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Longtime developer undergoes changes: Shopping centers prove fruitful for Zinkan & Barker

Stephen Zinkan is one persistent fellow. The veteran real estate developer began knocking on the door of Cincinnati-based The Kroger Co. in the early 1990s, in an attempt to build his firm’s portfolio. He and Kelly Flynn had founded Flynn & Zinkan Realty Co. in the early 1980s and carved a niche developing groceryanchored shopping centers. Amid the rejections, Zinkan, 56, implored Kroger to give him its toughest assignment. The corporation relented and handed him property at 71st Street and…

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Scholar’s Inn ready to rise: Starbucks-like strategy: ‘Bread for the masses’

Scholar’s Inn bakers load delivery trucks with more than 5,000 loaves of bread each week. And each time head bread baker Jeff Duez rolls a rack of apricot almond bread out to the loading dock, he ducks his head. A 5-foot-high doorway separates the bakery’s Bloomington kitchen from the ramp where delivery trucks pull up twice daily. That’s one of the many inefficiencies co-owner Lyle Feigenbaum addressed when he purchased a 10,000-squarefoot production facility the company will fire up this…

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Required agent, broker education now available online: Rule change gives them option of Web or classroom

Indiana real estate agents and brokers need not venture outside the comforts of their homes to complete continuing-education requirements, thanks to a rule change allowing providers to offer courses online. Licenses expire every two years, and 16 hours of continuing education must be completed in that span for professionals to remain in good standing. The Indiana Real Estate Commission adopted the change that took effect April 1. “Rather than having to go to a hotel room or a physical classroom…

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Tower’s leasing power should weather storm: Brokers say One Indiana Square will remain attractive

Several downtown leasing agents doubt the storm damage incurred at One Indiana Square will have a significant impact on the tower owners’ ability to attract future office tenants. In fact, a few contend their quick response to containing the fallout from displaced occupants could even make the building more attractive. “There are a lot of people who never have this challenge put in front of them,” said Jeff Harris, president of locally based Meridian Real Estate and a former marketing…

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Real estate club members gain industry knowledge: Indiana University organization enjoys growth spurt

As the new headquarters building for Simon Property Group Inc. was going up downtown last fall, a group of Indiana University students donned hard hats and toured the 13-story building. After riding the construction elevator to the top floor, students got a bird’s-eye view of the city and a firsthand account from the developers about the building’s cost, size and challenges in constructing it. The students were members of the IU Real Estate Club, and the tour of the 350,000-square-foot…

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Real estate experts examine the market: Indianapolis in good shape overall, panelists say, but job growth, incentive issues, among concerns

On April 14, as part of its Power Breakfast Series, the Indianapolis Business Journal gathered a panel of commercial real estate and construction experts to discuss industry conditions in the local market. In a discussion moderated by IBJ Editor Tom Harton, panelists took on a wide range of issues, including tax incentives and the status of downtown’s residential and retail markets. Power Breakfast guests were Mike Curless, executive vice president and principal with Lauth Property Group; Mike Wells, president of…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: As construction costs rise, older buildings gain appeal

Construction costs continue to rise in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes, the war in Iraq, the building boom in China and general inflation. The trickle-down effect often lands at the feet of small business owners. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index, prices for materials and construction components increased 0.3 percent in February, following a 1-percent hike in January and continuing a threeyear upswing. The average building cost index has increased about 45 percent since 1995,…

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Circle Centre’s 4th floor may drum up office tenant: Percussive Arts Society lease could spawn other deals

The Lawton, Okla.-based Percussive Arts Society might announce as early as next month that it’s moving its 12 headquarters employees into 15,000 square feet on the troubled fourth floor of Circle Centre mall, according to a source familiar with the discussion. Roughly 10,000 of those square feet would be a museum that might get bongo enthusiasts and the curious alike to stop by and check out some Thai button gongs and West African talking drums. If all goes as planned,…

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Clinic can’t pull its weight: Forest Health leaves behind $11M hospital

“They’re not the most communicative people in the world, so I don’t really have a good reason, other than the fact that I think at one point they thought they had a group of doctors to operate the clinic with, and it fell through,” said Jack Hogan, a senior vice president for Indianapolis-based Lauth. Forest Health corporate attorney Marie Paratto referred questions to Laurence H. Lenz Jr., an A bariatric surgery center built for roughly $11 million a couple years…

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Separating emotion from reality: Home-staging companies help ‘sell that house’

Shakespeare wrote that “all the world’s a stage,” but when it comes to the competitive home-sales market, one might say all the world’s about staging. Home staging-the process of making a home more appealing to potential buyers-has gained recognition through popular cable television programs such as “Designed to Sell” and “Sell This House.” It can run the gamut from repainting walls to tearing them down, or from changing window treatments to replacing windows. Interior designer Marion Stewart and her longtime…

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Binford med center making headway

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….

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Atlas draws Fresh interest: Upscale grocery chain with a store in Carmel considers local expansion

North Carolina-based The Fresh Market Inc. has confirmed it’s interested in the former Atlas Supermarket site at 54th Street and College Avenue. “We are looking at expanding in that area and we’re looking at a lot of sites,” said spokesman Eric Blaesing. “[The Atlas site] is one of them.” He added that nothing is definite and “for every 100 sites you look at, you end up with one of them.” N e i g h b o r s hope…

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Single women opt for owning homes: Marriage and home ownership aren’t always synonymous

Apparently, Dorothy’s still right. There is no place like home, particularly if you are a single woman with good credit. Single women now are significant players in the real estate market. In fact, one out of every five homebuyers nationwide in 2004 was a single woman-and locally the percentage is even higher. According to a 2004 study by the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors, almost 25 percent of homebuyers in the area were single women. The national figure, compiled by…

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Amli selling-off its local apartments: Sale to Morgan Stanley prompts real estate firm to unload 6 multimillion-dollar complexes

One of the biggest owners of Indianapolis apartment complexes will soon be all but erased from the landscape, as Chicago-based Amli Residential Properties LP prepares to sell six of its seven properties. Two of the complexes, Amli at Lake Clearwater and Amli at Castle Creek, have already traded hands. Louisville-based NTS Realty Holdings LP in late March purchased both properties for $50 million, a slight discount from Amli’s asking price. Amli at Old Town Carmel, a mixed-use project that includes…

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Indiana Avenue looks for revival: Cultural plan: stresses retail, residential growth, and a possible extension

Indiana Avenue looks for revival Cultural plan stresses retail, residential growth, and a possible extension Indiana Avenue’s glory days as a haven for black-owned businesses and vibrant nightclubs exists only in the history books. But a plan to revitalize the city’s newest cultural district could restore some of the luster. City leaders completed the blueprint for redevelopment early this year and now are in the early stages of executing a plan that organizers say could take 20 years to play…

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Colossal hotel pitched: $250M project features water park, 1,350 rooms

A development team this week plans to submit a proposal to the city to build a $250 million, 1,350-room hotel complex downtown on a site where a 235-room Courtyard by Marriott now stands. The project, just south of the entrance to White River State Park, would include a convention hotel with ballrooms; three smaller, more limited-service hotels; an indoor water park; and a 1,200-space underground parking garage. At 800 rooms, the convention hotel by itself would rank as the city’s…

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National City Center to get $11 million facelift: Projects include new Starbucks and restaurant

National City Center and anchor tenant Hyatt Regency Indianapolis plan to pump more than $11 million into the aging, 16-story building to boost its competitiveness with other downtown towers. The plans might grow to include connecting the building to the Artsgarden at the corner of Washington and Illinois streets. The Hyatt Regency, which occupies a wing of the National City Center, plans an $8.5 million renovation that will include the addition of 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a Starbucks…

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Shrinking neighborhood in path of Lilly’s progress: Drugmaker offers to buy rest of Little Valley homes

It’s called Lilly Valley for a reason. The official name of the modest neighborhood on the near-southwest side is Little Valley, but many people call it by the name of the pharmaceutical giant looming nearby. Eli Lilly and Co. has been gnawing away at the neighborhood south of Morris Street for several years to accommodate expansion at Lilly Technology Center just to the west along Kentucky Avenue. Now, Lilly is seeking city approval to take over more of the neighborhood,…

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INVESTING: Housing slowdown puts some homeowners in peril

You want to build your house on a strong foundation. It worked for the third little pig that resisted all the efforts of the big bad wolf. It’s also going to work for savvy consumers who avoid too much debt and build decent equity in their homes. For everyone else, though, the foundation might feel as if it is shaking a bit. A slew of recent data on the housing industry seems to confirm what the housing stocks have been…

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Health care developers eye their next frontier: Northeast Hamilton County offers a lucrative market

Chris Hamm’s phone started buzzing with calls from health care developers once plans for an extension of 146th Street east to Interstate 69 crystallized a couple years ago. The Noblesville economic development director said several organizations have shown “significant interest” in planting health care businesses along 146th Street, which will see a big boost in traffic once workers complete the interstate connection in the fall of 2007. At least three health-care-related deals are in the works, he added, declining to…

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