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Tourism’s new buzz: Product development: Officials want to build on Indiana’s unique assets

Billboards in southern Indiana used to tug spelunkers in four different directions. Come to Marengo Caves. Spend an afternoon at Bluespring Caverns. Visit Wyandotte Caves. Don a headlamp at Squire Boone Caverns. Two years ago, however, operators at the four attractions decided it might be a better use of cash to market the area as a single attraction. They pooled their advertising budgets and printed a brochure that listed all four destinations. They also created a passport that visitors could…

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City gives cultural trail green light: Long-anticipated project could cost $35M to $42M

The long-discussed trail will loop through downtown and cost $35 million to $42 million. All the money will come from federal transportation dollars and private contributions. “The trail has been officially approved,” said Brian Payne, president of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, the project’s lead managing partner. “It’s definitely a project that’s going to happen now.” Tourism officials greeted the news with enthusiasm. It’s a “huge win for White River State Park as well as the city,” said Bob Whitt,…

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Indiana Avenue looks for revival: Cultural plan: stresses retail, residential growth, and a possible extension

Indiana Avenue looks for revival Cultural plan stresses retail, residential growth, and a possible extension Indiana Avenue’s glory days as a haven for black-owned businesses and vibrant nightclubs exists only in the history books. But a plan to revitalize the city’s newest cultural district could restore some of the luster. City leaders completed the blueprint for redevelopment early this year and now are in the early stages of executing a plan that organizers say could take 20 years to play…

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VIEWPOINT: ‘Eating our young’ as a way of mentoring?

I recently came across an insightful publication by the Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being at the University of California, Berkley, called Greater Good. One article especially caught my attention: “Inspiring Good Work” (spring-summer 2005 issue) by researchers Wendy Fischman and Howard Garner, of Harvard University’s GoodWork Project. As highlighted in the article, the GoodWork Project’s research, under way for the past decade, has revealed that young people leaving college and embarking on their professional careers are finding…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Green building trend should be here to stay

Trends come and go all the time in the architecture and construction fields. But one movement that is proving to be steadfast and is gaining momentum is called “green architecture.” Simply stated, it is the effort to minimize the effect of new and refurbished buildings on their environment. The green approach to building design is often seen by many as merely focusing on the recycling of building materials, but in fact addresses multiple aspects of the construction process. Green design…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Short but historic session produces election plot lines

You can go home now (unless you live in Perry Township) and rest somewhat assured that the governor and state lawmakers won’t do anything untoward to you until, at the soonest, November. Yes, the 2006 short session of the Indiana General Assembly has run its course, and left the state with some key policy and economic legacies. Not the least of them, as we have discussed at length in this column, and has been covered elsewhere in these pages, are…

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IDEM pollution fines fall: Violators assessed lowest amount since ’99, but Daniels administration speeds up process

Under Republican control for the first time in 16 years, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in 2005 handed out $2.03 million in fines for pollution violations, the lowest annual assessment since at least 1999. The 2005 penalties were down nearly $600,000 from a year earlier, when the department was under the administration of Gov. Joe Kernan. But IDEM records show Gov. Mitch Daniels’ team had comparatively little patience for unresolved cases, in which the commission and alleged violators couldn’t…

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Art Institute students face changing world of design: Businesses should keep interior designers in demand

Facing an expanding world of corporate rebranding, homier hospital rooms and high-tech theaters in every suburb, students entering the field of interior design know they’ll be doing more than redecorating high-end homes. What once was considered predominantly a luxury service for wealthy homeowners wanting to expand their drawing rooms, interior design became a necessity in business years ago. Today, a majority of interior designers handle both residential and commercial work. And a growing number of firms that specialize in commercial…

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INVESTING: Consumer staples aren’t flashy, but they are safe

The stock market did a great job in January of getting investors to focus on the energy sector when they should have been looking at the good, old-fashioned Dow Jones industrial average. In the last two months, energy stocks have become serious dogs, and the Dow has posted a series of five-year highs. They don’t ring a bell, folks. This stuff just kind of creeps up on you. The market prefers subtlety. It rewards hard work, patience and the willingness…

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Steel Dynamics seeks part of former Olin site: Metal recycling operation would serve expanding Hendricks County mill

The site of the former Olin Brass factory on the near-west side might soon roar to life again if a plan to erect a metal recycling operation there comes through. A joint venture between Fort Waynebased Steel Dynamics Inc., Chicagobased Metal Management Inc. and local hauler Ray’s Trash is seeking city approval to install a metal shredder and recycling operation on about 40 acres at Holt Road and Airport Expressway. The venture, called Metal Dynamics LLC, would accept scrap metal…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: Kids were pawns in an adult game

Judge S. Hugh Dillin is dead, but the negative consequences of his school desegregation orders are still with us. Dillin, who died March 13, didn’t invent white flight, suburban sprawl or broken urban school systems, but if those problems were smoldering in 1970s Indianapolis, Dillin’s decisions poured gasoline on the fire. This column is not a diatribe against Dillin. His decisions were only interpretations of the law, after all, and the highest court in the land affirmed them. Based on…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Mediocre planning efforts don’t invite people to stay

Analysts say the housing market is slowing in Indianapolis and across the nation. Perhaps that’s why three significant, real estate developments have attracted so much local media coverage recently. In one story, the City-County Council approved the development of 28 condos in Broad Ripple, despite strong resistance from the neighborhood association. Meanwhile, local planning councils easily approved two new developments-a subdivision on the far northeast side of town that will feature almost 2,000 homes and a large condominium complex in…

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Mega-hotel on city agenda: Pan Am Plaza possible site for 800-room development

The city is looking for developers interested in adding 800 hotel rooms downtown, a project that could be accomplished by building a massive, new hotel or augmenting several existing facilities. Insiders say a new hotel is most likely. They picture it on Pan Am Plaza. If that happens, the hotel would become the city’s largest-eclipsing the Indianapolis Marriott by almost 200 rooms. Ideally, the rooms would be available by 2010, when the wraps come off the expanded Indiana Convention Center….

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: ‘Dallas’-like TV hit in our future?

Just as the popular prime-time soap opera “Dallas” emerged from Texas oil-industry lore, “Indiana” someday could become a mega-hit on television. After, that is, the state becomes the “Texas of biofuels” and the lurid, steamy tales of Big Biofuel begin to play out. I’m not sure who came up with “Texas of biofuels,” but the analogy surfaced after the recent announcement that the world’s largest soybean processing plant and biodiesel facility will be built in northern Indiana. With this project,…

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Hospitality madness: City wants to grow reputation as Final Four’s ideal site

Bill Evans’ phone rang at 11 p.m. It was a basketball team. The players wanted milkshakes. He popped up like he was bouncing on one of those mini-trampolines mascots use to dunk basketballs at halftime. He tapped his partner on the shoulder. They rolled two coolers to the downtown Steak n Shake. He ordered milkshakes. Large ones. Two for each player. They put the shakes in the coolers and rolled them through the downtown night to the team hotel. The…

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Short session long on action: Led by Major Moves, telecom successes, biz interests fared well in 2006 General Assembly

In less than three months, the Indiana General Assembly approved a pair of blockbuster economic-development measures designed to dramatically upgrade the state’s infrastructure. With the passage of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves initiative, Indiana will lease the Indiana Toll Road to an Australian-Spanish consortium for 75 years. It will use the upfront, $3.9 billion payment to build roads. Meanwhile, the approval of telecom deregulation sets the stage for more local phone, cable and Internet competition. Daniels, a Republican, argued that…

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You can take it to the bank: Financial experts say state’s economy is rising, merger mania isn’t over and regulatory laws could take a toll

On Feb. 24, IBJ Publisher Chris Katterjohn, Managing Editor Greg Andrews and banking reporter Matt Kish sat down with four leaders from Indianapolis’ banking and finance sector: Judith Ripley, director of the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions; Kit Stolen, CEO of Union Federal Bank of Indianapolis; Steve Beck, president and CEO of the Indiana Venture Center; and Keith Slifer, senior vice president of LaSalle Bank. Among the topics of conversation: How’s the state’s economy doing? Are more bank mergers on…

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TAWN PARENT Commentary: Bill offers new hope for Main Street

Recycling isn’t just good for the environment. It’s good for buildings, and ultimately for economic development. When the Disciples of Christ moved its international headquarters downtown from Irvington in 1995, it left behind a 121,000-square-foot structure built in 1910 that could easily have become a vacant eyesore in the east-side neighborhood. Instead, local developer Mansur Real Estate Services Inc. helped give it new life as Mission Apartments for seniors. That $6.5 million project might not have happened without the help…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Rising costs, lower prices sting domestic carmakers

As predictions go, it’s not a particularly difficult call. The trends are unmistakable, and the precedents in other industries are clear. Yet the silence on the part of workers, executives and even analysts on the issue bespeaks the pain, anger and denial that lurk just beneath the surface. The situation is this: In a very short span of time, perhaps as little as two or three years, the era of the highly paid automobile industry production worker will come to…

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Indiana’s universities give industry a boost: State touts wealth of higher-ed insurance programs

Politicians seem so much more 21st century when they talk about attracting life sciences and information technology jobs to Indiana. But they’re not about to ignore the state’s second-largest employer-the often-overlooked insurance industry. Indiana insurers employ more than 60,000 Hoosiers, second only to farming, and pay an average annual salary of $47,500, nearly $10,000 more than the state average, according to a 2004 study by Purdue University. Moreover, the industry boasts some of the state’s largest public and private companies-WellPoint…

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