For a city feverishly growing its technology and life sciences sectors, it seemed a bit anticlimactic last January when
Purdue University dedicated its new technology center with only one tenant. But the lone tenant in the $12.8
million complex, FlamencoNets, a high-tech telecommunications firm, is about to get some company.
Developer Brown Investments has reached terms with the owners of 43 of 49 homes in the North Meridian Heights neighborhood
in Carmel. Browning plans to demolish the homes to make way for a $100 million commercial development over 17 acres.
Few commercial real estate properties are changing hands in the Indianapolis area these days, creating challenges for brokers who say it’s becoming increasingly difficult to determine the value of properties.
Would embattled Emmis Communications Corp. sell its Monument Circle headquarters, a prized development that opened a decade
ago at what then-Mayor Steve Goldsmith called "the most important site in the city and the very center of Indiana?"
Tight budgets, unsure future make moving unattractive to office-space renters.
The Jefferson Plaza renovation, which has been renamed Allen Plaza after its developer, will include restaurants, office space, condos, and is also working to achieve LEED environmental certification.
Some of the city’s most prominent commercial real estate brokers have resigned from locally owned Meridian Real Estate to
launch an Indianapolis affiliate of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle.
Veteran office broker John Robinson, one of the founders of locally based Meridian Real Estate, has left the firm and is working
on a new venture.
Blue Real Estate, a California firm that made a bundle selling West Coast office buildings at the market’s peak, has been
buying up local buildings and trying to learn the Indianapolis market.
DBSI, an Idaho real estate firm with 250 properties worth $2 billion faces a class-action suit. Some of its properties and
investors are in Indianapolis.
A local real estate developer has emerged as a top contender to buy the 28-story M&I Plaza–potentially at half the
$50 million price the building fetched a decade ago. Paul Kite Co. confirmed it is in talks with Maryland-based
CapitalSource Inc., which took over the struggling office tower in June after foreclosing on a $5 million
mezzanine loan.
Insurance giant Safeco Corp. is expected to either vacate or scale back its downtown operation next year–a move that could
deal a major blow to the office market. At stake are about 700 downtown jobs, some or all of which could be eliminated or
shifted to the suburbs. A final decision about the fate of Safeco’s five-building downtown office complex likely will come
after Boston-based Liberty Mutual completes its $6.2 billion acquisition of Seattle-based Safeco.
Browning Investments is contemplating developing a business park just north of Indianapolis International Airport in what
would be the largest development to date in the so-called Minnesota Street corridor.
Paris-based utilities giant Veolia Water has reached a deal to move its North American headquarters into the 16-story National
City Center, providing a boost to a downtown building still reeling from the loss of Simon Property Group Inc.
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.
The city’s oldest skyscraper will get a sleek new look starting this summer, when workers are scheduled to begin installing
a glass-covered curtain wall to replace a storm-scarred facade. Renovation of One Indiana Square should begin in June and
continue for two years.
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.
