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Deal giving edge to unions muddies midfield contracts: Non-union contractors question whether bidding on project is worth the trouble

A construction agreement that requires union wages, work rules-and union workers-at the midfield terminal project has big and small businesses alike concerned they’ll be shut out of all but the tiniest contracts on the $300 million building. Unless Janet South’s painting firm Deco Group agrees to accept those terms, she’d only qualify for projects of $75,000 or less-the threshold at which the agreement kicks in. That limitation, contained in the project labor agreement attached to the midfield terminal, contrasts with…

Rental Finders business ready to sell franchises: Service acts as middleman for tenants, landlords

Linking landlords with tenants from an office buffered by a coin laundry and a pet shop may seem like an unusual career choice for someone who once aspired to be a lawyer or doctor. But for Vasilios Maniatis, the decision to become a broker in the residential rental business has led to a concept he thinks has the potential to become a national franchise. The 38-year-old Chicago native arrived from Salt Lake City, where he opened his first Rental Finders…

NOTIONS: The faulty presumption of perpetual accessibility

I was in pain. I lost lots of blood. My blood sugar skyrocketed (I’m diabetic). In the wee hours that Friday morning, nurses pumped me full of morphine, injected me with insulin and watched my vital signs while doctors pressed and squeezed, pushed and prodded, and talked it all over in hushed tones. An hour before surgery, an anesthesiologist visited. He asked lots of questions about allergies and dental work. Then he warned me of potential doom-perhaps even death on…

INVESTING: Thank Apple for putting music industry back on feet

As a tool of creative destruction, the Internet did a job on the music industry. For a few years, the largest consumers of music were obtaining the product for free, and stocks in the sector suffered as a result. Today, the industry is getting back on track, and investors are making money again. Music executives worldwide should be lavishing Steve Jobs of Apple with bottles of champagne and cigars. After courts shut Napster down, other illegal download services popped up…

Centre Properties, state nearing agreement: Retail center at 96th and Allisonville closer to reality after years of legal wrangling

Indianapolis-based Centre Properties LLC is beginning to move dirt on 96th Street just west of Allisonville Road, a sign that a battle over developing part of a 220-acre site may be nearing an end. In late March, Centre dropped a lawsuit it had filed in mid-2004 against the Indiana Department of Natural Resources over the agency’s reversal of a permit granted to Centre. That permit would have allowed Centre to fill in 15 acres of White River floodway to build…

Special Report: Buying blind: Lack of oversight leaves state in dark on real estate deals The state of Indiana knows how much it’s spending to lease property statewide -nearly $40 million a year. But it doesn’t know if that’s too much.

The state of Indiana knows how much it’s spending to lease property statewide -nearly $40 million a year. But it doesn’t know if that’s too much. State contracts for third-party real estate services give government officials few safeguards to ensure they’re paying a fair price for office, laboratory and storage space outside of state-owned buildings, those in the industry say. And state administrators have no control over seven-figure commissions paid to two Indianapolis real estate brokers in the past decade,…

Space crunch prompts Indiana to seek help with real estate leasing duties:

Between the Statehouse, the Indiana Government Center and the State Library building, the state of Indiana owns 1.1 million square feet of real estate in downtown Indianapolis. Still, that’s not enough room to house all state government’s agencies and functions-which is why Indiana spends nearly $17 million each year to lease space elsewhere in Marion County. Some agencies, including the departments of education and health, house nearly all their office workers in privately owned buildings near the Statehouse. Other departments…

TOM HARTON Commentary: Dragging parents back to class

The day he was hired in June, Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White broached a topic too often missing in the dialogue about public education. White said that parents are among those who will be held accountable for student achievement in Indianapolis Public Schools. The words “parents” and “accountable” might have shown up together on a school vocabulary test sometime in the last 100 years, but they don’t often go together when those of us who aren’t in the trenches…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Obstacles facing Marsh cast questions over Atlas project

Marsh Supermarkets Inc. ended rampant speculation when it announced last September that it was buying the former Atlas grocery site at 54th Street and College Avenue and would build an Arthur’s Fresh Market there. Or did it? Nearly a year after Marsh officials unveiled their plans, the former Atlas building slated for demolition remains standing, surrounded by a chain-link security fence. “We were pretty sure construction would have started by now,” said James Garrettson, president of the Meridian Kessler Neighborhood…

Halakar thinks small, deals big: Real estate services firm quickly finds its niche

Unlike the 500-pound hammerhead shark mounted on a wall in Todd Maurer’s office, Halakar Real Estate intends to remain a small fish in the large pond of commercial real estate brokerages. But the company launched by Maurer, 34, and Ralph Balber, 36, is already making a splash despite its brief, twoyear existence. While Halakar has carved out a niche in the downtown Class B office space market, it also commands enough respect to broker larger deals. Halakar and Indianapolis-based Colliers…

Payola inquiry includes Emmis: New York AG, FCC study financial ties with record labels

Emmis Communications Corp. early this year received a subpoena in an investigation of pay-forplay practices throughout the radio industry, and the Indianapolis company confirms two of its employees in the New York market are under scrutiny. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer earlier this year began investigating whether record companies were using improper promotional practices to win airplay for their artists’ songs. In July, he reached a $10 million settlement with Sony BMG, owner of several record labels. This month,…

BULLS & BEARS: Share buybacks can be good use of excess cash

Long-term investors benefit greatly when a company is able to reinvest its excess earnings into projects that, in turn, produce a high rate of growth in future earnings. When management can expect these investments will produce more than a dollar of value for each dollar spent, the internal compounding of reinvested earnings creates business value and will be reflected in the stock market by a rising stock price. In addition to reinvesting earnings, a company has other alternatives available in…

Safety Resources Inc.: Safety pays off for ex-engineer Clients look to local firm for training, advice

Clients look to local firm for training, advice Robert Baldwin repeatedly describes his business as keeping people safe and alive. At Safety Resources Inc., that translates to making sure workplace policies and practices meet or exceed government standards and clients’ employees are trained in the safest ways to work. That can mean anything from the proper operation of heavy construction machinery to the right floor wax to reduce slip-andfall accidents. After several years as a chemical engineer, Baldwin, 50, saw…

Adidas sale could bring changes to former Reebok facility: German sports giant has a history of using overseas manufacturing sites

Adidas’ plan to buy Massachusettsbased Reebok International Inc. for $3.8 billion has put the future of Reebok’s eastside manufacturing plant in doubt again. Though Reebok officials insist the immediate future is secure for the 600,000-square-foot operation off Post Road, industry experts say changes are on the way. Reebok took ownership of the facility in 2001 when it bought Indianapolis-based licensed apparel maker Logo Athletic out of bankruptcy court. Since then, Reebok has invested heavily and expanded local staff from 400…

Sourwine planning to sweeten its local office offerings: Second-generation real estate firm has two new buildings in the works that could nearly double its holdings

When Jim Sourwine was 4 years old, he would sit outside the closed door to his father’s home office and play with his toy cars. Barred from entering the adult-only world, sounds of paper shuffling and adding machine clacking piqued his interest in his family’s real estate business. “I wanted in,” Sourwine recalls. By the time he was old enough to file and wash windows for the firm, his father had moved Sourwine Real Estate Services out of his home…

State bundles media buying: Firms here question whether small Fort Wayne-based agency can handle $10M contract

In a move that has rankled some central Indiana advertising agencies, Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office this month awarded a $10 million-$12 million media buying contract encompassing all state agencies to Fort Wayne-based Asher Agency. Asher in turn promised to save the state $900,000 in the coming year. The contract, a one-year deal with a oneyear renewal option, calls for Asher to place television, radio, print and outdoor advertising for the Hoosier Lottery, Indiana State Fair, Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, Office…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Why like-kind exchanges don’t make sense for everyone

Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code allows you to defer federal taxes by swapping real property for like-kind property. For years, tax advisors have been recommending a 1031 strategy whenever real estate developers and owners are ready to harvest their gains. Today, with real estate valuations at record highs and capital gains tax rates at record lows, there is a good chance a 1031 exchange strategy could defer taxes but lose profits. You may be better off to recognize…

VIEWPOINT: Signs of economic recovery all around us

After weathering some difficult times over the last few years, there are encouraging signs that central Indiana has turned the corner on its road to economic recovery. The Indianapolis metro area added 22,000 jobs in the year ending in March-a 2.4-percent increase-and in May, the Indiana unemployment rate dipped below the national average for the first time since December. All signs point to continued modest growth. Patrick Barkey, IBJ contributor and Ball State University economist, says, “We should expect to…

Former Chamber of Commerce CEO launches firm: Christopher LaMothe leaves Oxford Financial Group

For a decade as Indiana Chamber of Commerce CEO, Christopher LaMothe pressed to enhance Indiana’s business climate. Then he spent several years leading Oxford Financial Group Ltd.’s team of advisers for wealthy clients. But the whole time, LaMothe aspired to be a dealmaker. Now, he’s done something about it. This summer, he founded the one-man Ascendanci Ventures LLC and is on the hunt for prospects. “I’m doing what I have dreamed about for the last 10 or 15 years,” LaMothe…

SPORTS: Tiller rescued Purdue but isn’t immune to critics

This year the NCAA mandated that Division I-A football media guides be reduced to a uniform 212 pages. Keep in mind that these fonts of information intended for inkstained wretches had morphed into voluminous pitch-tools for recruits and brag books for boosters. The cutback didn’t prevent Purdue’s sports information office from devoting a copious 11 pages of copy in its 2005 guide to Joltin’ Joe Tiller. Perhaps I (or you, dear reader) should read nothing more into that other than…