The retail juggernaut at 86th Street and Keystone Avenue could get even stronger in the next several years. Locally based
Premier Properties USA Inc. revealed plans in 2007 for a $750 million redevelopment of a prime corner near The Fashion Mall
at Keystone.
Democrat Bart Peterson leaves office in early January after two terms as mayor of Indianapolis. Succeeding him will be Republican Greg Ballard, a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps who parlayed property-tax outrage into a surprise win. As Peterson, 49, prepared to leave office, he sat down with IBJ. The following is an edited version of the interview. IBJ: You didn’t expect to be stepping down this year. What was the most significant priority you had planned for…
Before we landed at the Genghis Khan Airport, checked into the Genghis Khan Hotel, and drank Genghis Khan beer, everything we had heard about the most famous Mongol of all time was negative. But that changed when we visited Mongolia in September. You might wonder what nice things could be said about a guy who conquered more territory in 25 years than the Romans did in 400? Well, the people we encountered perceived him as a combination of George Washington,…
City officials have agreed to pay $48.5 million of the $300 million cost of building a 1,000-room JW Marriott hotel in downtown Indianapolis, but a profit-sharing agreement that is part of the deal isn’t likely to yield payments for the city, a hotel industry expert said. Developers of the convention hotel signed a final deal […]
Employees at two Indianapolis hotels have begun a push to unionize-a move that, if successful, would make the properties the only union hotels in central Indiana. Several workers at the downtown Westin and the Keystone Sheraton have met with representatives of New York-based Unite Here, a labor group that represents about 440,000 hospitality and textile employees nationwide. Both hotels are part of Bethesda, Md.-based Host Hotels & Resorts Inc.’s global portfolio. Backers said a union is needed to raise wages…
The money is seductive: an “easy” $1.6 billion. That’s what gambling brought to Indiana in taxes this year. The prize might not be as big in 2008. There’s new competition. And a big drop in gambling revenue would spoil the negotiations that all the nervous Indiana politicians have been doing. Their jobs are on the line, and they know it. Hoosiers are embarrassed. They don’t like that. I have a beautiful picture of two of my children standing inside the…
The newly redesigned, 1,000-room J.W. Marriott convention hotel won’t be open when the Final Four comes to town in April 2010, as originally planned. But it will available by April 2011, a delay caused by negotiations over design details, said Mike Wells, president of locally based REI Real Estate Services, which is developing the project […]
Plans for a 1,000-room JW Marriott convention hotel now envision a taller building, with a whole new look and a larger pricetag. The hotel would be 34 stories, up from 29, and the project would cost $425 million, up from…
Plans for a 1,000-room JW Marriott convention hotel now envision a taller building, with a whole new look and a larger price tag. The hotel would be 34 stories, up from 29, and the entire project – which includes three other hotels – would cost $425 million, up from $350 million. The redesigned facade will […]
A new site plan for the $750-million Venu project shows four anchor tenants: Whole Foods; Barnes & Noble; Arhaus, an upscale furniture retailer; and REI, an outdoor-gear superstore that would be new to…
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…
Just so you know, I already had decided to revisit the Indiana Pacers this week. At the quarter post of the marathon that is the NBA season, the Pacers were performing admirably and above most expectations. They had knocked off Utah and Dallas. They had won three of four games on a West Coast trip, including a victory at Denver. They scored a huge road victory over the rapidly rising Eastern Conference power, Orlando. That left them at .500 through…
Just when you thought plans for a new downtown convention hotel were set to go forward, four City-County
Council members want the full council to essentially force the new hotel to employ union workers after it
opens.
The City-County Council, which…
Backers of the $250 million convention hotel project slated for downtown are raising alarm bells about a City-County Council resolution they say would kill the deal between the city and developers. The resolution, sponsored by Democratic council member Joanne Sanders, requires the hotel to have a “labor peace agreement” to get city financing. The Bond […]
Jamaal Tinsley is back in the news, and not for helping the Indiana Pacers win games.
Early Sunday morning, someone with an assault rifle followed Tinsley and his friends from a nightclub near
Lafayette Square Mall to the Conrad Hotel downtown…
Speedway officials are in discussions
to bring an airplane race to Indianapolis. The Red Bull Air Race World Series is a 5-year-old airplane race circuit that combines
the intrigue of a high-wire circus
act, thrills of an alpine ski race, and cutting-edge technology of Formula One auto racing.
This month, a 17-year-old boy in the Netherlands was arrested and charged with stealing furniture that doesn’t really exist, from a hotel that can’t be visited. He perpetrated his crime completely online, in a social networking Web site known as “Habbo Hotel.” By scamming other residents of Habbo Hotel, he obtained passwords that let him lift the virtual furniture out of others’ rooms, and into his own. In Habbo Hotel, you have to buy furniture with real money, so the…
Business and education leaders are hanging up their boxing gloves in favor of working together to stem the local high school dropout rate. “We’ve typically been at odds with the education community,” said Roland Dorson, president of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. Long-standing finger pointing has had businesses issuing mandates that schools educate their students better and educators claiming they don’t receive the help they need from businesses, Dorson said. “We get beat up by business and professional groups…
Locally based Mansur Real Estate Services Inc. has been picked by the Speedway Redevelopment Commission to be master developer for the $500 million “Speed Zone” redevelopment project. Mansur President Charles R. Cagann said in a statement that the project would be “…one of the most ambitious, exciting and challenging we will ever have the privilege […]
More visitors are coming to Indianapolis and spending more money, leading to more jobs in the local hospitality industry, a soon-to-be-released report from the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association shows. And that’s likely to continue, given the numbers predicted for 2007, even though the city’s overall employment growth doesn’t look strong. “These numbers show a continued growth in tourism in Indianapolis,” said ICVA spokesman Bob Schultz. Tourism in Indianapolis had an economic impact of $3.6 billion last year-$31 million more…
