Several months ago, I broke bread with two editors of this esteemed journal. Over soup and salad, we concluded I’d said enough in this space of my bout with Grief. We figured you readers had grown weary of the topic, as had we. But Grief has a way of lingering. She shows up, unannounced, for cameos. As you stand at the shore, the wave of your future finally, joyfully rolling in and crashing ’round, Grief plays the undertow, luring you…
Conventional bank loans Banks provide conventional financing, evaluating loan requests against the socalled “five Cs” of credit. They must feel comfortable that borrowers have: capacity to repay the loan; capital of their own invested in the business; collateral to offer as a secondary source of loan repayment; creditworthiness, based on personal and business borrowing history; and character worthy of the bank’s trust. It’s in banks’ best interest to minimize risk. Loans are made only where the likelihood of being repaid…
“Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” – from the song “Charlie Brown,” by The Coasters I count myself among many, many Indiana University alumni, supporters and basketball fans in general who wanted to see Mike Davis succeed as the Hoosiers’ coach. I admired his demeanor, humility and honesty. I respected the incredibly difficult situation he inherited, first as the interim coach, then as the man designated to sustain IU’s tradition in the wake of Bob Knight’s firing. And certainly, no…
My son Zach was in town two weeks ago. He came to take photographs for a school newspaper story written by his twin brother, Austin. My sons’ words and images, published Feb. 10, told the tale of two recent graduates of their high school (Fort Wayne Homestead) who were entering the Marine Corps via a military processing center in Indianapolis. After finishing their story, Austin and Zach talked a lot about their close-up view of the USMC’s front gate: How…
The makeover of midtown Carmel, driven by the ambitious City Center master plan, could get a boost from a nearby development that could rival the project in scope. Local real-estate developer Buckingham Properties will present its proposal to the Carmel Plan Commission Feb. 21 to transform the 1960s-era Mohawk Hills apartment complex and its golf course into a modern urbanist neighborhood. The development, called Gramercy, could take a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete. The 116-acre tract…
DataSmith Technologies owner James Smith started looking almost two years ago for a building to house his business, his home and possibly a revenue-generating tenant. What he ended up with was a dilapidated former bar on a struggling section of East 10th Street that had become a haven for vagrants. Smith took a chance on the building at 2032 E. 10th St., most recently home to Mustang Sally’s tavern, largely because of the involvement of the East 10th Street Civic…
The highly-sought-after job of developing a new building for the FBI’s Indianapolis field office is still in play, but it’s hampered by the federal government’s inability to find a site for the building. A bevy of local and national developers are expected to throw their hats in the ring to develop the building, which the Government Services Agency says needs to be 110,000 square feet. For the winner, it would be a high-profile project and one of the more significant…
Two wall-size murals now welcome people to Massachusetts Avenue. An abstract sculpture that looks like an Alexander Calder tribute sits on a bridge in the Canal District. A towering blue and green obelisk marks the north end of Broad Ripple on College Avenue. The works aren’t part of an elaborate conspiracy by a renegade public artist. They’re the result of two years of careful planning by the city’s Cultural Development Commission. In 2003, the commission designated five areas of the…
Perhaps you’d find a live “elf” directing visitors from inside an inflatable lawn Christmas decoration. Maybe young women dressed in wedding gowns would be playing basketball in the gym. Or possibly, one of the featured works of art would be a 3-foot-tall crocheted cigar in a display case, made with yarn, wood, screws and “six cans of cheap beer,” according to its creator, Paul Baumgarten. But behind the scenes of controlled mayhem, Harrison Center Executive Director Joanna Taft and the…
If women have a tough time breaking into the construction trades, then Melanie Goldman, president of Goldman Electrical Contracting Inc., and Carla Partin, a union journeyman electrician, have managed to beat the odds. Both women have encountered obstacles in this mostly male field, but both were determined to succeed. Goldman, 32, runs the electrical company she owns with her husband, Bill. She has heard men say many times “Just have your husband call me,” but she doesn’t let that pass….
Lafayette Square Mall on the city’s northwest side has all the marks of a decaying urban mall: Most major national retailers have fled, a church occupies a former department store space, and the surrounding neighborhood has fallen out of favor among shoppers and businesses. But is the mall destined for a date with a bulldozer, as has happened with old malls in other cities? Not everyone thinks so. Lafayette Square still has good access from Interstate 65, apparently committed ownership…
A former Simon Property Group Inc. executive known in recent years for downtown condominium developments is launching a new development company that puts him closer to his retail roots. Brian F. Knapp, president of Dinmont Development LLC, recently created Diverse Development Co. LLC to focus on real estate beyond downtown’s borders. He’ll continue to serve as Dinmont’s president at least until its current projects are completed. Those projects, both joint ventures with locally based Hearthview Residential Inc., are the 40-unit…
In fact, some say the franchising clash has overshadowed the real implications of deregulation: Cable operators will get their first real competition since satellite TV mushroomed in the mid-1990s. Municipalities, which grant franchise agreements to cable TV companies and collect millions in fees in return, hyperventilated when Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield, introduced Senate Bill 245 last month. It would give the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission the job of doling out statewide video franchises. Cities would lose that authority, but would…
BEHIND THE NEWS Boston Scientific’s offer not as sweet as it seems Now that Guidant Corp. has agreed to be acquired by Boston Scientific Corp. for $27 billion, or $80 a share, investors in the Indianapolis company can rest easy, right? Not really, a close reading of the medical-device companies’ merger agreement shows. It turns out Guidant shareholders are entitled to $80 a share in cash and stock only if the average closing price of Boston Scientific’s stock in the…
Eric Dickerson held his hands out, palms facing each other, as if playing an accordion. He moved them closer to illustrate the narrowing margin of victory by which 7th District congresswoman Julia Carson has won re-election since 2000. A couple of tables away in the Starbucks near Broad Ripple, the founder of a private Indianapolis company sat listening to the political polka. Suddenly, he was up and talking to Dickerson, who wants to be Carson’s Republican challenger. “I want to…
The Feb. 4-7 auction of locally based Panther Racing hangs over the open-wheel series like a dark cloud at a time when IRL officials have been crowing about its 2005 successes. Television ratings soared 53 percent from 2004 to 2005, attendance increased 9 percent, merchandise sales were up 75 percent, and Web traffic on the series’ site rose 162 percent. According to Joyce Julius and Associates, an independent Ann Arbor, Mich.-based media research firm, sponsors got 57 percent more exposures…
You probably don’t know Gary Price and never even heard of him, but he is at the center of important changes in the construction industry. Don’t get me wrong; Price is not doing this by himself. He is part of a remarkably progressive set of activities that are demonstrating how social objectives and private interests can be integrated. Price has an association management company; as such, he is the executive director of several organizations. He specializes in construction-related associations. The…
OK, as you read this, the Super Bowl is about to occur, or has just taken place, depending on when you get your IBJ. And you are, perhaps, gloomy. Depressed. Still nursing that emotional hangover. You’re blue … Colts blue in hue and psyche. The Horseshoes didn’t make it, and that brings to mind another expression beginning with “horse”. So, as a public service to all those still suffering an extended case of dejection and despair-to be compounded by hours…
A combination of arm-twisting, dealmaking and the sheer brute force of the Office of the Governor came together the last week of January in a way Hoosiers seldom see. All the pressure was enough to keep Republican House members in line at just the right time in the legislative process to keep the governor’s Major Moves transportation plan moving. There was a lot of deep exhaling at week’s end, some from those in the Governor’s Office doing the heavy lifting…
Welcome to WIBJ Radio. I’m Beebee, your host of “Sports Geeks.” Our first caller is Fred from Franklin. Fred? Beebs, man, here’s how we handle those low-life, stomp-onour-hearts, marshmallow-soft Indianapolis Colts. We take their new stadium away. I mean, they are not worthy. So until they reach the Super Bowl, I say keep ’em in the Dome. Fred, what do we do with that big hole? Fill it in with water so the bean company can have beachfront property. Let’s…
