Christopher P. White is arguably the city’s most daring real estate developer. But an IBJ review of hundreds of pages of public
records shows White and his Premier Properties USA Inc. are facing major financial and legal challenges.
The massive new AllPoints Midwest industrial park in Plainfield has landed its first tenant in a mega deal that likely will
be the area’s biggest industrial lease in 2007. Local logistics firm Prime Distribution Services Inc. has signed a lease for
1.2 million square feet in the 920-acre park, a joint venture between Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp. and Browning Investments
Inc.
Entertainment is a big part of a $480 million development proposed for the south side of downtown–plans include a 3,400-seat
theater to attract the likes of Bruce Springsteen and first-run tours of Broadway shows such as “Wicked.” The question is
whether the city can support another midsize venue.
If Circle Centre mall were built today, it would cost $420 million. Throw in another $60 million, and you’ve got the price
of Legends District-SoDo, a proposed mixed-use development on the south edge of downtown.
The developer of a $750 million mixed-use project called Venu has acquired a 13-acre site across the street from where another
developer had planned to build condos and a Whole Foods Market.
A local development team is working on a 10-story, mixed-use tribute to a man who helped design the original plan for Indianapolis,
Alexander Ralston. The $60 million project, dubbed Ralston Square, would feature a 150-room hotel, 55 condos, a 617-space
parking garage and 41,000 square feet of retail space.
Premier Properties USA Inc. is preparing to go head-to-head with Simon Property Group Inc., the nation’s largest and most
powerful mall developer, across the street from Simon’s top-performing The Fashion Mall at Keystone. Premier is proposing
a 2.3-million-square-foot, $750 million development at 86th Street and Keystone Avenue called Venu.
Now that most of the existing buildings along South Meridian Street downtown have been rehabbed for condos, restaurants or
hotels, developers are eyeing surface parking lots. Local companies filed plans recently to replace two such gaps in the Wholesale
District streetscape with mixed-use projects.
Jaron Garrett hasn’t developed anything like the 25-story tower he’s proposing. And he doesn’t come close to having the financial
muscle to pull off the $30 million project on his own. But Garrett is determined to sell his vision of transforming a downtown
eyesore at Washington and Pennsylvania streets into a twisting glass-and-steel apartment tower.
Fallout from the subprime mortgage fiasco has scuttled a developer’s plans to acquire Pan Am Plaza and could complicate a
host of other development deals under way in Indianapolis.
When it comes to advertising and marketing, the city’s two tallest skyscrapers are Class A, all the way. But throw out that
notion at tax time. The owners of Chase Tower and OneAmerica Tower–and some of the city’s other large office buildings–have
successfully lobbied for lower building “grades” that save them big bucks on property taxes.
After years of designing banks, churches and condo conversions, Prince/Alexander Architects Inc. is working
with unnamed partners on a plan to replace its headquarters with a $47 million, 24-story hotel and condo development called
West Merrill Tower.
The questions these days among residents of Lakes at the Crossing, a quiet community of 77 condos tucked behind a strip center
and an office park along 86th Street at Keystone Avenue, are: Who will sell, and for how much?
A shrunken Thomson, the former manufacturer of RCA
televisions, is vacating a landmark office building at its Carmel headquarters to make way for St. Vincent Health, the parent
company of a growing chain of Indiana hospitals.
Marvin Miller is representing a landowner trying to sell 125 acres just north of Indianapolis International Airport. But Miller
wants him to give away some of the property to persuade California-based Lucas Oil to move its headquarters there, jump-starting
the stagnant area in the process.
Eli Lilly and Co. has decided to vacate 99,000 square feet of office space at 30 S. Meridian St. in yet another blow to the
struggling downtown market. Roughly 1.8 million square feet of space already is sitting idle downtown, putting downward pressure
on rents.
When Nordstrom in 1992 signed its lease to open in Circle Centre, mall developers extracted an unusual commitment. The Seattle company agreed not to open another Indianapolis-area store for at least five years. So when Nordstrom last month announced it will launch a second location here, in The Fashion Mall at Keystone, it caught the attention of Herman Renfro, a former Simon Property Group Inc. development executive who oversaw Circle Centre.
A local developer plans to build a $33 million, four-story apartment and retail complex on the Central Canal just north of
Michigan Street. Flaherty & Collins Properties has the three-acre parcel under contract from American United Life Insurance
Co.
A fall merger of two Indianapolis homeless shelters set off a new round of speculation about whether Wheeler Mission Ministries Inc. will continue to operate out of its 245 N. Delaware St. location–a stone’s throw from multimillion-dollar redevelopment under way on Massachusetts Avenue.
The building skeleton planted recently at the corner of 65th Street and Binford Boulevard offers only a hint of the $29 million medical complex Ken Schmidt wants to grow there. The Indianapolis developer will add four more buildings and a separate pharmacy to the 17 acres of land he bought several years ago. The end result, he said, will be a medical plaza that offers a unique blend of services encompassing dental work, radiology and ambulatory surgery, among other specialties….
