law firm Ice Miller recently announced the formation of an Agricultural Law Initiative and named Beth Bechdol as its director of agribusiness strategies. The group includes more than a dozen attorneys and industry specialists. The recruitment of Bechdol is a brilliant move that was ultimately possible because of a family tragedy. Bechdol is a farm girl from just outside of Auburn who graduated from Georgetown University in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in foreign service and visions of becoming…

BEHIND THE NEWS: How a smart businessman invested his way into prison

In 1994, Indianapolis real estate entrepreneur Mark Ristow read some investment advice that changed his life. In the book “Beating the Street,” Peter Lynch, the former star mutual fund manager, described a “can’t lose proposition (almost)” called bank-conversion investing. The game: Buying stock in mutual, depositor-owned banks when they convert into public companies. Depositors get in at the initial-public-offering price, often a discount. So “the next time you pass a mutual savings bank or an S&L that’s still cooperatively owned,”…

Right time for REITs?: Some predict beaten-down sector is ready for another winning streak

For seven years, real estate investment trusts delivered returns that clobbered the overall stock market. Then, last year, the winning streak came to an end. Between January 2007 and January 2008, REITs as a whole lost 24 percent of their value. An index of the companies took a bigger hit than most every other sector. Among local REITs, Duke Realty Corp. was the hardest hit, with its stock price falling 44 percent, from about $41 to $23, during the one-year…

Kite lands in hot retail spot

Another high-profile local developer is making a move to capitalize on the city’s hottest retail corridor, joining mall giant
Simon Property Group Inc. and upstart Premier Properties USA Inc. Kite Realty Group Trust paid $18.3 million for Rivers Edge
shopping center, a 111,000-square-foot property just east of Clearwater Crossing.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Study exposes unfortunate work-force realities

For more than a half-century, we have built complex statistical models to attempt to explain why regions enjoy different levels of prosperity. Virtually every conceivable variable-from ethno-linguistic similarity indexes to existing natural resources to government structures-have been tried, with the models proving enormously successful. One critical insight in this extensive body of research is that human capital-the quality of a labor force-yields the strongest explanation for differences in prosperity. When we apply these models to the United States, the importance…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Protestors shouldn’t control community development

N e i g h b o r h o o d activists in Pittsburgh are fighting a development that would bring a grocery store, job training center, youth programs and other social services to the area of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ $290 million arena. The Pittsburgh group was planning a march in protest. Is retail and commercial development next to a sports arena a bad idea? A Cambridge, Mass., neighborhood group was opposed to the development of three townhomes, arguing…

EYE ON THE PIE: Primaries and prudence demand attention

Today-not tomorrow or next week, but now-is the moment to get involved in improving your life and the lives of your family and neighbors. Don’t delay. All you need do is both of two simple things. First, find out who is running in the primary election on May 6 for the Indiana House of Representatives and Senate from your district. Yes, the national news media have told us that our Indiana primary may be meaningless. They are referring to the…

IU donors could stage own boycott

The situation at Indiana University is so bad, several former athletes and big-time donors are calling for Athletic Director Rick Greenspan’s termination. Some think financial support to the school will be hurt if the situation regarding the men’s basketball program…

Business journalists and recession

Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard thinks business journalists are stirring up recession talk.

In a column this week with a takeout headlined â??Business press incompetence and fear,â?? Karlgaard advises against
believing everything one reads.

Hereâ??s what he writes:

â??Want to know the truth about…

“Assassins” shot down

“All of us have a healthy respect for the freedom of artistic expression that college theater represents, and all of us agree that out of respect for the families of those victims of the tragedies at Northern Illinois University and…

What’s old is new again

On this nasty Friday, I’ve got a few updates on previous posts. Hope everyone has a nice weekend. Here goes:

What was Flagstar thinking?
Flagstar Bank has added yet…

UnitedHealthcare, Indiana Orthopaedic sign pact

UnitedHealthcare has signed a three-year contract with the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital, bringing the specialty hospital into UnitedHealthcare’s central Indiana network of health care providers. The contract, announced today, took effect on Feb. 1. It gives the orthopedic hospital “in-network” status, which typically means bigger discounts for UnitedHealthcare customers. OrthoIndy, a group of more 60 orthopedic […]