Giving out awards can be a tricky business. To wit, news broke Aug. 13 that CEO Peter Dunn has left Steak n Shake, a company we honored in 2005 with our annual Enterprise Award. A good chunk of the credit in our article profiling the company two years ago was directed at Dunn, an MBA and food-industry veteran who had energized the company with a philosophy that was producing results. Now he’s gone. Do his departure and a decline in…
Noble Roman’s Inc. stock this year has been rising nearly as fast as its pizza dough, defying skeptics who’d written off the
long-ailing Indianapolis company. With a new business strategy built on franchising and dual-branded restaurants, Noble Roman’s
has seen quarter-to-quarter earnings increase for more than two years.
Steak n Shake Co. CEO Peter M. Dunn analyzed and measured just about everything at the restaurant chain, from drive-through
times to employee turnover. All that research and testing was welcome when the company was thriving a few years ago. But the
lack of evidence that all the analysis was paying off eroded Wall Street’s confidence in Dunn.
That’s a popular question around here. Has been for years. The city is not currently in discussions with the Swedish home furnishings giant, said Jim Garrard, Indy’s economic development director. But it was…
The owners of the eyesore formerly known as Eastgate Consumer Mall have put the property back on the market at an asking price of $3.5 million. Dallas-based JTL Capital LLC received…
Scotty’s Brewhouse, the Indiana college town institution, is working on plans for new restaurants in downtown Indianapolis, Chicago and Charlotte, N.C. The restaurant would like to locate at Pan Am Plaza, said…
The federal government has canceled a contract with a Missouri developer chosen to build a new FBI field office in Castleton. The U.S. General Services Administration awarded the $38-million contract to Kansas City-based…
Noblesville’s Verizon Wireless Music Center is no longer for sale and will host a full lineup of shows in 2008, the facility’s general manager, Steve Finkel,…
Whether you’re looking to save your money or spend it on booze, these nuggets might be of interest: D’Vine A Wine Bar plans to open next Tuesday in its new location along East 82nd Street. The wine bar is taking…
Scotty Wise, the president
also is working on deals for new restaurants in Old Town Chicago and at EpiCentre, a mixed-use project in downtown Charlotte, N.C.
With so many new fitness chains entering the central Indiana market, will Hoosier become synonymous with svelte? The latest additions: A Minnesota fitness chain has plans for new locations in Avon, Brownsburg, Carmel,…
Almost 50 years ago, before the City-County Building or Interstate 65, city leaders and planners designed a master plan for the Central Business District. The 42-page document provides some fascinating…
A new headquarters for Gresk & Singleton Law Firm and Gresk Realty has been “coming soon” northwest of Delaware and 10th streets for the better part of two years. What…
Before they had fancy suits or fast cars, the four owners of Lauth Property Group were resourceful teen-agers, busy finding ways to make money. Chairman Bob Lauth, President Michael Curless and CEO Greg Gurnik each started neighborhood lawn-care businesses. The company’s treasurer and chief accounting officer, Larry Palmer, hawked programs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At the time, their hard work and entrepreneurial instincts helped scrounge up date money. In the last few years, it’s helped them turn Indianapolis-based Lauth…
Real estate developers have a secret: We’re not evil. OK … we’re not all evil This runs contrary to the perception that some people seem determined to promote. They opine that “good development” is an oxymoron. Development is a humbling business. It turns out that a lot of people know a lot more about the right way to do development than we do, and they’re not shy about letting us and everyone else know this, in public meetings, private conversations,…
LB&A Sign Management Signs matter Artist helps firms promote their brands It takes more than a power drill to put up a company’s sign these days. In most cities and towns, there are ordinances and zoning regulations to comply with and permits to get before a sign is tacked on the side of a building. Business owners also want their signs to capture the firm’s essence-and look good, too. That’s where Lisa Bohn comes in. Bohn, 40, parlayed 15 years’…
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “May you live in interesting times.” The saying possesses a sort of electric connotation, with hopes that one experiences an exciting lifetime. Yet in the historical use of this proverb, the interpretation of “interesting times” hasn’t always meant “good times,” with some recitals implying “dangerous times.” For investors, our times are certainly interesting. We have a global economy that is booming. Economic growth across the planet has never been in such harmony….
First Indiana Corp. announced poor second-quarter financial results Aug. 7-which raises this interesting question: Did the city’s biggest locally owned bank race to sell itself last month because the results otherwise would have caused its stock to tumble? Even before the earnings report, banking observers were abuzz that the $529 million sale to Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. seemed rushed. While many expected First Indiana to sell eventually, CEO Robert Warrington had seemed hellbent on improving results first to drive…
Downtown and suburban vacancy rates are declining slightly or at least holding steady-a positive sign for an Indianapolis office market absorbing a plethora of new space on the city’s north side. The second-quarter vacancy rate for the central business district dropped to 15.9 percent, from 16.7 percent the previous quarter, according to data from the local office of St. Louis-based commercial real estate firm Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. A similar report from the local office of Los Angeles-based CB Richard…
When Ed Beilouny bought property at the southwest corner of Massachusetts and College avenues in 1977, many of his friends and family members thought he was crazy. The neighborhood wasn’t much to look at. In the eyes of some, it was downright dangerous. But Beilouny, who was born in New York, had a vision that would take 30 years to develop. The land is now home to the flagship building of Beilouny Luxury Properties, a privately held company that has…
