Last month, I picked up my boys in Fort Wayne, drove north on Interstate 69, hooked a left at Interstate 94, and got off at the Portage, Mich., exit. There, we whiled away the weekend at a family reunion. The grownups ate too much, caught up on gossip and puttered around the lake in the speedboat. The teenagers, whom we rarely saw, did X-Box battle in the basement. On Sunday, after the kids had surfaced for lunch and the grandparents…
Paying closing costs on a home or, better yet, asking that a potential employer purchase the house itself are among the brashest requests she’s fielded. Yet the owner of Quiring Associates Inc. expressed some surprise when the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota arranged to move her daughter, a recent Purdue University graduate embarking on her first job no less. “They brought a huge van down to pick up her things,” Quiring said. “They actually wanted her to know how serious they…
Two new Carmel newspapers will soon join eight others in Boone and Hamilton counties. While the region is one of the fastest growing in Indiana, journalism experts said having 10 newspapers serving a population of just under 300,000 is astounding.
Fast-growing West Lafayette-based medical-device maker QuadraSpec Inc. announced this month that it raised $3.9 million in venture capital from a syndicate of investors. For a 2-year-old Hoosier startup, that’s a jackpot. But CEO Chad Barden is already searching for more. “You have to start on it right away,” he said. “Now it’s easier to get an audience, but the diligence is no less strenuous.” Since forming in 2004, QuadraSpec has attracted $8.1 million, including multiple grants from the Indiana 21st…
Clarian North Medical Center has stumbled out of the gate, with the Carmel hospital reporting losses in its first six months of operation that “well exceed” expectations, a new report says.
A major provision of the Pension Protection Act signed into law by President Bush last month encourages companies to register workers for retirement plans without requiring them to “opt in.” Putting the onus on employees to decline enrollment is a savings caveat financial planners favor. “Anytime you leave it up to somebody to do something on their own, you increase the odds that it’s not going to happen,” said Grace Worley, president of Indianapolisbased Worley Financial Group. “If they’re [enrolled]…
Aug. 25-Unemployment in Indiana has hit the highest level in three years, preliminary government figures show. Whenever I read unfortunate news such as this, I recall a conversation I once had with a senior executive. He casually summed up his strategy for achieving supe rior financial results: “Heads out the door. That’s the first thing I do. That’s the only way I know with certainty that the financial results will be improved.” Heads out the door. This made me think…
Victoria Lyras began classes for her newly created Indianapolis School of Ballet Aug. 21 in 10,500-square-foot quarters on Capitol Avenue that previously housed Ballet Internationale's Clara R. Noyes Academy, which closed in November because of financial problems. ISB has 20 students so far.
Many Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement, according to a recent study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The Washington, D.C.-based organization’s latest Retirement Confidence Survey shows 44 percent of Americans age 55 and older have saved less than $100,000. Moreover, only 13 percent have saved at least $250,000, while 30 percent either didn’t know or declined to answer the question. The statistics are hardly surprising to financial planners on the front lines of the battle to convince Americans they…
Last year’s hurricane disasters in the Gulf Coast region brought to light how easily and quickly personal financial records can be lost or destroyed in a catastrophe. While hurricanes aren’t likely to hit Indiana, tornadoes, fires and floods are always a possibility, as are crimes such as theft, vandalism and identity theft. Financial planners emphasize that it’s important to keep records safe from various disasters that can hit without warning. In fact, they say, it’s good to have a plan…
Last week, a friend and I stopped by Nordstrom so she could purchase some cosmetics. She found one needed product on the shelf, then asked the clerk if the item she’d asked to be sent from another store had arrived. The clerk said it had, but that they’d sold it to another customer because my friend hadn’t called for it. My friend said she’d never been notified the product was in. The clerk repeated that it’s store policy to sell…
A mix of familiar stores and upscale retailers will be moving into the nowvacant L.S. Ayres space at Greenwood Park and Castleton Square malls, which owner Simon Property Group Inc. is turning into small-scale lifestyle centers. The open-air developments, which will be similar in design to Carmel’s Clay Terrace, have attracted a host of major retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Borders and AMC Theatres. Smaller specialty shops and sit-down restaurants also are planned. Barnes & Noble will be going in…
Four former top scientists at Eli Lilly and Co. have formed a Carmel-based company to develop diabetes therapies–a venture observers say has the potential to become the kind of blockbuster success BioCrossroads was built to stimulate.
No bank wants to leave a customer steamed, especially when that customer is the mighty Lilly family. Great news for National City Bank of Indiana: It’s finally back on the family’s good side. Court papers filed in Marion Superior Court in recent months show the six nieces and nephews of heiress Ruth Lilly are increasingly satisfied with the bank’s handling of her financial affairs. Lilly, 91, is the sole surviving greatgrandchild of the pharmaceutical firm’s founder. The bank, part of…
A flurry of blockbuster office-building sales in central Indiana last year has led to fewer mega-deals in 2006. A $38 million sale of a Carmel office complex on Nov. 1, for example, was among the top five such transactions so far this year, but it paled in comparison to the nine-figure deals that won headlines in 2005. That’s to be expected, real estate observers say, since so much office inventory changed hands recently. And given the new persquare-foot highs set…
After an April hailstorm caused widespread damage in central Indiana, an epidemic slowly and quietly began spreading through tree-lined streets and cul-de-sacs. As contagious as the common cold, “neighboritis” is contracted through casual contact with friends and neighbors, even by the simple act of driving by a house topped with sparkling new shingles. Those infected often experience an initial wave of optimism and euphoria, sometimes followed by a crash that leaves them feeling dissatisfied, even betrayed. The cause of the…
The terms for emerging Internet technology are enough to make the less savvy long for the days when e-mail seemed cutting-edge. The communication tool, especially among teens, has given way to instant messaging, of course. So it’s no wonder colleges and companies alike are starting to shun standard e- mail and Web-page marketing efforts in favor of video-on-demand clips, known as vodcasts. “The computer was meant to be watched; it wasn’t meant to be read,” said Jon DiGregory, who founded…
This year was not kind to Dixie Chopper, the company near Greencastle known for making the “world’s fastest lawn mower.” Selling season is over, and Dixie Chopper sold 12,000 mowers, 3,000 fewer than forecasted. But company founder Art Evans said 2006 wasn’t as bad as rumored in the industry. “We’re not going bankrupt, we’re not upside down financially, and we’re not being bought out,” Evans said. Dixie Chopper laid off 10 to 15 employees, temporarily cut its workweek from 40…
Growing up, my brothers and I had the usual constructiontype toys: Lincoln Logs, an Erector Set, Tinker Toys and-if memory serves me-this kit from Kenner you could use to assemble the plastic skyscraper of your imagination. Among the things I tried to build, however, were gymnasiums and stadiums, because I always was fascinated with places that brought together large numbers of people. But since I had the attention span of a gnat and the conceptual engineering skills of an eventual…
Since the inception of the state’s Venture Capital Investment Tax Credit in late 2003, investors have claimed only about one-third of the $37.5 million in credits available, according to an IBJ analysis of the program.
