Company news

Indianapolis-based Mainstreet Property Group said it will spend $60 million to develop senior care communities in Avon, Crawfordsville, Kokomo and the Castlelton area of Indianapolis. The four campuses will include skilled care and assisted living facilities for both short- and long-term patients. All are set to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of 2013, and will collectively employ more than 400 people once they open. The Avon and Crawfordsville communities are part of Mainstreet’s previously announced joint venture with Des Moines-based LCS, a leading provider of senior lifestyle products and services. Mainstreet has added $200 million in new development assets since January 2010.

The Indiana University School of Medicine and the new IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health have received a $1.46 million federal grant to create a joint doctor of medicine and master of public health program. The funding will come over five years from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The five-year program will provide medical students with training in environmental health, infectious disease control, disease prevention and health promotion, epidemiological studies and injury control. The first students will enroll in fall of 2013. Also, IU medical school will use some of the federal funding to integrate public health content and experiences into the primary care curriculum that all IU medical students take.

New York-based Aspen Dental Management, which operates 29 dental clinics in Indiana, has been sued for operating those clinics illegally, according to the Associated Press. A federal lawsuit filed in New York claims Aspen Dental and Leonard Green and Partners, the private-equity firm that controls Aspen, are violating laws that require clinics to be owned by dentists who perform procedures onsite. Court papers say Aspen's "so-called 'Practice Owners' are nothing more than de facto employees and/or independent contractors" of the company, which controls its 358 clinics' marketing, hiring, training and bookkeeping. Aspen says it provides management services and doesn't control clinical care. A spokeswoman says the accusations in the filing are "entirely without merit." A message left with Los Angeles-based LGP wasn't initially returned. Aspen operates 29 dental offices in Indiana, including 10 in the Indianapolis area, according to its website.