Housing bubble on hold
The inventory of central Indiana homes for sale is piling up, but the backlog so far hasn’t caused prices to fall, according to experts and industry statistics.
Real Estate
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Some call on tradition of burying St. Joseph statue to help sell homes:
Real estate agents pushing to keep homes moving in a slowing market are increasingly looking for divine intervention. Local religious supply stores say sales are up for 4-inch-tall plastic figurines of St. Joseph. Some Catholics believe that burying the statues in a yard helps sell a house. St. Joseph statues have always sold well, but they’ve moved even faster in recent months, said Beth Kuczkowski, president of the Village Dove Inc., with stores in Broad Ripple, Fishers and on the…
Mayor says condo plan for arena site needs more retail
When Mayor Bart Peterson announced Aug. 31 that the efforts of a partnership to build condominium towers on the former Market Square Arena site had failed, he gave his administration 60 days to put together another deal. Peterson’s vision: Hold onto the concept of a residential tower, but add “significantly more retail.”
PAN founder focuses on another IT venture: BubbleUp aims to standardize musicians’ Web sites
It didn’t take David Pfenninger long to get back into the game. Just months after selling Carmel-based Internet-test provider Performance Assessment Network Inc. in April for $75 million to St. Louis-based TALX Corp., Pfenninger is betting on another Internet venture: an online music marketing and management startup called BubbleUp. Pfenninger initially remained part of PAN’s local management team after the acquisition, but stepped down this summer, retaining a role as a consultant. “I thought it was time to make a…
Firm sees opportunity where banks see risk: Oak Street has big hopes for insurance agency loans
Bankers like to see plenty of collateral when they underwrite loans. Insurance agents don’t have many hard assets to show them. Free toasters won’t smooth over this credit dilemma. But the leaders of the Carmel-based Oak Street companies boast they can. And they’re poised to capitalize with a fast-growing specialty lending firm. “The first line of our vision statement says we’ll build a long-term sustainable financial-services firm,” said Oak Street Chairman Steven Alonso. “It’s our strategy to diversify.” Founded in…
NOTIONS: A travel dispatch from somewhere over the rainbow
The sun is setting, the pavement damp, and dark clouds dance across the San Juan Mountains as we turn onto U.S. Highway 550 and drive north toward Durango. As if there weren’t enough beauty in this peak-filled paradise, Nature’s earlyevening sideshow features a fully arced double rainbow, quite the welcome sign to a late-summer vacation. I suppose you could write off a double rainbow as a mere meteorological phenomenon. I suppose I could, too. But it’s more fun to wonder…
Pepsi considering mammoth warehouse on west side: Sources say firm’s been scouting sites since spring
A firm representing PepsiCo Inc. has been scouting sites on Indianapolis’ west side for a mammoth warehouse and distribution facility, and sources said the beverage giant is leaning toward a site near its Gatorade bottling plant. Local real estate brokers said Chris Clayton, a broker with the Cleveland office of Dallas-based Staubach Co., visited sites and put out a request for proposals for the project in early April, calling for 1 million square feet of industrial space with the possibility…
Market Square development deadline looming
Rival developers are dusting off plans for the former Market Square Arena site now that the partnership the city chose for the project appears on the verge of missing the Aug. 31 deadline to buy the land.
Lauth plans huge business park
Lauth Property Group is working to complete the purchase of 550 acres it has under contract at the northeast corner of Interstate 70 and State Road 39, one interchange west of Plainfield. Lauth plans to build 7.5-million-square-foot industrial park, dubbed Westpoint Business Park.
Woman sets sights on freedom: Disability isn’t keeping shop owner from goal
Two doors opened for Pam Evans on Aug. 5-one to her own clothing store and the other to her independence. The Cherry Shop represents both to Evans, who lost most of her sight over the course of a weekend in 1998 to a genetic eye disease called angioid streaks. Left with only her peripheral vision, she also lost her career in real estate and corporate sales. After a period of depression, Evans decided she wouldn’t lose it all. “I felt…
Putting a spin on 911: Law-enforcement agencies embrace reverse system
Langsenkamp, CEO of Sigma Micro Corp. in Indianapolis, began conducting research on the patented Reverse 911 Interactive Community Notification System in 1990. The technology, however, didn’t hit the market en masse until a decade later. Today, roughly 350 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, including those in Carmel and Beech Grove, use it to blast warnings to residents. “It was the first system that ever allowed people to dial phone numbers and deliver messages based on the…
Modernized Dunkin’ Donuts plans 10-plus area stores
Boston-based Dunkin’ Donuts is salivating over the prospect of ringing up big sales in Indianapolis and wants to franchise at least 10 stores here within the next year as part of a national expansion.
Political upstart unloads auto dealership
Eric Dickerson, the Republican trying to unseat Julia Carson in the 7th congressional District, plans to sell his north-side Buick dealership to Ed Martin Automotive Group as early as next month. But the dealership could become a campaign liability even if it’s sold.
VanAusdall to auction off city block
Local office equipment distributor VanAusdall & Farrar Inc. is putting an entire city block on North Meridian Street up for auction, a move that could spur development in a corridor real estate experts say is ripe for activity. The three-acre property is between 12th and 13th streets.
Verus Partners gets busy in 1st year in local market: Chicago newcomer has 3 developments under way
In 2003, four men decided to leave careers at Chicago-based development powerhouse Higgins Development Partners LLC to start their own company. The result, Verus Partners LLC, an industrial, office and institutional developer, has grown rapidly, opening two offices in Canada and one in Indianapolis, and is pondering a new office in Charlotte, N.C. And its 1-year-old local office is spearheading an aggressive move focused on developing speculative industrial space. Last year, Verus hired Tom Theobald, a 19-year commercial real estate…
VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Low-impact development likely to make a big impact
Every time Indiana experiences one of its summer cloudbursts, the rainfall sets into motion one of a real estate development’s most expensive and least appreciated systems. As rain hits the ground, it quickly collects into wellengineered courses to swales and gutters, through pipes and culverts and into detention ponds. Flowing around, over and through the land that once absorbed it, the water is efficiently collected and conveyed off the site. In other words, gather it up and drain it off….
Fountain Square district shoring up its Corners: Group turns old buildings into residential/work spaces
If State and English avenues in the Fountain Square district were on a Monopoly board, they would probably be the ones available immediately after passing “Go.” But after the Southeast Neighborhood Development Inc. is finished there, the intersection will move several spaces closer to Park Place. The not-for-profit is investing $1 million to renovate three dilapidated buildings it bought to convert them to residential/work spaces as part of its Fountain Square Corners development. A local photographer who will live in…
BEHIND THE NEWS: Coastal cash flowed into tiny firm, yielding big payoff
Century Realty Trust is but a grain of sand in the universe of real estate companies. But within the last few years, the Indianapolis firm has caught the attention of investors on the coasts, and they’re the richer for it. Now that Century Realty is selling nearly all its properties to Indianapolis-based apartment owner Buckingham Properties and liquidating, its investors likely will collect from $20.50 a share to $21 a share, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and…
Noble Roman’s seeking a return to glory
Noble Roman’s Inc. executives think they’ve found the recipe to lift their company out of its stock malaise. The Indianapolis company started franchising last year restaurants that feature dual branding with its Tuscano’s Italian Style Subs, and it plans 157 locations within three years.
Architectural firm embraces solar panels
The architectural firm Schmidt Associates Inc. wants to persuade clients to build greener buildings. So a couple of weeks ago–during a heat wave and under scorching sun, nonetheless–workers erected a solarpanel awning in front of the company’s 320 E. Vermont St. offices.