Billboards enter digital era
Remote-controlled digital billboards are revolutionizing the outdoor advertising industry nationwide, but a city prohibition
against the medium is preventing a rollout here.
Remote-controlled digital billboards are revolutionizing the outdoor advertising industry nationwide, but a city prohibition
against the medium is preventing a rollout here.
A strong demand for student housing downtown is driving a $40 million plan for a high-rise apartment tower a couple of blocks
east of the Central Canal. The developer, a partnership of Fishers-based Paramount Realty Group and Indianapolis-based Alboher
Development Co. Inc., hopes to build the 16-story Paramount Tower on a OneAmerica parking lot.
I just got an e-mail from a good friend inquiring about where (his speculation was the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.) the Indiana Hoosiers would play their first bowl game since 1993. I responded with the same line I’ve repeated often. When it comes to Indiana football, I never look further ahead than the next play. It’s a lesson I learned 40 years ago, in 1967. I was fresh out of high school. It always was my dream to go…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said today that Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and several other providers of drug benefits kept overpayments too long. The companies, which also include Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group and Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., should have more quickly refunded the $4.4 billion in overpayments, the department said. The figure […]
The number of crews Robert Hoffman employs to frame new homes has dwindled from 14 to four, and could drop even more if the residential construction market continues to sputter. But the owner of Hoffman Framework Inc. in North Salem, a tiny town in western Hendricks County, is not about to let his 12-year-old business wither away. Instead, he’s expecting to recover by making the leap to the much more vibrant commercial sector, where he can use his experience framing…
For Mike Wyman, a devastating fire that gutted the family home during his teen-age years laid the foundation for a rewarding career in construction. The 41-year-old Wyman climbed from carpenter to become a leader of projects at two of the city’s largest commercial developers before launching his own company in 2005. WDG Construction & Development Services Inc. on East Washington Street downtown has since grown into a firm that expects to top $30 million in revenue next year-double this year’s…
Most fine arts students used to exist in a bubble-running to class in paint-splattered clothing and practically living in their studios, channeling their muse and honing their craft. Once they graduated, those who were driven enough to try to make a living off their talent still had a lot to learn about running a business. But now many universities are doing more to make sure art students graduate with the business skills they need. Local photographer Ginny Taylor Rosner graduated…
A long-neglected neighborhood south of downtown called Babe Denny suddenly is in the spotlight, attracting attention from
city planners, code enforcers, land speculators and a politically connected attorney.
In the face of a slumping local economy in the early 1980s, several national construction firms packed up and left Indianapolis. One locally based salesman, Len Liotti, was given a choice-move to St. Louis along with his job at tunneling contractor Affholder Inc., or set out on his own. Seeing the void the big players would create when leaving, Liotti started Midwest Mole Inc. in 1982 to fill it. Twenty-five years later, the privately held firm is thriving thanks to…
On the morning of Oct. 30, just five days before the NFL’s Game of the Century, Regular-Season Variety, I imagine-but don’t know for certain-that New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick was hunkered down in some office bunker at the Patriots training complex, bags under his eyes, hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head, scowl on his face. Certainly, he was poring over game films of the Indianapolis Colts, searching for clues that would help his team continue on its scorched-earth mission…
A 2,000-home housing development planned for near Bargersville south of Indianapolis has been delayed until next year, according to the Daily Journal of Franklin. Developer Mike Duke said five other projects he is working on must be finished before starting the Abbey, which is to have single-family houses, townhouses, condominiums and a golf course. If […]
Sounding downright Greenspanian, economists at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business said this morning they are “cautiously optimistic” that 2008 will be a year of modest growth. The U.S. economy will grow 2.5 percent, less than the 3 percent they expected for 2007, they said during the business school’s annual breakfast meeting downtown. Indiana’s economy […]
Melinda and Brooks Bertl know the ups and downs of the current real estate market-personally. They started looking for a home to buy this spring and it took them only two weeks to find one they liked in Carmel. “I guess we knew what we wanted and found it. And the house had been on the market for some time,” said Melinda Bertl, indicating the sellers were ready to make a deal. They bought the house and moved into it….
The Indy Racing League will roll out category sponsorship deals with soft drink, energy drink and motor oil brands in the
next two months. IRL officials declined to divulge which companies the deals are with, but said each are multiyear, multimillion-dollar
deals.
Indiana’s network for advanced university research, linked by a web of fiber optics known as I-Light, is now deemed safe by the state and Indiana University. Both have backed away from dire warnings about the network’s future that they issued earlier this month after a key partner in the network changed hands. Indianapolis-based Indiana Fiber Works, which leases hundreds of miles of fiber to I- Light under state contracts not set to expire for nine more years, was purchased Oct….
A legal fight is brewing over a 2.3-acre parking lot sandwiched between the RCA Dome and Lucas Oil Stadium. The state is seeking
to acquire the property through eminent domain and is fighting an appraisal that puts its value at $7 million. The owners,
meanwhile, contend the land is worth about twice as much.
An article in the current Slam magazine caught my eye. Written by Brett Ballantini, it was headlined, “The Hall of Shame.” The hall it was referring to was the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The gist was that its secretive selection process is preventing eminently worthy candidates from consideration for and ultimately election to the hall. It cites a “secret cabal of 24 unknown voters” for dereliction of duty, with particular concern for the class of 2007,…
I save newspaper items thinking they will make good columns. But with only one column per week, I end up with piles of good ideas. Here are four items I found interesting: Another sports opportunity: The National Lacrosse League has canceled its season. I didn’t know there was a league of 13 professional lacrosse teams. This was another instance of players and owners not being able to come to agreement on salaries. Both of those groups and the fans are…
Businesses looking to entertain clients but not quite ready for a luxury box at Conseco Fieldhouse now have another option-season tickets to all the concerts. The offering, dubbed Your Exclusive Access, will be the first season-ticket package in the nation for arena concerts, said Dave Lucas, owner of Indianapolis-based entertainment firm Live-360 LLC. Live-360 is managing the program for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, which leases the fieldhouse from the city and schedules entertainment there. While season-ticket programs have been a…
“A pop-culture update for those who’ve been living in Bhutan for the last several years…..” That was the beginning of an article in a recent Indianapolis Monthly and, while I don’t even remember now what the story was about, I knew after reading those words that I had to go to Bhutan. My reasoning: If this country is so remote that it’s used as a frame of reference for being out of touch, then I wanted to go there. Turns…