Public-transit group hires latest executive director
Andrew Gast-Bray will become the fourth person to lead the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority since last August when he becomes executive director Sept. 1.
Andrew Gast-Bray will become the fourth person to lead the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority since last August when he becomes executive director Sept. 1.
-Aim Solutions leased 25,600 square feet at 7941-7997 Allison Ave. The tenant was represented by Brian Dell of Cushman & Wakefield/Summit. The landlord, ProLogis, was represented by Jason Speckman of Cushman & Wakefield/Summit.
-Artisanz Fabrication & Machine Co. leased an additional 13,200 square feet of industrial space at 2198 Reeves Road, Plainfield. The landlord, Damon and Patricia Jones, was represented by Patrick Lindley and Grant Lindley of Cassidy Turley. The tenant represented itself.
-Exact Target leased 5,957 square feet of retail space at 433 N. Capitol Ave. The tenant was represented by Jenna Barnett of Newmark Knight Frank Halakar. The landlord, OneAmerica Financial Partners, was represented by Jacque Haynes and Don Williams of Cassidy Turley.
-Dottie Couture Shipping leased 5,311 square feet at 1729 S. U.S. 31, Greenwood. The tenant was represented by Kyle Powell of NAI Meridian. The landlord, 1729 South US 31 LLC, was represented by Brian Dell of Cushman & Wakefield/Summit.
-Sipes Asphalt Solutions leased 4,800 square feet of industrial space at 1316 N. Capitol Ave. The landlord, LLR Realty LLC, was represented by Brian Dell of Cushman & Wakefield/Summit. The tenant represented itself.
-Three Chefs Corp. dba Dickey's BBQ leased 2,358 square feet of retail space at Fortune Plaza, 9655 E. U.S. 36, Avon. The tenant was represented by Bill Marsh of Colliers International. The landlord, Fortune Plaza Enterprise B LLC, was represented by Greg Smith of Colliers International.
-Creative Touch Interiors Inc. leased 2,347 square feet of industrial space at 9855 Crosspoint Blvd. The tenant was represented by Mark Writt of CBRE. The landlord, Clarion Partners, was represented by Fritz Kauffman and Bryan Poynter of Cassidy Turley.
-Dr. Bryant Ponchot leased 1,686 square feet of retail space at 8802 S. Madison Ave. The landlord, Conrad Morris & Associates LLC, was represented by Greg Smith and Nate Smith of Colliers International. The tenant represented itself.
-Hammel Insurance Agency leased 1,600 square feet of retail space at 12656 E. 116th St., Fishers. The tenant was represented by Keith Dedrick of Corporate Commercial Group. The landlord, Brooks School Plaza LLC, was represented by Greg Smith of Colliers International.
-Jimmy John’s leased 1,535 square feet of retail space at 9893 N. Michigan Road, Carmel. The landlord, CASTO, was represented by Jacque Haynes of Cassidy Turley. The tenant represented itself.
-Staff America Inc. leased 1,446 square feet of office space at 8465 Keystone Crossing. The tenant was represented by Kimberly Estes Hartman and Tom Osborne of Colliers International. The landlord, 8465 Associates LLC, was represented by Bill Montrie of Corporate Park Development Inc.
-Sweeties GT LLC leased 1,320 square feet of retail space at 2101 E. 62nd St. The tenant was represented by Ron Mannon of Lee & Associates. The landlord, McKee Realty Corp., was represented by Bill French of Cassidy Turley.
-Hair Passion leased 756 square feet of retail space at 8802 S. Madison Ave. The landlord, Conrad Morris & Associates LLC, was represented by Greg Smith and Nate Smith of Colliers International. The tenant represented itself.
Ohio-based Cardinal Health Inc. wants to open a $14.4 million drug-production facility that would employ 85 workers by 2017. A Cardinal subsidiary, Cardinal Health 414 LLC, produces a cancer treatment locally at a compounding center on Georgetown Road. The Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development said Cardinal wants to expand production of the medication by opening a second facility in an existing 64,000-square-foot warehouse at 4343 W. 62nd St. If the project goes forward locally, the company said it would spend $11.5 million to make the building suitable for pharmaceutical production and another $2.9 million in manufacturing and research equipment for the facility. Cardinal wants a tax abatement valued at $690,297 over 10 years. During that time, the company still would pay $648,169 in property taxes.
Consolidated Insurance Services Inc. has merged with Shepherd Insurance, creating an insurance agency with eight Indiana offices, 145 agents and more than 160 employees. Consolidated will now operate as Consolidated Shepherd Insurance, while Shepherd will maintain its name. Shepherd is based in Carmel and has offices in Noblesville, Greenfield, Columbus, Evansville and Seymour. The agency, which in recent years has bulked up its presence in health insurance, was founded in 1977 by Dave Shepherd, who won Indiana's Mr. Basketball award in 1970 while at Carmel High School. Consolidated, founded in 1932, is led by Rex Early, the former Republican state chairman and gubernatorial candidate.
Eli Lilly and Co. and a partner drugmaker won tentative regulatory approval for a once-a-day insulin that will compete with Lantus, the blockbuster insulin made by France-based Sanofi SA. Called Basaglar, the drug is approved for adults with type 2 diabetes and in combination with mealtime insulin for adults and children with type 1 diabetes. Lilly co-developed the drug with Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH. The approval is tentative because of a claim of patent infringement filed by Sanofi. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cannot give final approval of Basaglar until mid-2016, unless courts find in favor of Lilly earlier.
Eli Lilly and Co. will submit its experimental psoriasis drug for regulatory approval after the medicine helped six times as many patients participating in clinical trials completely clear up their skin irritations as an existing treatment. Lilly’s drug, ixekizumab, is in a race with two others to be first in a new class of psoriasis treatments to reach the market. Lilly expects to submit the drug to regulators—most likely in the United States, Europe and Japan—in the first half of 2015. The commercial prospects for ixekizumab are uncertain. Before Thursday’s announcements, Wall Street analysts expected the drug to fall short of $1 billion in annual sales by 2020. Switzerland-based Novartis AG already has submitted its drug for psoriasis to the FDA, and expects a decision as early as year’s end. California-based Amgen Inc. has partnered with United Kingdom-based Astra Zeneca plc on a new drug for psoriasis, but they have yet to complete late-stage testing.
I worked for Bob Lauth and found him to be tough, fair, driven and extraordinarily street-smart [Maurer column, July 21].
We know all about Manning and Luck, but what about the others who’ve lined up under center?
Six years after having the area’s largest catering business sold out from under him, Jack Bayt is back, leading a revamped Crystal Catering. But the new iteration is much smaller than in the days when Bayt and his partners wanted to become a regional or even national player.
Mainstreet Property Group, already the fastest-growing company in the Indianapolis area, now has the fuel it needs to nearly triple its pace of construction of senior care facilities around the country.
Walt Disney Co. announced earlier this month that it would sell its 23 radio stations that target children ages 3 to 15. The only Radio Disney outpost on the FM dial, WRDZ-FM 98.3 in Indianapolis, could be particularly sought after if the stations are sold individually.
In April, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis began considering cost of living alongside the stew of income figures it has long collected, and the new, adjusted income numbers make both the metro area and the state look like better places to live.
Indianapolis attorney Tim Caress’ desire to combine his after-work passions with helping people whose “lives have been turned upside down” resulted in his rolling—and running—into a new and growing line of business.
Help yourself to some Mission Coffee and help the poor Panamanians who put it in your cup.
Two local insurance agencies with long histories and well-known leaders have merged, creating a firm with eight Indiana offices, 145 agents and more than 160 employees.
Scott Wynkoop placed first among all-star agents a third year in a row.
Ward takes first place among IBJ’s All-Star Teams sixth year in row.
Fishers Town Council unanimously approved an economic development deal Monday that will allow Sun King Brewing Co. to plant some of its growing business in the suburban community. Members also voted on a commuter-bus subsidy.
An attorney for Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay filed the request for the continuance Monday. His trial had been scheduled for Aug. 28.
Fishers Town Council on Monday is expected to consider a subsidy of up to $22,500 to keep the Indy Express commuter buses running for the rest of 2014. Carmel City Council, meanwhile, has a $30,000 grant request on the table.
Regenstrief Institute Inc. plans to build a $13 million, 80,000-square-foot headquarters at 10th and Wilson streets, the Indiana University School of Medicine announced on Aug. 14. The facility will be built on the medical school's campus at IUPUI on land leased from Indiana University. Regenstrief, a not-for-profit medical research organization, plans to move 50 investigators, 165 staff members and a number of affiliated scientists into the building when it is completed in mid-2015. Most of those employees now work in nearby locations at 1050 Wishard Blvd. and 410 W. 10th St. The Regenstrief Foundation has committed $5 million to the new building and the IU School of Medicine is contributing another $1 million, officials said. Schmidt Associates of Indianapolis is handling architecture and interior design. Regenstrief investigators developed and operate the Regenstrief Medical Record System, which has served as the electronic medical record system for Wishard, and now Eskenazi Health, since 1973. It is the oldest continually operational medical record system in the United States, Regenstrief said.
Eli Lilly and Co. says it will close its Elanco Animal Health enzyme plant in Terre Haute by early 2016 as part of a consolidation, according to the Associated Press. Lilly spokesman Ed Sagebiel told the Tribune-Star that the Indianapolis-based company is consolidating all of its animal enzyme manufacturing to a site in Great Britain. He said the plant closure will affect 23 employees, all of whom will be offered comparable positions at a Lilly plant near Clinton that employs about 500 workers. Clinton is about 15 miles north of Terre Haute. The Terre Haute plant makes animal feed enzymes that help animals digest food more efficiently, boosting farm productivity. Lilly purchased the Terre Haute plant in 2012.
Carmel entrepreneur Zeke Turner has agreed to sell the real estate investment trust he started two years ago for $950 million to focus on his original nursing home development company, Mainstreet Property Group. HealthLease Properties REIT, which Turner leads as CEO, announced Aug. 13 that it will be sold to Ohio-based Health Care REIT Inc. The Toledo, Ohio-based company, also known as HCN, also agreed to form a development partnership with Mainstreet under which it will acquire 17 projects Mainstreet has under construction and 45 senior care campuses it plans to build. In all, the deal is worth more than $2.3 billion. HCN, the largest U.S. health care landlord by market value, said it will pay $14.20 per share in Canadian dollars for HealthLease, 31 percent more than HealthLease's stock price before the deal was announced. HealthLease Properties, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, owns 51 senior care facilities in Canada and the United States, including 12 in Indiana. In second-quarter results announced Aug. 12, the company’s revenue and profit doubled from the previous year, to $17.6 million and $5 million, respectively, in Canadian dollars. Mainstreet has been the fastest-growing company in the Indianapolis area over the past three years. Revenue skyrocketed to more than $66 million last year.
A federal judge said Indiana can challenge an Internal Revenue Service rule that offers tax credits to Hoosiers who purchase health insurance on Obamacare’s federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov. According to Bloomberg News, U.S. District Judge William T. Lawrence in Indianapolis denied an IRS bid to dismiss that portion of the state’s 2013 lawsuit, in which it claimed the rule illegally conflicts with a provision of the federal law limiting those tax credits to enrollees in state-created exchanges. Lawrence’s ruling comes three weeks after U.S. appeals courts in Washington, D.C., and in Richmond, Virginia, reached conflicting conclusions about availability of the subsidy for which 4.5 million people have qualified. Indiana was one of the states that opted to not create an exchange. Lawrence, in his ruling, rejected U.S. contentions that Indiana and the 39 state public school systems that joined it in the suit would suffer no harm from the rule. Lawrence did, however, reject Indiana’s contention the mandate violated its sovereignty, ruling it, and 25 other states, lost that argument in the early stages of a 2010 Obamacare challenge that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the legislation as a valid exercise of Congress’ taxing authority.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. will change its name back to Anthem Inc., the brand under which it sells most of its coverage, according to Bloomberg News. The name change will be completed by the end of the year, pending shareholder approval, the company said in a statement. WellPoint will hold a shareholder vote on the change in November. WellPoint and other large health insurers find themselves increasingly marketing directly to consumers, as Obamacare requires most uninsured Americans to obtain coverage and employers thrust more responsibility for costs on their workers. The company sells plans in 14 of the health care law’s new insurance exchanges, in most cases under its Anthem brand. The company doesn't sell plans under the WellPoint name. WellPoint Inc. was formed in 2004 when Indianapolis-based insurer Anthem Inc. completed a $16.5 billion merger with California-based WellPoint Health Networks Inc. Anthem Inc. was originally formed in 1995 when Indianapolis-based insurer Associated Group merged with Cincinnati-based Community Mutual Insurance Co. Anthem demutualized and conducted an initial public offering in 2001.
Bloomington’s Monroe Hospital LLC, which has had a close relationship with Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health, filed for bankruptcy reorganization on Aug. 15 and plans to sell its business to a Canadian hospital operator. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition, filed in federal court in Indianapolis, said the 32-bed hospital had more than twice as many liabilities as assets. It has been losing money due to low patient traffic in the face of cross-town competition from Indiana University Health’s Bloomington Hospital. Monroe and St. Vincent signed a management agreement two years ago, with St. Vincent taking responsibility for Monroe’s quality and safety efforts, finance functions, physician relations and patient satisfaction. St. Vincent also considered adding Monroe to its 22-hospital network. Those merger talks and St. Vincent’s management of those Monroe services ended last October, but longtime St. Vincent executive Joe Roche was installed as Monroe’s CEO. St. Vincent is now one of Monroe’s largest creditors, with the hospital owing St. Vincent’s physician group $170,000. St. Vincent physicians provide cardiac care and orthopedic surgeries to Monroe patients. Even after the hospital is sold to a new owner, St. Vincent will try to continue its clinical relationship with Monroe.
-Holladay Construction Group LLC. partnered with Holladay Properties to convert a 17,000-square-foot warehouse into an office/warehouse suite for Accelerated Inc. at 5777 Decatur Blvd.
-Capitol Construction has completed a 16,000-square-foot expansion for Allied Solutions at 1320 City Center Drive, Carmel.
-Capitol Construction has completed a 3,400-square-foot office build-out for Body One Physical Therapy at 10412 Allisonville Road, Fishers.
-Capitol Construction has completed a 2,500-square-foot office expansion for PR Mortgage at 11555 N. Meridian St, Carmel.