New owner moving EventzPlus to larger location

That didn’t take long.

Less than two months after serial entrepreneur Jenn Kampmeier and her partners staged a grand opening for Carmel party venue and event-planning service EventzPlus, they’ve sold the firm for an undisclosed sum.

New owner Frank Howard is moving the business to a sprawling Castleton facility he bought last year and plans to open the space for events beginning in June. The sale was effective Tuesday.

Founded in September, EventzPlus has targeted clients looking for small event venues. It also hosts its own gatherings, including vendor-based boutique socials and bridal shows. And twice-weekly “coffee and croissants” sessions drew solo business owners looking for a place to interact with others while they work.

That “co-working” concept appeals to Howard, 35, who missed the office environment when he started IT business L5 Solutions from his home.

The four-person firm now is located in the same building at 7960 Castleway Drive that will house EventzPlus—and Indy CoZ, a membership-based co-working space Howard plans to unveil in July.

“I describe it as a cross between Starbucks and executive office suites,” he said.

Members—mostly independent professionals now working from home—will have access to everything they need to conduct business, he said, as well as a “community” of likeminded individuals.

Howard is still working on membership details, but hopes to refine the idea with the help of that community. He doesn’t expect to begin charging users until August, offering free space initially in exchange for their feedback.

“We want to find out what they need and want and put our money into that,” Howard said.

Kampmeier, who founded three other enterprises before partnering with La Dolce Salon owner Colleen Page to open EventzPlus, said the deal came “out of left field” but made sense given the firm’s early success.

EventzPlus has had to turn away a number of clients looking for bigger space, she said, and the Castleton facility can accommodate events of all sizes.

“It’s 25,000 square feet of glory,” Kampmeier, 37, said of the new location, previously home to a church.

She agreed to help Howard with the transition, but her focus now is on another endeavor: Purple Pail, an online marketplace for vendors selling family-oriented products, is set to launch May 10.

Kampmeier also had a maternity boutique on her drawing board, but is putting those plans on hold after she couldn’t reach an agreement with a potential landlord.

“I just put that idea back on the shelf,” she said, “and I’ll have to pull out another one.”