We’ve been talking lately about falling prices and the effects on stock prices. I know everyone gets a big kick out of cheaper gas, and a lot of experts are telling us oil will fall to $40 a barrel. But judging from recent market action, oil and other commodity plays might do better than observers think for the rest of the year. The headline-grabbing news of the weak housing market is doing a great job taking people’s eyes off the…
It is a question that comes up at every project kickoff meeting, the $64,000 question that every project owner wants to know from Day One-what is it going to cost to design a “green,” or sustainable building? Typically, that answer has been somewhere between 3 percent and 5 percent extra to obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification, the industry’s standard for measuring building sustainability. Admittedly, it’s not an answer based on years of experience building sustainable…
For years, the model for most local drainage systems-especially in large development sites not directly downtown-has been underground pipes running into a large detention pond. The ponds have dotted the landscape, becoming a perk for office dwellers and homeowners wanting a “lake” view, but raising the concern of many safety officials over the increased risk of drownings. But as new federal rules come into effect requiring not just flood prevention but also filtration of contaminants, more developers may be moving…
Why should you care how many stamps your architect has in his or her passport? Or whom your architect talks to from around the world? Because, as national publications declare design to be the new driving force in the marketplace, and as that marketplace becomes increasingly global, your architect can offer you a conduit to the people and ideas that will make a difference in your business in the years ahead. Indianapolis-area architects already are working to bring the world…
The replacement of the Indiana Department of Commerce with the privately directed Indiana Economic Development Corp. has been mostly a non-issue in this election season. While most of the fist-pounding, face-reddening rhetoric has been directed at such meaty issues as how long we wait when we go to the BMV office once a year and whether or not we should reset our clocks each spring and fall, the issue of how we go about reinventing and reinvigorating the economy that…
St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers wants to raise $15 million to add an inpatient hospice to its growing campus on the south side of Indianapolis. The free-standing hospice could house as many as 32 beds for terminally ill patients. Even though most hospice patients receive care in their own homes, hospital officials see the project as a chance to fill a market need and reinforce their system’s Franciscan values. “People get caught up, I think, in the definition of…
The Central Indiana Small Business Development Center hasn’t exactly been a pillar of stability that budding entrepreneurs seeking its advice could emulate. The entity, part of a statewide network of 11 such centers that counsel fledgling businesses, has struggled to find a permanent home-and a capable director-for five years. But state officials, eager to end the strife, have stepped in to lead a reorganization they hope will return the center to prominence within the local small-business community. For starters, Ivy…
A mix of familiar stores and upscale retailers will be moving into the nowvacant L.S. Ayres space at Greenwood Park and Castleton Square malls, which owner Simon Property Group Inc. is turning into small-scale lifestyle centers. The open-air developments, which will be similar in design to Carmel’s Clay Terrace, have attracted a host of major retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Borders and AMC Theatres. Smaller specialty shops and sit-down restaurants also are planned. Barnes & Noble will be going in…
ATA, the incredibly shrinking airline that once was the busiest at Indianapolis International Airport, appears to have shrunk in a favorable category-its financial losses. The Indianapolis-based carrier that ended scheduled service here in January had a loss of $5.27 million in the second quarter, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Now privately owned, ATA Holdings Corp. lost $26.3 million during the second quarter in its domestic operations, according to DOT. But it earned $21 million in…
SPORTS Little-noticed Horizon League prospers and grows From his fifth-floor office in Pan Am Plaza, Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone has a view of the Indianapolis skyline. His only wish is that the city would look back. Not at him. At his nine-member league, which will grow to 10 next July when upstate Valparaiso joins Butler in the league’s Indiana contingent. Alas, it’s a prime example of good news making no news. Or of the media, local and otherwise, determining…
Even in a going-nowhere year like 2006, the ups and downs of the financial markets strike a lot of people as too much. Stock prices, in particular, are constantly described as volatile-swinging in arcs far wider than economic conditions could possibly warrant. Look at emerging markets stocks, which jumped 25 percent in the first few months of this year, then gave the whole gain back again in less than six weeks. These stocks from economies on the frontiers of capitalism,…
Finish Line Inc.’s fortunes have dimmed so dramatically in recent months that analysts are raising a range of ideas that once seemed farfetched to boost the slumping stock. Among them: taking the company private through a leveraged buyout, or selling it to a larger retailer. The athletic-shoe industry is abuzz that an LBO for Finish Line’s struggling rival, New York-based Foot Locker Inc., is already afoot. That company last month hired a financial adviser, just weeks after Women’s Wear Daily…
On Sept. 1, 45 competitors from nearly 20 countries arrived for the seventh quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Through the middle of September at venues around the city, these talented men and women will compete for one of the richest artistic prizes in the world. In a few short months, the American Pianists Association will undertake its biennial competition for the Cole Porter Jazz Fellowship. Again, a cadre of some of the instrument’s most accomplished American performers will come…
It’s 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and a steady stream of customers continues to patronize Claus’ German Sausage and Meat Market on East South Street. By March, however, the butcher shop likely will have abandoned its longtime home for a new building on South Shelby Street in Fountain Square. Whether its loyal clientele will follow concerns owner Claus Muth, who purchased the store from relative Gerhard Klemm in 2003 and changed the name from Klemm’s in April. “Since [the new…
Chunsheh Teo is a driven man. The 28-year-old sometimes works long days as an architectural graduate at Ratio Architects Inc. and spends his off time building furniture for the home he and his wife recently purchased in Irvington. On a recent weekend, he built a new fence for the yard. Oh, and he also enters international design competitions in his down time-about seven in the last three years. “It’s just kind of a fun thing to do,” Teo said. At…
The sun is setting, the pavement damp, and dark clouds dance across the San Juan Mountains as we turn onto U.S. Highway 550 and drive north toward Durango. As if there weren’t enough beauty in this peak-filled paradise, Nature’s earlyevening sideshow features a fully arced double rainbow, quite the welcome sign to a late-summer vacation. I suppose you could write off a double rainbow as a mere meteorological phenomenon. I suppose I could, too. But it’s more fun to wonder…
Electric customers would gain new payment options and more access to “green power,” and Indianapolis Power & Light would have more opportunities to profit, under a plan the utility filed Aug. 23 with state regulators.
Mention a career in motorsports to most youngsters and they imagine whizzing around the track like NASCAR’s Tony Stewart or Sam Hornish Jr., points leader of the Indianapolis Racing League. But a partnership between Indianapolisbased Panther Racing LLC and Decatur Township Schools wants to introduce students to more practical professions within the sport by providing the resources in a hands-on learning environment. The result is the Panther Education Center, set to open next fall near the racing team’s headquarters at…
Based on an analysis of biographical accounts, both Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison appear to have been challenged by dyslexia, a reading and comprehension developmental disorder that can be severe. Few today would question the astonishing contributions these individuals made to humanity. Despite the severity of the challenges that some of these children face, many adapt and conquer, entering the Indianapolis community as successful working adults. There are many stories of achievement about children exceeding expectations, from a teenager with…
Hola! I feel like speaking Spanish today. I want to go down to Mexico and protest with my socialist brothers the outrages of the freeelection process. There’s a lot of wealth we Americans didn’t create but want to take, and that’s hard to do when a bunch of capitalists are running Mexico. It has been a long struggle for Mexico. Decades of anti-capitalist governments and first-rate corruption have created problems that will take generations to work out. But the election…
