Company news

Indianapolis-area office buildings that lease a majority of their space to medical tenants boast a vacancy rate of 11.7 percent—about one-third lower than the citywide office vacancy rate, according to data compiled by Indianapolis-based brokerage Summit Realty Group. That’s because cost-conscious hospitals have leased more space in existing buildings, instead of building additional medical office buildings on their hospital campuses. Also, increased employment of physicians by hospitals and increased competition for patients by such retailers as CVS and Walgreens have driven some physician offices away from class B facilities and spurred hospitals to open more retail-oriented locations. Summit’s report, the only of its kind to focus exclusively on medical office properties around Indianapolis, includes data from 295 buildings with more than 10 million square feet. Medical tenants pay a nearly 10-percent premium in rent, averaging $19.70 per square foot compared with an average of $18.07 among all office tenants.

AIT Laboratories and its former executives have already incurred nearly $5 million defending themselves against charges by the U.S. Department of Labor that AIT founder Michael Evans sold the company to its employees at an inflated price. Those expenses have so far been paid by a $5 million executive risk-insurance policy AIT had purchased before the Labor Department filed suit against Evans in August 2014. But with legal expenses still racking up, AIT and Evans have filed their own lawsuit against a second insurance company from which they bought another $5 million of so-called “excess liability” insurance. They want a court to compel that company to pay future expenses in the ongoing litigation with the government. AIT and Evans sued Philadelphia-based ACE American Insurance Co. on April 6 in federal court in Indianapolis, saying the insurer wrongly denied AIT’s claim for coverage of its legal expenses under a liability insurance policy AIT purchased in August 2013. ACE American has argued that the Department of Labor began investigating AIT before the insurance policy went into effect, making AIT’s claims for payment invalid. Evans’ attorneys have argued that the Department of Labor’s lawsuit wrongly blames Evans for the impact of bad economic fortunes that were out of his control.

Community Health Network and Mental Health America of Greater Indianapolis have started a texting service for young people having suicidal thoughts. The new service, which is part of Community’s Zero Suicides for Indiana Youth initiative, will make a mental health responder immediately available to anyone who texts HELPNOW to the number 20121. The text-for-help technology is funded by a grant from The Glick Fund, which is part of the Central Indiana Community Foundation.

Revenue at Biomet Inc. fell 2.6 percent in the three months ended in February due to a stronger dollar, according to MarketWatch. The Warsaw-based manufacturer of artificial knees and hips, which has agreed to be acquired by crosstown rival Zimmer Holdings Inc., turned a quarterly profit of $48.8 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $65.9 million. Adjusted earnings totaled $117.8 million, up from $107.3 million a year earlier. Excluding special items, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose to $298 million from $272 million a year earlier. Sales totaled $800.9 million. Excluding the effects of currency fluctuations, sales were 1.4 percent higher than the same quarter last year. Biomet’s U.S. sales rose 1.1 percent, to $514.8 million, while sales in Europe fell 12.3 percent.