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Baldwin to move HQ to Carmel, add 133 jobs

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Trucking and auto fleet insurer Baldwin & Lyons Inc. plans to move its headquarters from downtown Indianapolis to Carmel by the end of the year and hopes to add 133 jobs over the next five years, the company announced Monday afternoon.

Baldwin, which employs about 350 in Indiana, intends to spend $20 million to $30 million to purchase and improve a 184,000-square-foot office building at 111 Congressional Blvd. in Carmel, according to a news release issued by the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

That building was on the market in 2011, offering more than 125,000 square feet for lease. It is currently listed as an office site for several businesses, including Lauth Property Group and Farmers Insurance.

It is not clear if Baldwin will entirely vacate its current headquarters at 1099 N. Meridian St., where it leases 81,000 square feet. That lease was set to expire in August, although Baldwin had an option to renew it for another five years.

A message left for a company spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Baldwin & Lyons up to $3.5 million in tax credits, if it hires all the people it has promised to. Also, Baldwin will get $200,000 in training grants from the state. The city of Carmel is considering additional tax incentives.

"We are very excited to welcome Baldwin & Lyons to the Carmel community," Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said in a prepared statement. "This is exactly the type of investment the city is looking for in its economic development partners.”

Baldwin & Lyons posted $253 million in revenue and strong profit in 2012 after suffering losses due to global disasters in 2011.

The company’s operations produced profit of $26.1 million last year, compared to losses in 2011 of $16.6 million.

Including investment gains and losses, overall profit last year totaled $31.9 million, or $2.15 per share, compared with a loss the previous year of $28.2 million, or $1.90 per share.
 

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  • Responsible??????
    Why does the IEDC offer incentives at all?? Thanks for adding 25 jobs a year; that means your business is thriving in our "business-friendly" environment, and you're soaking up the benefits of Daylight Savings Time. Will Red's in Bargersville be getting some tax credits if they buy a pool table and hire a couple new waitresses??
  • bad news for Indy
    It's nice to hear that an IN company is expanding and hiring, but it's a sad day for downtown. Where are groups like the IDI, Develop Indy and the Dept. of Metropolitan Development? When are community leaders going to address this issue of jobs leaving downtown and Marion county? What makes it even worse, the IEDC offered Baldwin & Lyons up to $3.5 million in conditional tax credits and $200,000 in training grants. Why couldn't those credits and grants been offered on the condition that they stayed downtown? What a shame.
  • Shorter Commute?
    Wondering if maybe the incentive is as simple as reducing the commute time for the CEO or whoever runs this organization. I've read, but can't find a citation, that corporate moves usually bring the company closer to the CEO's home. I don't say this to be critical. I live in Carmel and the daily commute to downtown is a drag. I'd move my organization if I could...
  • Good for Carmel
    This article doesn't give all the details...This building is currently owned by Lauth and they have already done some major improvements. Also, Lauth and Shepherd Insurance are the current major tenants.
  • Questions
    All great questons Steve. IBJ, please provide more in depth reporting instead of reprinting press releases.
  • Why Did Indy Loss this HQ?
    What did Indy do to keep this long-time company? Tell me this was a choice between losing them to another state or going to Carmel and not a canabalizing of the Region. This isn't Chicago, and Carmel is not quite the hypenated regional title holder that Brainerd would love for them to be. The core of this region has to be supported. If we can't maintain a strong Indianapolis, the entire region will eventually suffer. If this was solely B&L's decision, then that's their prerogative, like it or not. But please tell me this wasn't Carmel hawking for trophies.

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  1. These higher rates Co. e about only because physicians are now hospital employees. otherwise physicians couldn't charge these rates and share the windfall with the hospital. Community/rural hospitals probably not buying physicians practices and thus weren't getting the windfall anyway.

  2. The incentive for poor people to get themselves off public assistance and "no longer be poor" is even with help...they're STILL POOR! Being poor, even with some assistance, isn't all that pleasant. (I speak from experience) It's a stubborn myth that poor people, who are on public assistance, are sitting in the lap of luxury. You should try living on just those "freebies" that you mentioned and see how meager they actually are. By the way, I didn't mean you had to buy/own a puppy...just pet one. :)

  3. As near as I can tell the minority has ZERO constitutional obligation to offer a quorum to the majority. A requirement for quorum was inserted into the constitution so that tyrannical majorities could not simply shove through odious and objectionable legislation (which is exactly what they did.) By allowing a tyrannical majority to charge fines against the minority for exercising their constitutional prerogative to deny quorum the court as made a mockery of constitutional governance in the state of Indiana.

  4. The voters elected the Reps to make a vote not walk out on the vote. They had to the right to exercise their opinion and vote "no" to the bill. Let me ask you this if you walked out of your job for 5 straight weeks would you get paid? Would you even have a job to go back to? If any elected official walks out on the people they should be arrested for stealing tax dollars from the public. They were elected to do a job and not leave when the job gets stuff.

  5. I have been to several of their locations in Pennsylvania and always go in for 1 item and leave with a basket full of things. I'm very happy they decided on Indiana, now if only they would put the other store in eastside.

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