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Local company launches technical think tank: Wolf Technical Services seeks broader customer base

A low-profile Indianapolis research firm is emerging from the shadows to raise its profile and grab more business. Wolf Technical Services Inc., which until earlier this year had focused on forensic studies and accident re-creation, enlisted former University of Indianapolis President Ben Lantz last year to launch a new division that is winning contracts that focus on the future rather than re-creating the past. Already, Wolf’s new division to develop problem-solving technology has done work for IndyGo, Riley Hospital for…

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The old college try: Struggling IndyGo courting campuses to boost ridership

One solution for a city bus system struggling to lure riders might be academic-get college students on board. The Indianapolis Public Transportation Corp. is in talks with colleges and vocational schools about the potential of discounted fares for students who opt to take the bus to and from campus. The push also has a longer-term goal of conditioning students to use public transportation after they graduate to the work world. Financially sputtering IndyGo, which finished 2004 in the black only…

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IU planning logistics center: University seeks funds for facility to provide services to TDL industry

Indiana University officials say they’re shopping for a site near the airport or in Plainfield for a laboratory to help grow the state’s transportation-distribution-logistics industry-known as TDL. The IU Supply Chain Control Center would evaluate for companies the feasibility and cost benefits of new technologies that could be used to improve sourcing, production and product distribution. The service would be provided at no or little cost. But the center faces a logistics challenge of its own-a delivery of cash. IU…

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INVESTING: Citigroup plods along while financial stocks are mired

Citigroup reported another great quarter last week and, once again, not much is happening with the stock. It is starting to get a little routine. The story inside the company seems to get a little brighter every few months, but the stock has been trading sideways for two years. It is getting a little more popular these days to turn away from financial stocks because of rising interest rates. (Although the only rates that are moving higher are those controlled…

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Experts see improving market: Higher occupancy rates, more construction projects mean good news for landlords, developers

IBJ: Is your sector of the construction or real estate industry better or worse off than a year ago and why? BURK: Overall, I think the Indianapolis office market is better off than it was a year ago. The occupancy rate for the 29-million-plus square feet of multitenant office properties in the market increased by about 2 percent last year, to 82.5 percent. There was positive net absorption of about 600,000 square feet, most of which occurred in the suburbs….

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Neuburger’s new gig opens door for expanded FINA role:

Pros Consulting, an Indianapolis-based firm with a national reputation in the parks and recreation industry, has hired one of the biggest local names in sports and event management to help grow its firm in a new direction. Dale Neuburger, who stepped down as president of the Indiana Sports Corp. earlier this month, joined Pros as vice president of sport strategy and development. Neuburger, who headed ISC for 12 years, carries international clout-especially in Olympic sports. Pros founder and President Leon…

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Plainfield, Avon work on land annexation agreement: Pact could pave way for mammoth industrial park by Browning Investments

Officials from the towns of Plainfield and Avon are negotiating to share annexation of a large parcel of unincorporated land that a mammoth industrial and distribution park will be built upon. Locally based developer Browning Investments Inc. has much of the 1,100-acre tract north of its Plainfield AirTech Business Park in Hendricks County under contract. When finished, the decade-long project will boast 15 million square feet of space, almost equaling the entire Plainfield industrial market. It dwarfs the 5.5-million-square-foot AirTech…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: General Assembly’s shooting the three! Boom Baby!

Typically, when lawmakers are this near to reaching agreement on a state budget, it’s some time in early or mid-May, and we’re trying to pepper this column with analogies to the Indianapolis 500. However, we started the year with a race analogy-the one about Mario Andretti suggesting that if you felt like you were under control you weren’t going fast enough-and since the Indiana Pacers seemed destined for a brief playoff run this year, we probably ought to stick to…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Pondering the world from an economist’s viewpoint

In case you’ve ever wondered what it is like to look at life through the eyes of an economist, here are some questions to ponder: Has anyone else noticed that public schools these days are in the transportation business, the sports entertainment business, the restaurant business, the health care business, not to mention the day care business? It’s no wonder their jobs are so difficult. To those who decry the risk of diverting Social Security revenue towards personal accounts in…

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: Be yourself-maximize your assets

Be who you are. Conversely, don’t try to be somebody you’re not. Focus on what you do best, and you’ll succeed. When we think of people who excel at anything … Joshua Bell playing the violin, Reggie Miller shooting three-pointers, Dr. Lawrence Einhorn treating cancer … we understand they have achieved their success by focusing on their God-given talents, developing them, and practicing, practicing, practicing. Communities are much the same, though the philosophy could be amended to read a more…

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Accounting firm looks overseas for help: Sarbanes-Oxley business sparks need for extra hands

Zietsman is one of several employees of PricewaterhouseCoopers who are in the United States to temporarily help the global accounting firm complete client audit work created by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-accountability law. One rule, Section 404, requires corporations to assess the internal accounting controls they have in place to ensure their financial reporting is accurate and reliable-and requires accounting firms to vouch for those controls. Many public companies had to devote thousands of employee hours and millions of dollars to…

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New rules, players mean different conference session STATEHOUSE DISPATCH:

This is about the time each year when I write about the advent of the conference committee process, the black hole that not even the Stephen Hawkings of the legislative process can fathom. Just when you have figured out the session dynamics-leadership, partisan mischief, interconnections between issues and bills, and the relationships among key lawmakers-conference committees begin and all your presumed understanding flies out the window. Regardless of all the pablum you may hear about rules, what issues may be…

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Are you tough enough?: Women learn how to be hardy so they can compete with the guys in any field of endeavor

Dr. Mary Reilly sometimes gets emotional on the job. But the emergency physician also knows how to turn it off. “In the middle of a ‘code,’ I can’t be breaking down in tears,” said Reilly, who works with Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Emergency Physicians Inc. “I put a wall up in some situations and try not to think about these people as people. That’s the only way emotionally I can get through [it].” Reilly is among the many women who’ve learned…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: Riding the rails from first to worst

When my grandparents took the interurban from Rushville to Indianapolis to see the 1920 Indianapolis 500, they probably didn’t appreciate how lucky they were to live in a state that was a leader in public transportation. Indiana had one of the earliest and most extensive interurban systems in the country. The state’s electric railway network converged at the Indianapolis Traction Terminal, thought to be the largest interurban station in the world. The massive building on West Market Street served 462…

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Little jets get the test in Indiana: New aircraft could help small airports shave costs

A top Indiana economist will study whether an emerging class of aircraft known as “very light jets” could fuel an economic boom, especially in the state’s smaller, more isolated communities. Morton J. Marcus, director emeritus of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University, will gauge the potential impact of VLJs in six communities, including Mount Comfort Airport in Hancock County. Several aircraft makers next year plan to launch the diminutive jets, which can whisk up to six people as…

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ProLiance verdict to cost Citizens: Utility to pay at least $1.5M in fraud case

Citizens Gas & Coke is one of two Indiana utilities burned by a $33.5 million jury verdict, won under a federal racketeering law, against Indianapolis-based Pro-Liance Energy, an unregulated subsidiary of Citizens. The city-owned Citizens has set aside $1.5 million as part of the hit it expects to take for its investment in ProLiance, which procures and manages more than 475 billion cubic feet of natural gas for 1,200 utility and industrial customers in North America. Meanwhile, Evansville-based gas and…

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EYE ON THE PIE Morton Marcus: Casino location none of state’s business

Let’s see if I have this right. This is Indiana, a state dominated by conservative thought. Folks here support the free market, unimpeded competition, the roughand-tumble world of entrepreneurs doing their stuff guided by the benevolent invisible hand. So, why don’t we live by our supposed principles? Case in point: gambling, specifically at French Lick, where the Donald has ducked out, thus reopening the bidding for the right to build a casino and hotel complex in Orange County. Let’s review…

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Struggling IndyGo pays big for technology expertise: At $94 an hour, IT director raises some eyebrows

Financially struggling IndyGo is paying a handsome sum to its information technology director, hired to help turn around a city bus system that began 2004 with a $4 million budget deficit. Dale Meyers would earn about $188,000 if he worked 40 hours a week, based on a $94-an-hour employment agreement inked last July. Meyers’ pay would dwarf the $120,000 annual salary of Indy-Go CEO Gilbert Holmes. It’s also salty compared to others’ in his field. The median pay for an…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: In scandals’ wake, firms endure financial wringer Process mapping Too high a cost

Last year was excruciating for executives at many of Indiana’s public companies, but not for the usual reasons, like a slumping economy or sliding stock market. Instead, it was because they had to devote thousands of employee hours and millions of dollars to comply with a controversial new rule, Section 404 of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-accountability law. The rule requires companies to assess the internal accounting controls they have in place to ensure their financial reporting is accurate and reliable-and…

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INVESTING: Tumbling indexes should not be cause for panic-yet

The market’s been taking a bit of a beating lately. On March 4, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed at 3-1/2-year highs. Apparently that was enough to bring out sellers, because the major averages suffered pullbacks of 2 percent to 3 percent the next week. Each time the market falls, I get the feeling there are more than a few people ready and willing to call the start of the next bear market….

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