Indianapolis is poised to launch a bid
to attract USA Basketball’s headquarters from its Colorado Springs home. The not-for-profit national governing body for men’s
and women’s basketball in the United States recently put out a request for proposals for a new headquarters city.
The LaPorte area has about everything necessary for an intermodal facility, the director of CSX Intermodal said during the annual Indiana Logistics Summit in Indianapolis yesterday. The key to landing an intermodal project is community support, Michael Gallis said. However, while economic developers and other officials in the northwest Indiana city back the idea, many […]
LESSONS LEARNED JENNIFER Q SMITH Queen of Fuzz, AvantGarb Have It’s hard to take Jennifer Q Smith too seriously. Oh, she’s the consummate professional, to be sure-responding to an e-mail inquiry about her company with the speed and savvy you’d expect from someone who has run her own business for 20 years. Her marketing materials are slick, her shtick smooth. Her northeast-side work space is clearly well used. But the hot pink fuzz ball that looms in the entryway (dressed…
Motherhood is a common path to the home-based child care business, but more childless women looking for self-employment options
also are getting into the field. Nearly 3,000 Indiana child-care providers are licensed to provide services in their homes–including
469 in Marion County.
Greenfield was up to about $150 million in sales by 2000, when the Greenwalt family sold its commercial construction firm. Founder Max Greenwalt then went to work with his sons Jeff and Lynn at the development company. About the same time, Greenwalt Development tweaked its mission to focus on senior-living communities and medical office projects-scaling back the size of the firm in the process. The leaner company now has $15 million in annual revenue and nearly $14 million in projects…
Economists usually don’t follow marketing slogans, but Wal-Mart’s shift from its “Always Low Prices” slogan to “Save Money, Live Better” caught my eye. The slogan is based on a study by the national consultancy firm Global Insight. During a 2005 conference on Wal-Mart, Global Insight’s economists released a study showing the average American family saved a little more than $2,300 annually by shopping at Wal-Mart. The current marketing campaign uses updated estimates of Wal-Mart’s savings at about $2,500 per year…
It probably goes without saying that New Yorkers can be, well, a bit difficult. As a fund-raiser for a NYC-based not-forprofit for many years, I encountered my fair share of these folks, which is one reason why I really looked forward to coming back to my home state of Indiana. Having grown up in Indiana, I knew of the kindness and generosity shown to me by neighbors, teachers-even complete strangers-but I’d never lived and worked here as an adult. More…
Midwestern cities are unlikely to top the list of vacationing hot spots, but they are a popular destination for relocating employees. That’s the consensus from the latest Corporate Relocation Survey conducted annually by Evansville-based Atlas World Group, whose largest subsidiary is Atlas Van Lines, the second-largest interstate motor carrier in the United States. The study revealed that nearly a third of firms, 29 percent, are sending more employees to the Midwest than any other part of the country. Surprisingly, the…
A sign on the basement wall reads “Construction Zone.” Nearby on the router table, window frames are taking shape along with decorative pieces that will adorn the façade of a World War IIera brownstone. Behind a red plywood wall a few floors up, hammers knock and saws shrill as workers erect a 13,500-square-foot homage to three children who changed the world. It’s just another day at the office for the production crew at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. For months,…
Sometimes, important social and political issues can be seen most clearly beyond Interstate 465. Take the problem of illegal aliens, for instance. The latest statistics indicate 11 million to 12 million people, mostly from Latin America, are living in this country illegally. The practical reality is there’s no way to “round up” 11 million people and ship them back to their countries of origin. How do we go about it? About 11 million people live in Ohio. How realistic would…
At one company I know, the head of information technology took note of rising printing costs and took decisive action. He immediately asked everyone to start printing on both the front and back of each printed sheet. Every time I saw people in meetings flipping pages up and down trying to read front-and-back, I wondered if he’d done the math, because it’s highly probable he didn’t save much at all. The big cost in copiers and printers isn’t paper, but…
It’s a hovercraft, the M200G from the fine folks at Moller International of Davis, Calif. It has eight rotary engines that create enough oomph to lift the thing about 10 feet in the air, just high enough to zoom over traffic and crack your head on a stoplight. Which, let’s face it, would add a much-needed element of comedy to the average morning commute. But anyway, about the car: It’s about time. I’ve been waiting for this thing since I…
Five leaders of Indiana’s life sciences industry offered their perspectives at the Indiana Convention Center June 26 as part of the Indianapolis Business Journal’s Power Breakfast Series. The panelists: Mike Arpey, managing director of global investment bank Credit Suisse’s Asset Management Division and manager of the $73 million Indiana Future Fund for BioCrossroads, the state’s life sciences economicdevelopment initiative. Ron Ellis, co-founder, president and CEO of Lafayettebased Endocyte Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the treatment of cancer through receptor-targeted…
Indiana needs a trip to the doctor-and a stern lecture when we get there. We’re among the nation’s unhealthiest states. More than one of every four Hoosiers is obese, and we rank among the 10 worst states for smoking and high cholesterol. The outcomes should come put more stress on the system and drive up prices and premiums for everyone. Gov. Daniels has signed a progressive bill that provides affordable health insurance with a medical savings account plan to Hoosiers…
The Arts Council of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission recently launched a campaign to encourage individuals and businesses to buy art from local artists. I couldn’t agree more with the message. In addition to the “Be Indypendent, Buy Indy Art” stickers you’ll no doubt see all over town soon, the campaign includes a Web site, www.beindypendent.org, with a downloadable “how to” guide, plus links to the Arts Council’s artist database that includes the work of more than 400…
State utility regulators are examining whether operators of apartments and trailer parks are hosing tenants with excessive bills for water and sewer service. The inquiry by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission takes aim at decades-old billing practices that include dividing up a complex’s total water and sewer bills among all tenants. The commission said it’s received a handful of complaints over the years alleging rental property owners, or their billing agents, are assessing tenants higher rates than the commission permits…
Moe’s path to opening Indianapolisbased ACT Services Inc., her accounting, tax and consulting firm, was fraught with roadblocks. In 1998 she graduated from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in Indianapolis with a degree in accounting. That same year she divorced. Moe has had her share of breakups. While still an undergraduate, the Greenwood native worked for a year as a business partner with a certified public accountant at Accounting Store LLC in Speedway. The partnership continued for five…
A cold snap wiped out at least half of Indiana’s honeybee hives over the winter. For some beekeepers, the loss was as high
as 80 percent. Fortunately, most don’t look to bees for their livelihood.
It was a terrible storm. Emerging from his tattered tent at a Renaissance re-enactment camp more than 20 years ago, Ken Lawrence surveyed the decimated landscape, with only three oddlooking round structures surviving the 60-plus-mile-per-hour winds. Intrigued by what kind of structure withstood such a violent blow through this tent town, Lawrence poked his head inside the Mongolian-style yurt, a round tent-like structure with a uniquely engineered roof. “I was amazed they were still standing,” Lawrence said. “Utterly amazed.” Immediately,…
A local firm plans to redevelop a quiet corner near the Fashion Mall into a mixed-use behemoth with a full-service hotel,
5,000-seat theater, hundreds of condos, and more than a million square feet of office and retail space.
