A resilient service economy kept the Indianapolis-area office vacancy rate stable in the second quarter, according to Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. The vacancy rate inched up to 17.2 percent from 17 percent in the first quarter. A year earlier, the rate stood at 16.8 percent. The area absorbed a net 403,000 square feet of office […]
In late May, Darrell Bowman launched Lounge Hats LLC, an Indianapolis-based company that makes fabric covers that fit over
beach or pool-side chaise lounges to make one thing clear: This seat is taken. Bowman withdrew $20,000 from personal savings
and added another $50,000 from an investor, his friend Mike Oswalt, to start the company. He runs Lounge Hats out of his garage,
hiring a Chinese company to sew the hats and contracting with a local printer to finish them off.
As motorists rush to buy antacid pills with each $4.25-a-gallon fill-up, the same car dealers who got pudgy five years ago selling SUVs with $6,000 profit margins are scrambling to profit from Aveos or anything else with decent mileage.
In the late 1980s, Lafayette native Robert Meitus set off for Los Angeles with his band East of Eden in an attempt to make it in the music business. The group that shared management with Guns N’ Roses [singer Axl Rose grew up in Lafayette] never reached a sliver of its fame, however fleeting. But the experience did give Meitus an introduction to what ultimately would lead to a burgeoning career as an intellectual property lawyer. Capital Records came calling,…
No doubt, the Daniels administration will trumpet the fact that Indiana was the ninth-fastestgrowing state in the first quarter of this year. That’s right; personal income in the Hoosier state grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, while the nation advanced 4.6 percent. But, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which generates these data, Indiana was among the fastergrowing states because of dramatic increases in the prices of corn and soybeans. North Dakota came in first,…
Facebook and MySpace have harnessed the Internet to revolutionize how Americans keep in touch. Could providers of health care do the same? Indianapolis-based Community Health Network is trying to find out. It has opened its Web site to allow its patients to create their own MySpace-like pages to keep their family and friends informed about their treatment or about their new baby. Community’s Web site also hosts discussion forums for various groups of patients, such as new moms, cancer patients,…
Carmel-based auto auction Adesa Inc. said yesterday that it intends to buy the 82 percent of Live Global Bid Inc. it doesn’t already own. Headquartered in Moose Jaw in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Live Global Bid offers software Adesa uses to broadcast auctions over the Internet. The sale price was not disclosed. Adesa said […]
More random thoughts from the American Theatre Critics Association conference in Washington.
* If the powers that be in Carmel–or any other place that aspires to be an arts destination–hasn’t already made contact, they should reach out immediately and speak to…
Conseco Inc. has won another round in court against former Merchants National Bank CEO James D. Massey this month, ringing
up a $29 million judgment against him in a court in Illinois. But Massey shows no sign of throwing in the towel in the years-long
litigation over millions he borrowed to buy Conseco stock. Massey was a director of Conseco from 1994 to 2000.
Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art of ending. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Next week, a moving truck will pull up at the Carmelite Monastery on Cold Spring Road. The hired hands will load the simple possessions of the nine remaining nuns and their dog, Lucy. Then Sister Jean Alice, Sister Terese, Sister Betty, Sister Ruth, Sister Helen, Sister Marcie, Sister Rita, Sister Anna Mary and Sister Rachel will lock the massive wood door, climb into cars and…
Joe Ruffolo learned a great deal over 35 years as an executive at PepsiCo., Squibb Corp., Reynolds Aluminum and North American Van Lines. Now running his own investment banking company, Fort Wayne-based Ruffolo Benson LLC, Ruffolo also holds seats on a halfdozen company boards. Executive compensation experts say that’s too much on one plate. Ruffolo is one of a handful of Hoosiers who serve as independent board directors of more than one Indiana-based public company. Experts say it’s an increasingly…
It’s not easy filling the shoes of a 26-year news veteran. But Kristen Leigh Porter is going to try. Officials for the Indianapolis Star recently announced that Porter has been named to replace…
Locally based HotBox Pizza plans to introduce its pies to a nationwide audience. The pizza chain won regulatory approval last week to begin selling franchises in Indiana, Michigan and Texas. The chain is…
HAMILTON COUNTY Carmel to sing virtues of Great American Songbook Carmel’s new 1,600-seat Regional Performing Arts Center has attracted a permanent resident. The Feinstein Foundation for the Education and Preservation of the Great American Songbook plans to relocate its headquarters there. The Feinstein Foundation, currently based in Los Angeles, holds museum artifacts that originally belonged […]
This month, 65-year-old Bill Corley gave his 18 months’ notice that he will be retiring as CEO of Community Health Network,
the third-largest hospital network based in Indianapolis. Perhaps Community’s board of directors needed so much time to replace
a man who has held his post so long-nearly 25 years. When Corley arrived in 1984, Community consisted of just one hospital
on Indianapolis’ east side. Today, it has five.
In 2000, gasoline cost 99 cents a gallon, you could barely give recyclable plastic away and the idea of manufacturers “going green” was a pioneering thought. Allegiant Global started that same year as Heritage Interactive Services, with one client and little market awareness of what industrial recycling and reuse initiatives meant. Heritage Interactive was started by principals of locally based Heritage Environmental Services, which was-and still is-involved in more traditional waste-disposal services. When one of Heritage Environmental’s clients, Michigan-based Lear…
Conseco Inc. hired one upper-level executive and promoted another one this week. The Carmel-based insurer hired Michael Farley as senior vice president and annuity and life actuary. Farley, 45, joins Conseco from ING Re, where he served from 2001 to 2007 as chief financial officer and chief insurance risk officer. Conseco also made its interim […]
Angela Braly, Wayne DeVeydt and the rest of the top brass at WellPoint Inc. face wrath over the company’s recent stock swoon
from a new group: ex-employees. Four former WellPoint workers have filed lawsuits against the Indianapolis-based health insurance
giant over the losses its 401(k) retirement plan suffered in March when the company slashed its profit forecast for the year.
Since arriving at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Tiffany Wedekind has rubbed shoulders with comic book characters, connected schoolteachers to learning activities, and made plans to travel abroad to help gather ancient Egyptian artifacts. She is not a seasoned veteran of the museum field, but a 22-year-old intern who will graduate from Marian College in December. What’s more, Wedekind is not alone. She is among at least 22 college students who will share similar experiences there this summer. Exposing interns…
Bill Corley, who announced today that he will retire after 25 years as CEO of Community Health Network, says doctors nearly ran him out of the hospital within months of his arrival in 1984. Doctors mutinied because they tied Corley’s appearance to a new approach by the federal government to limit reimbursements for certain services. […]
