Sexy & Intimate and Scotty’s
A couple of restaurant updates: The owners of downtown’s Scholar’s Inn, Lyle & Kerry Feigenbaum, plan to close the restaurant on Jan. 1 for a month-long remodeling project. They plan to…
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BEHIND THE NEWS: Simon’s Arizona flop highlights perils of housing sector
No wonder investors are jittery. The housing slump is stinging companies of all stripes these days, even those that would seem to be safe havens. A case in point: mall developer Simon Property Group Inc., which surprised investors this month by announcing it was taking a $26 million charge to write off its entire investment in what was to become a huge Arizona housing development. “Frankly, we had forgotten they had this Arizona thing,” said Lou Taylor, an analyst with…
PROFILE: Ivy House Bed and Breakfast: Couple turns house into Hoosier getaway Labor of love keeps innkeepers committed for the long haul
Ivy House Bed and Breakfast Couple turns house into Hoosier getaway Labor of love keeps innkeepers committed for the long haul Running a bed-and-breakfast can be difficult-it’s hard enough, in fact, that the average innkeeper lasts only seven years before calling it quits, said Fortville B&B owner Linda Nolte. Fortunately for her guests at Ivy House Bed and Breakfast, Nolte and her husband, Jim, are the exceptions. “We’re already in our seventh year, and we hope to exceed that by…
RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: With Vista, the view is anything but grand
As you probably know, early this year Microsoft released its new operating system, known as “Vista.” I first wrote about it in March 2006. I got my initial look at it when it was code-named “Longhorn” in 2005, and I wasn’t impressed. It hasn’t improved with age. You’d think that, after creating operating systems since 1985, Microsoft would know what it’s doing. You’d think wrong. Reading the articles, blogs and other commentary about Vista is like cracking open the door…
City looks to business for efficiency advice: Using Six Sigma, Fort Wayne saved $30 million
Seeking to increase its efficiency, Marion County government is enlisting a group of volunteer business experts. Their recommendations could lead to lower taxes and better service-just the sort of initiative incoming Mayor Greg Ballard says he wants to embrace. The new High Performance Government Team was approved last month by the City-County Council. Created on the recommendation of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, it is modeled on a similar effort in Fort Wayne, where Mayor Graham Richard, a Democrat,…
Sluggish housing market a blow to some contractors: Residential crews seek commercial jobs to stay busy
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…
Sellers waiting for recovery in area housing market: Economist expects another nine months of ‘slow going’
Melinda and Brooks Bertl know the ups and downs of the current real estate market-personally. They started looking for a home to buy this spring and it took them only two weeks to find one they liked in Carmel. “I guess we knew what we wanted and found it. And the house had been on the market for some time,” said Melinda Bertl, indicating the sellers were ready to make a deal. They bought the house and moved into it….
Westfield on verge of development boom: At least four major projects in works in growing town
In the top drawer of an old desk in the basement of Westfield Town Hall, there is a small steno-style notebook filled with fraying, hand-written pages. It’s where town planners kept track of building permits for more than a decade starting in the 1960s. This was a tiny town then, where most people knew all their neighbors and permits were organized by last names. Westfield is a lot different today. New developments are appearing all over the growing town, which…
Experts look into the future of health care: Industry panelists disagree on whether current system needs radical changes
Five local industry leaders conducted a serious debate over problems and issues facing our health care system during the most recent installment in Indianapolis Business Journal’s Power Breakfast series. The event took place at the Downtown Marriott hotel on Sept. 21 The panelists: Robert Brody, president and CEO of St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers, the Indianapolis-area’s fourth-largest hospital system. Brody has been chief executive at St. Francis since 1996. Dr. Robert Mouser, a primary care physician at Cornerstone Family…
Abatement could anchor software headquarters
In exchange for promises to keep its headquarters here, Marion County is considering providing an eight-year property tax abatement worth $17,659 for local parking ticket software-maker T2 Systems Inc. According to a Department of Metropolitan Development filing, T2 Systems is promising to add 115 jobs to its current work force of 43 as well invest […]
Homebuilder C.P. Morgan cuts workforce
C.P. Morgan Communities LP, the Indianapolis area’s largest home builder, this morning confirmed it has made a “workforce reduction” as a result of the slowing housing market. The privately held company would not reveal how many jobs it cut or the types of positions eliminated. According to IBJ’s 2007 Book of Lists, C.P. Morgan filed […]
Landlords bring pipe to fight with regulators: Prospect of state oversight brings flood of protest
The state’s apartment industry, backed by firms that landlords hire to bill their tenants for water and sewer service, says state officials are legally all wet if they try to regulate the industry as utilities. Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission jurisdiction “does not extend to the regulation of a landlord’s water pipes any more than it may extend to a homeowner’s garden hose,” Clayton Miller, a Baker & Daniels attorney representing the Water Sub-Billing and Conservation Coalition, told the commission last…
To weather downturn, housing industry rolls out incentives
For most of this decade, the Indianapolis residential real estate market enjoyed a very good run. But now it’s muddling through
the doldrums just like the rest of the country, and builders are pulling out all the stops to avoid getting stuck with inventory.24-year-old developer tackles $30M deal
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.EYE ON THE PIE: Should fees replace property taxes?
So you want to be a boxer in Indiana? There’s a $10 fee to be paid every other year for the privilege. That’s a lot lower than the twoyear fee of $100 paid by architects. A driver’s license is good for five years and costs just $19.50. Whereas your aircraft bears a $10 annual registration fee, your passenger car has a $20.75 annual state fee. If you want to support a special cause, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles charges a…
Hansen & Horn sidesteps housing carnage
Hansen & Horn Group Inc. is sailing through the slump in housing construction relatively unscathed because it began shifting out of the tract-home market about four years ago-while the industry still was going gangbusters. The local builder had operated in the upper end of the tract-home segment, but feared it couldn’t continue competing with giants […]
PROFILE: LB&A Sign Management: Signs matter Artist helps firms promote their brands
LB&A Sign Management Signs matter Artist helps firms promote their brands It takes more than a power drill to put up a company’s sign these days. In most cities and towns, there are ordinances and zoning regulations to comply with and permits to get before a sign is tacked on the side of a building. Business owners also want their signs to capture the firm’s essence-and look good, too. That’s where Lisa Bohn comes in. Bohn, 40, parlayed 15 years’…
A&E: Elvis has left the production
For many people, the sign of a good musical is that you leave the theater humming the songs. But what are we to make of the recent onslaught of shows where you hum the songs going in? These “jukebox musicals” raid the song catalogues of singers, composers or bands (The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, et al.) to cobble together a score. While the practice of creating a musical out of preexisting songs goes back through music and film…
Landlord handling of water, sewer bills under scrutiny: Utility commission examining charges to see whether owners operate as utilities
State utility regulators are examining whether operators of apartments and trailer parks are hosing tenants with excessive bills for water and sewer service. The inquiry by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission takes aim at decades-old billing practices that include dividing up a complex’s total water and sewer bills among all tenants. The commission said it’s received a handful of complaints over the years alleging rental property owners, or their billing agents, are assessing tenants higher rates than the commission permits…
Other builders unlikely to follow KB out of Indy, experts say
KB Home Inc. probably will be the only national builder to abandon the Indianapolis-area market, local observers say. Dallas-based Centex Corp., Pulte Homes Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Beazer Homes USA, headquartered in Atlanta, are even more likely to stay now that KB is leaving, said Steve Lains, CEO of the Builders Association of […]