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Giant Ford plant could join warehouse conversion trend: Observers say size, age may be obstacles

City officials haven’t given up hope on keeping 1,400 lucrative manufacturing jobs at an Indianapolis steering parts plant, but Ford Motor Co. has. The company this month said it will close the facility by the end of 2008. A closure will leave the 1.8-millionsquare-foot building empty, but real estate observers say it could be redeveloped as leaseable industrial space-as shuttered Chrysler, Maytag and Western Electric factories nearby have been. Some of the premier projects in the area are leasing well,…

Corporate shopping spree: Massive Guidant deal helps make 2006 a record-setting year for local M&A activity

Last year was a record-shattering period for the Indianapolis-area merger and acquisition market, thanks in large part to the loss of one public corporation. Guidant Corp.’s acquisition by Boston Scientific Corp. for $28.4 billion last year and the related sale of its vascular business to Abbott Laboratories for $4.1 billion made the 2006 Big Deals list bigger than ever. That’s because the two deals made up about 85 percent of the $38.5 billion of M&A activity tracked down by the…

INVESTING: How ethanol mania is making a mess of the corn market

For the last 30 years, politicians from farm-heavy states like Indiana have been pushing for a massive increase in the production of ethanol. As oil prices began to kick up earlier this decade, their long lobbying efforts started to make some sense. Eighteen months ago, I highlighted Archer Daniels Midland as a company to play this move, and the stock went from $21 to $44 in a little more than a year. In the last 12 months, there have been…

SPORTS: Overdosing on the Colts? Enjoy it while you can

That sport, and not religion as Karl Marx once declared, has become the “opiate of the masses” is apparent in our fair burg, where we all-or at least most of us-are overdosing on the Indianapolis Colts. The TV types are in full hyper-ventilation. The scribes are cranking out words by the thousands. No angle involving the Colts and their upcoming Super Bowl date with Da Bears in Miami will go uncovered. And, yes, some of the story lines will be…

Lottery lease plan has fatal flaws EYE ON THE PIE:

Folks I talked to, Democrats and Republicans, liked the governor’s State of the State speech. The fault they found was that the speech was scheduled opposite the Indiana University basketball game with Iowa. Isn’t that an impeachable offense in Indiana? The part of the speech that intrigued me most was the idea about leasing the rights to the lottery to get money to establish scholarships and endowed chairs at our universities. The idea is to slow or reverse the brain…

Colts’ Super Bowl appearance a winner for WISH: Local affiliate should realize seven-figure windfall

Heading into Super Bowl XLI, WISHTV Channel 8 is in the catbird’s seat among local broadcasters. With WISH’s affiliate network, CBS, carrying the Feb. 4 game, the local station is set to rake in a seven-figure sum in advertising revenue-in addition to what it would have made on the Super Bowl if the Colts weren’t in it, industry experts said. “With the Colts in the Super Bowl for the first time since moving to Indianapolis, WISH’s opportunities are immense,” said…

A lonely number for IPOs in Indiana: Calumet joins short list of Indiana companies to go public this decade

A little-known refining and petroleum products company on the city’s west side has the distinction of being the only company in the state to go public in 2006. Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP filed its initial public offering last January. It completed the process in June by selling 5.7 million shares of stock at $21.50 each, ultimately raising $122.5 million. Shares since have nearly doubled in value, thanks in part to rising prices in the petroleum industry. While Calumet’s decision…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: How to extricate ourselves from the property tax mess

There once was a time when everyone watched network news, and there was one newscast in the heat of presidential primary season that I’ll always remember. After watching a succession of unsuccessful candidates in post-election press conferences blaming anything and everything-except themselves-for their poor showings, correspondent Roger Mudd had seen enough. Just once, he said, he would like to see candidates stand up and say it straight-they lost because folks liked the other candidates better. One of these days, someone…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Royal payoff awaits longtime Noble Roman’s CEO

Noble Roman’s Inc. CEO Paul Mobley is a veteran of the pizza wars, collecting his share of bruises along the way. But now his Indianapolis-based company is enjoying heady times-and he’s poised to capitalize in a big, big way. Securities filings show that warrants to purchase stock he amassed during the company’s darkest days now are worth more than $7.5 million-thanks to a recent runup in the company’s shares. His son, President Scott Mobley, also holds a big stash of…

National Guard proposing new monument

The Indiana National Guard wants to build a downtown monument to commemorate its centuries of history. But concerns over design
threaten to derail the $2.5 million proposal before it gets off the drawing board.

Kiplinger: Chicago beats Indianapolis in corporate duel

Comparing Chicago and Indianapolis corporate powerhouses in a financial Super Bowl is no contest, says Kiplinger, the personal finance and business forecast organization. Chicago wins by more than a touchdown. Both cities are economically diverse. In fact, Kiplinger noted, the cities are more alike than different when size and lake frontage are taken out of […]

Kokomo manufacturer files for NASDAQ listing

Haynes International Inc., a Kokomo company that makes alloys for use in aerospace, chemical processing and gas engines, announced yesterday it would sell 2 million shares of common stock and that it has applied to be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker HAYN. Haynes, which trades as a pink sheet, will use the money to […]

Doors locked at Payton Wells Chevrolet.

Payton Wells Chevrolet at 1510 N. Meridian St. was locked this morning, and the two dozen cars on the lot had notices in their windows saying they had been surrendered to National City Bank.   The notices said they were turned over to National City yesterday and could not be removed without the bank’s permission. […]

Doors locked at Payton Wells Chevrolet

Payton Wells Chevrolet at 1510 N. Meridian St. was locked this morning, and the two dozen cars on the lot had notices in their windows saying they had been surrendered to National City Bank.   The notices said they were turned over to National City yesterday and could not be removed without the bank’s permission. […]

Economist Barkey leaving Ball State

Patrick Barkey, one of Indiana’s most prominent economists, has accepted a post at the University of Montana and will be leaving Ball State University in March.   Barkey, director of economic policy studies at Ball State’s Bureau of Business Research, has been with the university since 1993. He will become a senior researcher at the […]

Could NiSource move headquarters to Ohio?

Residents in the Merrillville area are growing jittery over prospects that NiSource Inc.—the only Fortune 500 company in northwest Indiana—might move out of the area. United Steelworkers official fears NiSource will relocate to Columbus, Ohio, where its Columbus Gas of Ohio natural gas utility is headquartered, according to The Times of Munster. Bloomberg reported yesterday […]

Payton Wells abruptly closes Anderson car dealerships

Payton Wells, who owns a Chevrolet dealership 1510 N. Meridian St., traveled to Anderson Thursday afternoon and closed three other dealerships he owns, The Herald Bulletin reports. Calls from the newspaper to Wells’ Indianapolis location were unanswered, although the newspaper could not immediately determine if the site also had been closed. He could not be […]

Elkhart officials try to tap international fiber optic line

Economic development leaders in the Elkhart area are gathering money to study how local businesses could use an international fiber optic line that runs through Elkhart County. Few businesses know it exists, The Truth reported. The low cost of sending information over the line not only could help local businesses in the northern Indiana county, […]

Steel Dynamics may revive $215M iron range project

Steel Dynamics Inc. has bought a 4,458-acre mine in northeastern Minnesota’s iron range, renewing hopes of local officials that the Fort Wayne steelmaker will build a plant to make nearly pure iron nuggets for use in electric arc steel furnaces.   On Nov. 30, Steel Dynamics pulled out of a partnership with four other parties […]

Icos shareholders approve Lilly acquisition offer

Shareholders of Icos Corp. voted 77 percent to 33 percent today to accept Eli Lilly and Co.’s $2.3 billion offer for the developer of the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, according to Bloomberg.   Analysts quoted by Bloomberg said shareholders were so divided about the deal that they couldn’t predict whether Lilly would succeed. Only three […]