On the week we give our Michael A. Carroll Award to Brian Payne for his promotion of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, I am thinking of White River State Park. The connection is easily made because Mike Carroll was killed in an airplane crash on his way to do research on-you guessed it-White River State Park. He, three other civic leaders and two pilots died when two planes collided in midair on Sept. 11, 1992. Fast forward: As I envision Payne’s…
The managers of many downtown hotels are sinking millions of dollars into their properties, hoping to burnish product that will soon compete with roughly 2,340 rooms in several new hotel construction projects. And while regular renovations are the lifeblood of the hotel industry, experts say the market’s rash of big-ticket overhauls is also a defensive move. The biggest competition for existing hotels is likely to come from the $325 million J.W. Marriott complex, which will include the city’s largest convention…
Convenience store stalwart Village Pantry has launched a $15 million plan to renovate 146 stores and is eyeing acquisitions
that could double the chain’s size in three years. The moves come as Village Pantry separates from parent Marsh Supermarkets
Inc., a company that for years treated the convenience-store division as a redheaded stepchild.
The number of crews Robert Hoffman employs to frame new homes has dwindled from 14 to four, and could drop even more if the residential construction market continues to sputter. But the owner of Hoffman Framework Inc. in North Salem, a tiny town in western Hendricks County, is not about to let his 12-year-old business wither away. Instead, he’s expecting to recover by making the leap to the much more vibrant commercial sector, where he can use his experience framing…
For Mike Wyman, a devastating fire that gutted the family home during his teen-age years laid the foundation for a rewarding career in construction. The 41-year-old Wyman climbed from carpenter to become a leader of projects at two of the city’s largest commercial developers before launching his own company in 2005. WDG Construction & Development Services Inc. on East Washington Street downtown has since grown into a firm that expects to top $30 million in revenue next year-double this year’s…
A couple of nuggets from recent development plans:
Making Way for Venu: Another Woodfield Centre tenant is moving to make way for redevelopment. Elan Furs has filed plans to take space in Clearwater Shoppes…
The executive director of the Horizon Convention Center in downtown Muncie estimates the center has lost half a dozen conventions since the historic Roberts Hotel across the street closed a year ago. Joann McKinney said in The Star Press that the loss of the city’s last downtown hotel left convention-goers no place convenient to rest, […]
A local brokerage firm that specializes in foreclosed properties is moving its headquarters from North Meridian to a 6,700-square-foot office building at 1236-1238 Pennsylvania St. Wynkoop Brokerage bought the building shown…
A north-side Marion County school district is reigniting the property-tax furor by rolling out a plan to spend as much as
$200 million on renovations and new construction. Washington Township is the first school district in the county to unveil
major capital projects since residents howled in protest last summer against property-tax increases that averaged 35 percent.
Work on the renovation of Jefferson Plaza (soon to be Allen Plaza) began this week as construction workers raised an Allen Commercial Group flag over the plaza. It replaces a worn-out state…
Three dining options at Buggs Temple are scheduled to open Oct. 19. They include Tavern at the Temple, Buggs Grille and Cornerstone Coffee House. Staff training is scheduled to begin tomorrow and…
The St. Louis construction firm S.M. Wilson & Co. has bought Indianapolis-based Rollins Construction Co. Inc. for an undisclosed price to gain a foothold in the local market. Rollins has completed renovations at Community Health Network hospitals, as well as Major Hospital in Shelbyville and Hancock Surgery Center in Greenfield, among other health care centers. […]
August Mack Environmental said today it will move its corporate headquarters from Castleton to downtown’s Lexington at Meridian. The Indianapolis-based environmental consulting company plans to take 16,200 square feet in the former home…
The city has reached a preliminary agreement to lease 12,600 square feet in the basement of Union Station for a new restaurant and nightclub. The lease is with The Arantee Group, one…
Matt Gutwein and Lisa Harris drive into work each morning knowing their hospital, Wishard Health Services, will lose half
a million dollars that day. But they’re OK with that. In fact, they’re laying a plan to keep it up for the next 20 years.
Looming large on their to-do list: building a new hospital.
A not-for-profit neighborhood revitalization group has slashed the prices on three remodeled live/work buildings at English and State avenues. The brick buildings near Fountain Square have undergone various levels of renovation by…
Following up on a few old posts:
No Canterbury Sale Yet. Canterbury Hotel owner Donald Fortunato said he’s getting close to a sale of the 12-story hotel, but the deal is not done….
Jaron Garrett hasn’t developed anything like the 25-story tower he’s proposing. And he doesn’t come close to having the financial
muscle to pull off the $30 million project on his own. But Garrett is determined to sell his vision of transforming a downtown
eyesore at Washington and Pennsylvania streets into a twisting glass-and-steel apartment tower.
Buildings, just like people, have lives. They’re born, they do their jobs, they take on new roles and, after about 75 years, most of them reach the end. Sadly, some beautiful ones die too soon, while a few ugly ones live too long. How should we decide when to save a building or when to tear it down? And have the reasons changed? The terms of renovation are well-known (adaptive re-use, mixed-use development and historic preservation). When our actions meet…
No environmentalist would mistake Indianapolis for the poster child of green building, but local designers and contractors are preparing themselves to capture a market they expect will become an integral piece of their portfolios. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard, better known as LEED, is a benchmark of sorts for designing, building and operating environmentally friendly buildings. At least 16 projects in the metropolitan area are seeking the LEED certification, but only one so far has achieved green…
