Articles

Binford med center making headway

The building skeleton planted recently at the corner of 65th Street and Binford Boulevard offers only a hint of the $29 million medical complex Ken Schmidt wants to grow there. The Indianapolis developer will add four more buildings and a separate pharmacy to the 17 acres of land he bought several years ago. The end result, he said, will be a medical plaza that offers a unique blend of services encompassing dental work, radiology and ambulatory surgery, among other specialties….

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Atlas draws Fresh interest: Upscale grocery chain with a store in Carmel considers local expansion

North Carolina-based The Fresh Market Inc. has confirmed it’s interested in the former Atlas Supermarket site at 54th Street and College Avenue. “We are looking at expanding in that area and we’re looking at a lot of sites,” said spokesman Eric Blaesing. “[The Atlas site] is one of them.” He added that nothing is definite and “for every 100 sites you look at, you end up with one of them.” N e i g h b o r s hope…

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Single women opt for owning homes: Marriage and home ownership aren’t always synonymous

Apparently, Dorothy’s still right. There is no place like home, particularly if you are a single woman with good credit. Single women now are significant players in the real estate market. In fact, one out of every five homebuyers nationwide in 2004 was a single woman-and locally the percentage is even higher. According to a 2004 study by the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors, almost 25 percent of homebuyers in the area were single women. The national figure, compiled by…

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Amli selling-off its local apartments: Sale to Morgan Stanley prompts real estate firm to unload 6 multimillion-dollar complexes

One of the biggest owners of Indianapolis apartment complexes will soon be all but erased from the landscape, as Chicago-based Amli Residential Properties LP prepares to sell six of its seven properties. Two of the complexes, Amli at Lake Clearwater and Amli at Castle Creek, have already traded hands. Louisville-based NTS Realty Holdings LP in late March purchased both properties for $50 million, a slight discount from Amli’s asking price. Amli at Old Town Carmel, a mixed-use project that includes…

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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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Colossal hotel pitched: $250M project features water park, 1,350 rooms

A development team this week plans to submit a proposal to the city to build a $250 million, 1,350-room hotel complex downtown on a site where a 235-room Courtyard by Marriott now stands. The project, just south of the entrance to White River State Park, would include a convention hotel with ballrooms; three smaller, more limited-service hotels; an indoor water park; and a 1,200-space underground parking garage. At 800 rooms, the convention hotel by itself would rank as the city’s…

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National City Center to get $11 million facelift: Projects include new Starbucks and restaurant

National City Center and anchor tenant Hyatt Regency Indianapolis plan to pump more than $11 million into the aging, 16-story building to boost its competitiveness with other downtown towers. The plans might grow to include connecting the building to the Artsgarden at the corner of Washington and Illinois streets. The Hyatt Regency, which occupies a wing of the National City Center, plans an $8.5 million renovation that will include the addition of 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a Starbucks…

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Shrinking neighborhood in path of Lilly’s progress: Drugmaker offers to buy rest of Little Valley homes

It’s called Lilly Valley for a reason. The official name of the modest neighborhood on the near-southwest side is Little Valley, but many people call it by the name of the pharmaceutical giant looming nearby. Eli Lilly and Co. has been gnawing away at the neighborhood south of Morris Street for several years to accommodate expansion at Lilly Technology Center just to the west along Kentucky Avenue. Now, Lilly is seeking city approval to take over more of the neighborhood,…

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INVESTING: Housing slowdown puts some homeowners in peril

You want to build your house on a strong foundation. It worked for the third little pig that resisted all the efforts of the big bad wolf. It’s also going to work for savvy consumers who avoid too much debt and build decent equity in their homes. For everyone else, though, the foundation might feel as if it is shaking a bit. A slew of recent data on the housing industry seems to confirm what the housing stocks have been…

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Health care developers eye their next frontier: Northeast Hamilton County offers a lucrative market

Chris Hamm’s phone started buzzing with calls from health care developers once plans for an extension of 146th Street east to Interstate 69 crystallized a couple years ago. The Noblesville economic development director said several organizations have shown “significant interest” in planting health care businesses along 146th Street, which will see a big boost in traffic once workers complete the interstate connection in the fall of 2007. At least three health-care-related deals are in the works, he added, declining to…

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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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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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BEHIND THE NEWS: Kite’s quest to fix Glendale reverberates on Wall Street

N o r t h – s i d e r s aren’t alone in eagerly awaiting Glendale Mall’s redevelopment plan. Wall Street is watching what happens next, too. Glendale is the largest of the 40 retail properties Indianapolis-based Kite Realty Group Trust operates. The North Keystone Avenue shopping mall collects annual rent of $2.5 million, representing more than 4 percent of the company’s total. So what Kite will do with the ailing, 724,000-square-foot property was topic No. 1 last…

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Hearthview becomes church’s reluctant savior: Developer chooses ‘significant’ financial hit over wrecking ball

Condominium developer Hearthview Residential Inc. came out of a news conference this month looking like something of a hero for converting a former church at 802 N. Meridian St. into condos, but company officials must have been grinning through clenched teeth. Locally based Hearthview initially tried to demolish the 1905 structure, quietly seeking a demolition permit for the entire building. When the permit was discovered at the 11th hour by city and state historic preservation officials, the wheels were set…

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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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INVESTING: Energy stocks had their run, but they may storm back

People don’t seem to spend as much time talking about high oil costs today as they did a year ago. Perhaps we’ve gotten used to them. Maybe the negative effects will be felt later. But one thing seems obvious: Energy stocks have recorded at least a short-term top. Let’s see what happens next. The incredible rise in oil over the last three years has turned up the volume in the debate over solutions. Washington passed an energy bill last summer,…

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INVESTING: The rise of derivatives: an innovation to cheer, not fear

After I read about a new futures contract at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that allows traders to place hedges on snowfall amounts in various areas, my first reaction was, that’s cool. I am a geek about my business, and I love the way the industry is constantly innovating. The weather contract is called a derivative, and I can remember not too long ago a lot of people were worried about derivatives. A derivative is a contract whose price is dependent…

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Breaking the glass ceiling: Despite gains, commercial real estate field still dominated by men

As a business student at IUPUI in the late 1980s, Jill M. Herron worked part-time as a leasing agent for a commercial real estate company to earn extra money. She had no idea that her parttime job would turn into a lifetime career. “I fell into it by accident,” Herron said. “But I found I liked the diversity of the job, the opportunity to meet different types of people and the challenges of meeting a client’s goals.” Now a vice…

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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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City gives MSA developers another extension: Slow winter for sales center prompts 90-day delay

The developers of the former Market Square Arena site this month touted an expected August groundbreaking for their high-rise condominium project, but glossed over the 90-day extension to its agreement with the city that was required to make that possible. Developers of One Market Square a year ago negotiated an extension that gave them until May 1, 2006, to close on their purchase from the city of the first two acres of the four-acre site. In February, that deadline was…

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