Indianapolis Business Journal

Anthony Schoettle reports this week on the radio industry’s attempts at recovery after the pandemic gutted ratings and ad revenue in April and May. The numbers are getting better now that some folks are back to their regular commutes, but the pandemic’s timing couldn’t have been worse. Also in this week’s issue, Mickey Shuey examines the competing views of the wisdom behind expanding the Indiana Convention Center. And Kurt Christian explains how Noblesville officials are approaching planning for an 11-acre community gateway project south of downtown.

In this week's issue, Anthony Schoettle explains how some school districts are trying to make bus travel safer. Indianapolis-based tech firm Synovia Solutions began working this spring on a new platform that helps with contact tracing and hygiene verification on school buses. It has already signed on more than 250 districts. Meanwhile, John Russell explores why health insurers such as Indianapolis-based Anthem are reporting huge boosts in earnings in the second quarter. The windfalls are raising protests from doctors, hospitals and patients. And Samm Quinn details how the 350,000 immigrants in Indiana have become especially vulnerable to COVID-19—not just for health reason but also economic.

Indiana University Health’s plan to overhaul and expand its Methodist Hospital campus exacerbates a challenge already weighing on Marion County: huge swaths of land exempt from property taxes because they are owned by hospitals, educational institutions and other not-for-profits. John Russell examines the potential impact. Also in this week’s issue, Susan Orr sorts through the bushel of challenges suddenly facing downtown’s City Market, which have swept into the historic space with the speed of the pandemic. And Mickey Shuey explores the process of planning the $550 million redevelopment of Pan Am Plaza in a Q&A with Bill Browne, president of Ratio Architects.

In this week's issue, Samm Quinn explores how the pandemic has illuminated and magnified the challenges facing people experiencing homelessness in Indianapolis’ core. Susan Orr explains how a pandemic-related plunge in ridership and expected declines in tax revenue has led IndyGo to examine all of its operations for potential cost cuts. And Mickey Shuey details how dozens of Indianapolis-area bars, music venues and other performance spaces have banded together to fight for government assistance that they say is vital for them to survive.

Mickey Shuey takes a closer look at the hotel market downtown now that plans are firming up for the $550 million Pan Am Plaza project. The pandemic has had a paralyzing effect on several of the other projects in the pipeline, now that lending for hotel projects has dried up. Also in this issue, John Russell reports that some of the smaller hospitals across the state could be only months away from beginning the process of closing their doors. And Mike Lopresti has an on-the-ground report on the state of professional baseball, jumping from a college summer league game at the otherwise idle Victory Field in Indianapolis to a Reds game in Cincinnati played in a stadium without any fans.

This week, Lindsey Erdody explores how many not-for-profit groups that provide vital services for needy clients have been forced to cut back and modify their missions on the fly during the pandemic. Mickey Shuey digs into the co-dependent relationship between downtown’s restaurants and the city’s hard-hit convention and tourism business. We have an in-depth interview on the topic of downtown’s survival with Mayor Joe Hogsett. He was grilled by the IBJ editorial board about a variety of concerns, including the city’s response to rioting and looting last month and the potential that the loss of convention business could start a chain reaction that debilitates downtown. And be sure to check out IBJ's annual list of the 25 fastest-growing companies in the Indianapolis area.

Although the city’s $575 million criminal justice center project appears to be on track to meet goals for hiring minority contractors, advocates say the goals should be higher given the national focus on economic equity. Samm Quinn sheds light on the efforts to attract and support minority contractors. Also in this week’s issue, Kurt Christian reports that a developer has hit pause on an ambitious plan to add apartments, offices and a hotel to Carmel’s Clay Terrace shopping center. And Mickey Shuey sorts through the mess of debt left by retail developer Craig Johnson when he committed suicide in May.

In this week’s issue, John Russell examines how the federal government dispersed hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funding to Indianapolis-area hospitals and other health care providers. John finds that the amounts received didn’t necessarily correspond with each organization’s need. Samm Quinn and Anthony Schoettle take the temperatures of downtown's largest office tenants to get a sense of how quickly they plan to bring back their full workforces. And Mickey Shuey checks into how hotels outside downtown are doing and finds that while they’re slowly rebounding on the whole, the properties in the northern suburbs are making up ground faster than the rest.

Kurt Christian has the latest on the roadwork under way along State Road 37 in Hamilton County, which officials already estimate will go $47 million over budget. The kicker is that local residents will be responsible for picking up the cost of the overruns. Susan Orr reports that Indiana and Ohio have received grants to study and advance the use of semi-autonomous trucks traveling on I-70 between Indianapolis and Columbus. And Anthony Schoettle has a little ditty about the local music instruction company, Piano in a Flash, which recently saw its revenue more than triple practically overnight. You might know Scott Houston from the PBS show "The Piano Guy," but it took a pandemic to push the popularity of his online lessons to new heights.

Within days of a group of Indiana utilities asking regulators for permission last month to charge ratepayers for revenue they stood to lose because of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of people from all corners of Indiana sent a flurry of complaints to the Statehouse. Utilities say they are dealing with a rare challenge, but the outpouring of reaction seems to show that Indiana customers are in no mood for another rate increase, John Russell reports. Also in this week’s issue, Greg Andrews surveys the renewed hostilities between real estate magnates David Simon and Bobby Taubman now that Simon is pulling back from a $3.6 billion to buy the latter’s company. And Susan Orr explores the difficulties that Indiana economists face when trying to forecast the future of the state’s economy.

In this issue, Lindsey Erdody takes stock of how the state plans to dole out the $2.6 billion in relief aid it was allocated by the federal government. The issue also includes a look at the performance of car dealers, who are struggling with depleted inventories at the same time customers are returning to showrooms. And Greg Andrews' Behind the News column looks at the push and pull between retail landlords and tenants over whether tenants should receive rent concessions. In addition, the issue includes the latest installment of Impact Indiana, including a story on a business-community partnership that's seeking to reduce diabetes in three neighborhoods.  

After taking the one-two punch of the coronavirus crisis and damage from rioting, downtown is at a crossroads. The latest issue of IBJ tackles the question of how the city's core can recover. And Vop Osili, Erica Wells, Deborah Daniels and Marshawn Wolley share their perspectives on what needs to come next. Also in this issue, Marc Allan examines how WISH-TV Channel 8 has covered the racial equality demonstrations, their sometimes violent aftermath and the city’s response. Last year, WISH was purchased by Indianapolis native DuJuan McCoy, who became the only black owner of a TV station in a Top 50 U.S. market. One of his goals as an owner has been to increase and deepen the station’s coverage of diversity issues. And Anthony Schoettle reports on the run on bicycles at local bike shops, as riding has surged in popularity during pandemic lockdowns.

Our sixth annual Innovation Issue takes a deep dive into “design thinking”—the name for a particular way of coming up with products and services to solve customers’ problems. It also explores how implicit bias can undermine innovation and how a little-known not-for-profit is helping pioneer innovation at the intersection of power and transportation. In addition, check out profiles of the Low brothers, who are serial entrepreneurs in the field of life sciences, and Beth St. Clair, who's using improv to foster leadership and teamwork in the workplace.

In this week's issue, Susan Orr explores how eight Indiana public companies landed loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, which was intended to support small businesses. The issue also includes a story by Sam Stall on the Indiana Donor Network's new capability to recover organs for transplantation at its own facility, and a story by Lindsey Erdody on how rich unemployment payouts to laid-off workers are complicating efforts to rehire them. In addition, sports columnist Mike Lopresti looks back at 1945, the last year in which May lacked an Indianapolis 500.

In this week's issue, Mickey Shuey takes a deep dive into the debt problems facing Indianapolis-area hotels in the wake of the COVID-19 devastation. The issue also explores the refinancing boom spurred by low interest rates and the outlook for gyms as they prepare to reopen. With sporting events still shutdown, columnist Mike Lopresti looks back at some classic games involving Indiana teams and imagines new endings.

As we begin tiptoeing back toward the office and other workplaces, John Russell examines the latest information on who is most vulnerable to COVID-19. That includes seniors and people with high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease and other chronic conditions. Also in this week’s issue, Samm Quinn explores how couples who have been planning their dream weddings for months and even years have needed to completely reimagine their nuptials—or postpone them until 2021—due to coronavirus crisis. And Lindsey Erdody profiles the five Democrats vying for Susan Brooks' seat in the 5th Congressional District. (You'll recall we featured the GOP hopefuls last week.)

The novel coronavirus has much of our attention for the time being, but there are more high-stakes decisions to make on the horizon. Republican Congresswoman Susan Brooks isn't seeking reelection this year, which has led to a deluge of candidates in the 5th District. Fifteen of them are in the GOP, and Lindsey Erdody has profiled each one while also outlining what is so different about this year's election. (The Democrats are next week.) Also in this week's issue, John Russell delves into the growing effort to beat back the coronavirus by tracing the personal contacts of people who have tested positive. And Samm Quinn explores the mounting crisis of unpaid apartment rent as millions of Hoosier file for initial unemployment benefits every week.