Paul Shoopman put 33 years into Dura Builders Inc. before selling his residential construction firm to national player KB
Home Inc. as the local housing market boomed. Two years later, he’s getting back into the business even as KB and others retrench.
Bruce Hetrick has the week off. Before he left, he updated this column that was first published Dec. 20, 2004. Contrary to folklore perpetuated each December, Santa and Mrs. Claus don’t live at the North Pole. Their heads aren’t crowned with thick, white locks. Their clothes aren’t predominantly crimson. And there’s no sleigh in the garage, nor reindeer in the stable (in fact, there’s no stable at all.) The Clauses live, instead, on the north side of Indianapolis. As occasional…
A government panel is echoing the concerns of the Hoosier Environmental Council that Centre Properties’ proposed RiverPlace development along White River at 96th Street could worsen the effects of a flood. The Hamilton County Drainage Board doesn’t carry the weight of the U.S. Geological Survey, but its opinion could influence the giant, mixed-use project’s chances of winning a rezoning case. A letter the drainage board sent recently to the Fishers planning commission comes just before the Fishers Town Council considers…
Locally based Gregg Appliances Inc. found itself flat-footed last holiday season when consumers demanded flat-panel TVs. The
popular televisions were in short supply at H.H. Gregg stores. This year, Gregg has bet on a huge selection of flat-panel
TVs to buoy sales.
Over the last seven years, Starbucks has inundated virtually every corner of the Hoosier landscape. And the company has no
plans to slow down. Several Indiana towns–from Gas City to Angola, Batesville to Bluffton–will get their first Starbucks
in 2007.
A local developer plans to build a $33 million, four-story apartment and retail complex on the Central Canal just north of
Michigan Street. Flaherty & Collins Properties has the three-acre parcel under contract from American United Life Insurance
Co.
Crystal Food Services plans to team with several prominent restaurant chains for a nationwide expansion after severing ties
with Marsh Supermarkets Inc. early next year. The locally based catering and food-service company will report directly to
Florida-based Sun Capital Partners, which acquired Marsh in September.
The state’s best-known car wash company has found a new formula for success it hopes will rival its popular multiwash books: monthly passes that practically guarantee a permanent shine. Indianapolis-based Mike’s Express Carwash already has enrolled more than 3,000 customers in a monthly membership program, launched in September, that allows unlimited washes in exchange for a monthly fee. Express wash passes are $39.99 per month, and “Works” passes are $69.99. “It’s truly for the person who always wants a clean…
Music CD sales are falling–down 8 percent so far in 2005–while digital downloading of music jumped 163 percent. And nearly one-third of the nation’s record stores have closed in the past three years. Even so, Indianapolis record-store owners say they’ve been reasonably successful adapting to a changing marketplace.
Once upon a time not so long ago, Imax films were nearly synonymous with museums. In Indianapolis and elsewhere, the largeformat movie screens-some as big as the side of an eight-story building-featured 40-minute films that took viewers to exotic places like outer space or the top of Mount Everest, and were usually attached to educational and cultural institutions. But technology that debuted in 2002 is bringing Imax screens to suburbia-including to Noblesville in 2008. Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Goodrich Quality Theaters…
Plans are in place for a 400-acre mixed-use development off Interstate 70 just west of Plainfield–an area quickly becoming the next big thing in industrial real estate.
A recent election ended in disaster. Voters revived a party that has no business coming back into power. I only hope the electorate wakes up soon and gets the situation back on track. No, I am not talking about the congressional elections in the United States. I’m talking about the presidential election in Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista Party, was re-elected president after a 15-year hiatus. Real estate values plunged 10 percent instantly, and large corporations began…
Center Township has real estate holdings worth more than $10 million, according to IBJ research. The township’s robust real estate portfolio—highly unusual for an Indiana township—fits Trustee Carl L. Drummer's vision for his taxpayer-supported office. But it makes others see red.
When Gov. Mitch Daniels unveiled his ambitious but vague plan for an outer loop around more than half of Indianapolis, some landowners in the potential path panicked while others dreamt of a windfall. But local experts say, until a route is more defined, neither worry nor anticipation is warranted. “There are so many outstanding issues,” said Abbe Hohmann, a land-price expert for the local office of St. Louisbased Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. Hohmann said two types of buyers usually drive…
Apple computer recently announced the results of a study by Paris-based Andreas Pfeiffer, which said buying one of Apple’s $1,999, 30-inch displays would increase productivity of one lucky employee 50 percent to 65 percent, enough to earn back the cost of the monitor before it dies or is supplanted by one with more pizazz a few years from now. Pfeiffer argues that it takes a lot of time to switch between windows on a smaller monitor, time that isn’t taken…
A flurry of blockbuster office-building sales in central Indiana last year has led to fewer mega-deals in 2006. A $38 million sale of a Carmel office complex on Nov. 1, for example, was among the top five such transactions so far this year, but it paled in comparison to the nine-figure deals that won headlines in 2005. That’s to be expected, real estate observers say, since so much office inventory changed hands recently. And given the new persquare-foot highs set…
One of the nation’s largest specialty golf retailers, Golfsmith, is preparing to take a swing at the reigning champion of golf stores in central Indiana. The Austin, Texas-based chain is planning a 28,000-square-foot superstore in space now occupied by Marshalls in Castleton, less than a sand wedge from fellow category killer Golf Galaxy. The move is part of a major shakeup in a part of Indianapolis that’s long been a headquarters for golf shopping. The arrival of another national heavyweight…
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s announcement this month that it would sell its stake in Chicagoland Speedway for $69 million has racing industry experts wondering if the famed Brickyard is planning an expansion. “There are a number of things [IMS President] Tony George could use that money for,” said Dennis McAlpine, a New York-based financial analyst covering motorsports and entertainment. “That’s not to say he’s hurting for cash, but I believe he has projects on his plate.” IMS and Daytona Beach,…
Kite Realty Group is in final negotiations to bring Target to Glendale Mall as part of a wholesale redevelopment that could transform one of the city’s first enclosed malls into an open-air shopping center.
Yvonne Shaheen, retired CEO of Long Electric Co., is the winner of the 2006 Michael A. Carroll award, given annually in memory of the former deputy mayor to a person who embodies determination, devotion, humility and community.
