Buyers in Seattle, Milwaukee and even Bloomington have snapped up new cottage homes in developments that
turn the McMansion trend on its dormer-decorated head. But will Indianapolis buyers have a similar appetite
for the tiny energy-efficient homes clustered around community greens? A local developer is betting they
will.
Two real estate guys told me recently that the market might be able to grab some traction if the banks would face reality about the true worth of the stuff on their books. Write-offs are large, with an estimated $450 billion written down worldwide this year to date. And if you make an offer for real estate that is less than what the bank has written it down to, most likely your offer will be rejected. The bank is still…
Let’s start with some real estate news from this week’s IBJ in print:
Charter Homes owner Jerry Jaquess fancies himself a white knight for King Park, a neighborhood once known…
Developers are taking a new approach to a student housing project proposed for a 2.3-acre parking lot a few blocks east of the Central Canal….
Charter Homes owner Jerry Jaquess fancies himself a white knight for King Park, a neighborhood once known mainly for its
rampant crime, boarded-up homes and vacant lots. But as he’s constructed a slew of homes and carriage houses there, the local
builder has stirred up several lawsuits, dozens of liens and persistent questions about whether his business is legit.
The Mayor’s Office has quietly agreed to consider selling some of the city’s more than 1,100 properties, including police stations, maintenance buildings and parks, in a bid to raise cash to help balance the budget. The city awarded the potentially lucrative no-bid contract to Venture Real Estate Services, a politically connected real estate firm led by John Bales.
The former Paul C. Stetson School northeast of Fall Creek Parkway and College Avenue could soon find new life as a 47-unit senior apartment complex….
Workers were trying to figure out what to do next after the city’s compliance department issued a stop-work order this morning on the new Buffalo Wild Wings. The order threatens a $2,500 fine for any company or individual found in…
Buffalo Wild Wings has responded to the city’s beef with its Washington Street façade by submitting a new plan showing the exact design it already constructed. The…
McGowan Insurance Group plans to build a new 19,000-square-foot headquarters on a triangle-shaped property at 340 N. Capitol Ave. where an ealier proposal called for 30 condos and a bank….
UPDATE: The Metropolitan Development Commission overturned the billboard approval, and the city now is looking into whether the existing sign is legal.
The city’s planning staff is challenging a Board of Zoning…
Some of the people most familiar with the mortgage foreclosure explosion in the Indianapolis area in recent
years have privately pointed fingers at appraisers.
Appraisers too often were in cahoots with lenders to illegally inflate prices of houses, the insiders complained,…
The signs for Leading Edge Commercial Real Estate Services are hard to miss on the south side. And soon, they could be popping up all over central Indiana. The 3-year-old, Greenwood-based brokerage firm has grown from three employees to 14 and now is looking at adding two new offices, including one on the north side. The firm has more than 120 listings, up from about 60 at the start, mostly for office leasing and sales of smaller commercial properties. The…
Now a developer is banking on a new roadway and airport terminal to attract office tenants, although some brokers familiar with the area aren’t sold on the idea. The local office of Chicago-based Verus Partners LLC finished purchasing 200 acres along the east side of the Reagan Parkway and plans to build a 60,000-square-foot, two-story speculative office building. Verus’ mixed-use office and industrial park is called GreenParke at Airwest and could be ready for occupancy by next summer. Infrastructure work…
John E. Huguenard is on a roll. He’s got $1 billion in active industrial listings and is on track to top his $700 million deal volume from last year. The low-key super-broker for the local office of commercial real estate powerhouse Colliers Turley Martin Tucker has closed 17 deals worth a total of $250 million already this year. And that’s no fluke: Huguenard, 45, has sold or leased more than 100 million square feet of industrial property in more than…
The marketing material for the Sedona Woods community in Fishers boasts that once word gets out, home lots are sure to sell out quickly. In hindsight, the statement couldn’t have been further off the mark. Roughly four years later, the subdivision that ultimately was to contain hundreds of homes built by Davis Homes LLC remains unfinished. And now, after the local builder ceased operations in late July, completion could take even longer. Sedona Woods at Promise Road and 136th Street…
In the buttoned-down world of banking, it doesn't get much stranger than this: An Indianapolis loan officer with a strong reputation is suddenly dismissed after his employer charges he falsified lending documents. The bank says the fraud exposes it to potential losses approaching $20 million. And here's the kicker: The employer hasn't accused the banker of committing the wrongdoing for personal gain.
Dear lenders: Perhaps you have seen the recent headlines that declared suburban Indianapolis among the best places in the country to live and raise a family. Perhaps you’ve also taken note that there are a lot of things happening in our communities. Big projects abound in the Indi anapolis area, including Lucas Oil Stadium and the Midfield Terminal at Indianapolis International Airport. People are so excited about the new stadium they lined up for hours trying to get a tour…
Come Sept. 19, Nordstrom Inc.’s got a brand new bag–and, well, shoes, hat and ensemble to match–as the department store
opens a second Indianapolis location, in the Fashion Mall at Keystone. Residing in Parisian’s former quarters,
the new store is poised to burnish the mall’s reputation as the region’s highest-end shopping destination.
Those ubiquitous retail strip centers are beginning to wither under a housing slump that has cast a dark cloud over much of the U.S economy. Heavily dependent on new-home construction, strip-center developments have been hurt by tough residential real estate conditions that have spread into the commercial arena and dampened retail activity. Nationally, the volume of strip-center investment transactions is down 77 percent from a year ago, according to a June commercial report from the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors….
