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Startups offered a fast track: Motorsports-themed incubator gets green light in Brownsburg

Hendricks County officials hope a new business incubator there revs the engines of local entrepreneurs. The motorsports-themed facility, to be known as Fast-Start, got the green light after a year-long feasibility study concluded the project was a logical fit for a community that already houses Prudhomme Racing, John Force Racing and Bill Simpson’s Impact Racing. “It would help achieve some of our goals in Brownsburg,” said Jeanette Baker, town council president and treasurer of the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership,…

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Incentives abound to help backfill old GM sites:

Anderson officials are taking advantage of two incentive programs-one state and the other federal-to lure users to former General Motors Corp. factories. A collection of vacant buildings and empty lots where more than 24,000 GM employees once worked was designated last December as a state Community Revitalization Enhancement District, or CReED. Anderson is one of only seven Indiana cities to have a CReED, which offers tax advantages to private companies that locate in the district. The program is funded by…

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Theater rehab project symbolic of city’s makeover:

While Anderson officials have focused much energy on Interstate 69 access points and former General Motors Corp. sites and business parks outside the city’s center, they’ve also been carefully rebuilding downtown. In 2002, Anderson Indiana Main Street was formed, and has become active in the last two years recruiting business there and hosting a number of festivals and other events. In recent years, many of the streets have been repaved-some with brick pavers as part of a massive beautification project…

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Hot mod madness: Customizer Kenny Brown enjoys performance-car revival

In a dark corner of the Kenny Brown Performance garage is the 2005 Mustang Ford Motor Co. should have built. Supercharger. Disc brakes as big as the tires of some cars. All hung on a chassis that’s Prince Charles stiff. And shrouding its meaty tires are a protruding rear fender and a filled-in quarter window raked all the way back to the taillights, akin to the 1967 Mustang fastback. “It’s kind of like the marriage of heritage and technology,” said…

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Marsh store on hold: Grocery chain halts plan for much-ballyhooed Atlas replacement

Farrar broke the news to residents this month after speaking with Arthur Marsh, the store’s namesake, who lives in the area. A source inside Marsh confirmed the project is on hold, but company officials declined repeated opportunities to elaborate. Marsh is pulling back from the project at a time it’s under increasing financial strain. In its most recent quarter, the Indianapolis-based company posted a profit of just $674,000 on revenue of $410 million. In an August statement, CEO Marsh Supermarkets…

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State changes malpractice tact: Insurance department using more outside legal help

The Indiana Department of Insurance has boosted the outside help it uses to defend its medical malpractice Patients’ Compensation Fund after seeing a record payout this summer. A staff shortage, concern voiced by providers and a ruling that could lead to huge damage sums all spurred the move, said Amy Strati, who oversees the fund as the Insurance Department’s chief counsel. “The provider community has clearly said to us, ‘We want you using experienced [medical malpractice] attorneys on the complex…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: Luring people with bricks, mortar

A parking garage is about to rise on a vacant lot at 120 E. Washington St. It’s ironic that a block or so west of the site, a group of architects, city planners, real estate developers and leaders of the city’s arts movement meet on a regular basis to plot against such garages. The garage in the works isn’t just any garage. In its current design, which is yet to be approved, it’s only a garage. No ground-floor retail. Just…

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Backing home again: CID changes out-of-state course, invests $50M in Indiana

Indiana’s flagship venture capital firm has changed direction. Often criticized for not investing frequently enough within state lines, CID Equity Partners over the last five years has quietly put nearly $50 million to work in 10 Indiana companies. In the decade before, CID invested in just a half-dozen local deals. And after struggling to weather the 2001 recession, CID’s managers believe the wind is finally at their back. Three years ago, massive losses threatened to sink the firm. Since then,…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Let’s make Indiana a true hub

Sometimes, the obvious is ignored. It is obvious that, geographically, Indiana holds a central position in North America. But when we think about economic development, we take this obvious point for granted. As business grows and incomes rise across the world, the demand for transportation increases. The question for Indiana becomes, “How much does this increase in demand translate into jobs and income for our citizens?” Most people understand that Indiana does not gain anything by having airplanes cross our…

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South-side exit finally sparking development: Wal-Mart might by key to I-65/County Line interchange meeting expectations

An interchange linking Interstate 65 and County Line Road completed six years ago is finally helping attract large commercial development to a busy Johnson County corridor. While Greenwood city officials are pleased by the amount of activity occurring there, they question why it took so long. “We thought it would take off much sooner than it did,” said Ed Ferguson, Greenwood’s director of planning, zoning and economic development. “We still have several hundred acres available in what we call the…

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Bye-bye blight?: Developers grabbing parcels east of Circle Centre mall

Several groups are floating plans and crunching numbers for downtown hotel or condo projects east of Circle Centre mall, an area that has been largely passed over for new developments in recent years. One of the more imminent projects is a large mixed-use development for the quarter-block at Maryland and Pennsylvania streets, now occupied by surface parking lots and a 9,000-squarefoot office building. A group that includes local developer J. Greg Allen has four separate parcels at the corner under…

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ABDUL-HAKIM SHABAZZ: Listen to a tale of two Indys

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … .” That is the opening sentence in the Charles Dickens novel, “A Tale of Two Cities.” The book is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, a revolution where the poor and oppressed eventually rise up against the aristocracy. And while I’m not about to say 2005 Indianapolis is anything like 1789 Paris, I cannot help but wonder if, just like France of the 18th century,…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Is our child care ‘industry’ up to snuff?

Recently, I have been part of a study for the Indiana Child Care Fund. It has been a learning experience. The first thing I learned is that virtually nothing is known about child care. We do not really know how many child care facilities exist in Indiana. Data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census suggest there are more than 16,000. However, fewer than 5,800 are licensed or recognized by the state. In addition, there are informal child care arrangements…

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Utility fund-raising effort takes heat for opt-out strategy: Critics say customers should be asked if they want to contribute to Operation Round Up-or any charity

The concept is a noble one: By rounding their bills up to the nearest dollar, utility customers can turn pennies into a philanthropic windfall for a worthy cause. Indeed, Operation Round Up programs at nearly 250 electric cooperatives nationwide-including 22 in Indiana-have collected more than $50 million for charity since the fund-raising effort began in 1989. But some observers question the method most participating utilities use to get their members involved. Rather than being asked to give, residential and commercial…

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: Health care close to implosion?

The rash of specialty-hospital construction in the suburbs is a gold rush, driven more by greed than the desire to satisfy an unmet need. The fact that 45 million people in America are without health insurance is a deplorable national disaster. The best way to use America’s health care system is to not get sick. These aren’t the rants of a deranged publisher. These are comments made by a doctor and a pair of health care executives who were panelists…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Data thin on rural areas, and likely to get worse

There was a time in this country when cities had electricity and the countryside did not. This side-by-side existence of two lifestyles-one filled with leisure and convenience, another with endless drudgery and work-ultimately shamed the federal government to subsidize rural electrification and turn lights on in the country that had been burning in cities for several decades. That same situation exists today for broadband Internet, and its implications for economic development have already motivated many communities to pursue plans to…

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Economic developer for hire: Miller’s brain trust spreads advice from town to country

It’s about soybeans and high hopes. Clinton County has only 34,148 residents, nearly half of them living in the county seat of Frankfort. Most of the labor force works in either farming or auto-parts manufacturing. Neither is generally considered the field of the future. Enter economic development consultant Thomas P. Miller & Associates. Since Clinton County is the state’s fifth-largest soybean producer, TPMA counseled a strategy based on what it already does well. Starting next year, federal regulators will require…

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Basic utility vehicle rolling ahead-slowly: Assembly would happen in developing nations

A not-for-profit group developing vehicles for use in the Third World plans to open a “micro-factory” next month near 65th Street and Binford Boulevard. But the Institute for Affordable Transportation site won’t mass-produce its diminutive vehicles, powered by lawn tractor engines. Rather, the donated space will become a lab for working out methods to help those in developing countries assemble the so-called “basic utility vehicles.” The facility “is to basically prepare the way for this technology transfer package so it…

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State unrolls insurer-friendly plan: New strategy aims to recruit, nurture insurance businesses; watchdogs wary of approach

The state of Indiana is aggressively courting the insurance industry to add high-paying jobs to the economy, a strategy that comes with a touch of controversy. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. announced late last month the appointment of Mike Chrysler as Indiana’s first-ever director of insurance initiatives. Chrysler then hit the ground driving. He’s already visited the Fort Wayne market and plans to reach several other corners of Indiana to let insurers know the state appreciates their business and wants…

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City’s mall gamble paid off: After 10 years, Circle Centre at core of rejuvenated downtown

In February, Goldsmith suspended construction while he and advisers analyzed options. Within months, he gave Circle Centre the green light, and construction resumed-but not because he was convinced the project would succeed. “In the end, we decided job creation in the urban core and the psychological survival of the city were dependent on some development occurring downtown,” recalled Goldsmith, now a professor at Harvard University. “We went forward with the mall with great anxiety.” Today, 10 years after the September…

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