AUGUST 9-15, 2010
This week, read about what the new CEO of Endangered Species Chocolate has planned for the slumping candy company, and find out why a Boone County farmer spends his summers thinking about Christmas. Also, see what the Colts' marketing team has been up to in the off-season, and in A&E, check out how Lou Harry passed the hours on a recent road trip.
Front PageBack to Top
Property shuffle aims to connect police, fire services with neighborhoods
The city plans to open police-and-fire hubs in two former IPS schools, retrofit
an Eastgate mall department store into an Emergency Operations Center, and build at least two fire stations.
Slumping chocolate firm hopes to recapture early momentum
Endangered Species Chocolate, which saw growth spike from 2005 through 2007, lost 20 percent of its revenue in 2009. Sales
dropped from $14 million in 2008 to $11 million last year. New Curt Vander Meer has plans to bring the company back to its
former glory, one chocolate bar at a time.
E-mails show how David Simon faced financial crisis
The first few months of 2009 were not an easy time to be CEO of Simon Property Group Inc. David Simon was feeling pressure
from shareholders, lenders, employees and family members.
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New-car dealers hit hard in 2009
Indiana lost 49 new-car dealers last year, the biggest thinning of the herd in at least a decade, according to data released
last month by the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Despite success, Colts aren’t letting up on marketing
Indianapolis Colts representatives have made a record
844 appearances in the last year across Indiana and into Kentucky with the team’s Make It Personal tour.
Summer is key time for those who raise Christmas trees
Christmas and July harmonize like a blizzard on Independence Day, but the summer months are perhaps the most vital for Tom
Dull and his wife, Kerry, who raise 23,000 Christmas trees on their peaceful farm in Thorntown.
Finish Line founders giving up their extra voting power
The influence of founders’ families in public companies usually wanes over time. But few firms accelerate the process,
as Finish Line is doing.
Linking Indianapolis-area bus systems becoming priority for planners
Connecting rural bus systems with one another and with IndyGo must happen before commuter rail becomes a reality.
Read MoreNoblesville’s Sagamore golf club emerges from the rough
The once ballyhooed Jack Nicklaus-designed course near State Road 37 and 166th Street was perilously near bankruptcy just
a year ago.
Wellness-based development would be first of kind here
Satori Pointe is being marketed as a campus where medical offices, fitness-oriented retailers and residents would co-exist.
Read MoreFocusBack to Top
JPMorgan’s wealth advisory group led from Indianapolis
Elizabeth Schlueter started out in Fort Wayne and rose through a series of promotions that landed her not on Wall
Street but in Indianapolis.
First Merchants, First Financial mull expansion
Acquisitions situate banks to seek market share in Indianapolis.
Read MoreBank trying to sell former home of Premier Properties founder
A Lake Clearwater mansion formerly owned by Premier Properties founder Christopher P. White is up for sale with an
asking price of $1.48M.
OpinionBack to Top
EDITORIAL: In Indianapolis, sports venues aren’t built to last
Indianapolis has made strides toward becoming a “greener” city in the last few years. Reusing what we discard makes sense, but not everything should be disposable.
That includes the sports landmarks we’ve made a habit of turning into rubble.
MAURER: Even CEOs need mentors
To create a disciplined investment strategy, I developed “The Ten Essential Principles of Entrepreneurship You Didn’t
Learn in School.” Over the course of 10 columns, I will feature each of
these essential principles. This is the third installment.
MARCUS: Tax expenditures are back door to spending
People are divided on what they want, skeptical about the ability of government to provide services, and resentful about paying for those services they do not perceive as benefiting themselves.
Read MoreFELDMANN: Copying others’ tactics won’t always pay off
It’s common in any business or organization that hears about an incredible success and tries to replicate it by following the same steps.
Read MoreHICKS: What silly bands say about the value of things
There are economic lessons here. The most important is that the value of things is necessarily determined by what is known in econo-jargon as utility.
Read MoreSKARBECK: U.S. will someday have to deal with debt
After years of easy borrowing that helped boost economic growth, governments around the globe are dealing with evil twinsâ??high levels of debt and shrinking revenue to repay.
Read MoreICVA does assist bed-and-breakfasts
As the owners and innkeepers of Nestle Inn B&B downtown for the past 11 years, we were perplexed by your investigative
report [in the Aug. 2 Focus], “Overshadowed and underappreciated?”
In BriefBack to Top
Benesch/Dann Pecar adds lawyers from Barnes & Thornburg
The firm–the product of a merger between a local firm and a Cleveland firm–is bolstering its business reorganization practice.
Read MorePROXY CORNER: Kite Realty Group Trust
Kite Realty Group Trust, is a real estate investment trust that engages in the development, construction, acquisition, ownership and operation of shopping centers in the United States.
Read MoreIndiana company planning hybrid van gets GM backing
Anderson-based Bright Automotive is getting a boost from a $5 million investment by General Motors’ new venture capital arm.
Read MoreIndiana universities offer cash incentives for technology transfer
The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute awarded $750,000 to 10 teams of researchers.
Read MoreButler basketball hires play-by-play announcer
Brandon Gaudin will be the new radio voice of Butler University men’s basketball.
Read MoreAnalyst: Arcadia sales poised to take off
Arcadia Resources’ DailyMed business will grow revenue 10-fold in the next three years and push the Indianapolis-based
company into profitability, according to a research report by the first analyst to officially cover the company.
Local manufacturer Deflecto lives to see 50
Customers intervened to keep inventor of bicycle reflectors, dryer vents from going out of business.
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