Home » Real Estate

Real Estate

Articles

BULLS & BEARS: Fed policies encourage post-bubble hangovers

Economists teach us that too much money chasing too few goods causes inflation. As consumers, this supply-demand imbalance leads to rising prices on the everyday items we purchase. A similar phenomenon can occur in financial assets. Too much money chasing stocks, bonds and real estate can create financial asset inflation. Pension funds, institutions and wellheeled individuals are throwing money into “alternative investments” in the hopes of earning high returns. There are now an estimated 8,000 hedge funds that manage more…

Read More

Ace sees growth potential in central Indiana: Some skeptical of plans to open 30 hardware stores

Suburban Chicago-based Ace Hardware Corp. wants to expand upon a strategy of placing stores in residential areas by opening up to 30 new locations in the Indianapolis area. The ambitious plan to grow its presence in and around the city from the 14 existing stores is part of Ace Hardware’s larger strategy to target eight metropolitan regions thought to be ripe for expansion. Big-box retailers such as Lowe’s Home Improvement, Home Depot and Menards dominate much of the home-improvement turf….

Read More

Precedent plans spec office: Building signals improvement in north-suburban market

The Precedent Cos. is preparing to build a 100,000-square-foot office building in its namesake office park near 96th Street and Keystone Avenue, several local real estate experts said, further evidence of the north-suburban market’s recovery. The building would mark the first new speculative office construction in the park since the mid-1990s, just before Indianapolis-based Precedent sold the park’s 19 buildings with 1.1 million square feet of office space to Philadelphia-based Berwind Property Group Inc. in 1998. That sale didn’t include…

Read More

Community banks struggle with regulatory demands: Sarbanes-Oxley, Banking Security Act prove costly

Who can blame small community banks for feeling boxed in? “The world has changed,” said Jerry Engle, president and CEO of Greenwoodbased First Bank. “I guess we’ll have to get used to it.” Far and away, it’s the increasing cost of regulatory compliance that keeps community bankers tossing and turning at night. In recent months, the Independent Community Bankers of America, a small-bank advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., has stepped up its ongoing campaign against additional regulation by asking…

Read More

BEHIND THE NEWS: Duke at a crossroads after impressive run

Duke Realty Corp. has quietly made bundles for investors the past five years. But you wouldn’t know it from the tone of recent analyst reports on the Indianapolis-based company, one of the nation’s largest industrial and office developers. “We [compare] Duke’s investment case to that of a large ship, since we believe that it would take the company time to gradually turn its performance around on a course to improved results,” wrote Prudential Equity Group’s James Sullivan. “There is virtually…

Read More

VIEWPOINT: Arts are a good investment for business

This summer, there are two red-letter days for the arts and cultural scene as well as our city and state: the official opening of the new home of the Herron School of Art on the IUPUI campus, which was set for June 3, and the dedication of the Indianapolis Art Center’s ARTSPARK Aug. 21. These events are only two of the many activities in 2005 that will help position Indianapolis as an arts and cultural destination, a goal set by…

Read More

BEHIND THE NEWS: Chicago Express bidder in several court tangles

I n d i a n a p o l i s real estate executive Edward Okun had a low profile in business circles here before he splashed into the news two months ago as the winning bidder for ATA Holdings Corp.’s Chicago Express Airlines. Two weeks later, however, he yanked his offer, valued at $3 million to $4 million. The reversal added to the air of mystery surrounding Okun, a 54-year-old Carmel resident. A closer look at Okun, president…

Read More

MSA condos co-developer calls it quits: CTE 2nd partner to abandon $140M project; remaining firms expect new designs in June

With a deadline looming for a redesign of Market Square Towers, another of the project’s developers has pulled out and has filed a claim on the property for $3.2 million it says it’s owed by Market Square Partners. Chicago-based Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineering Inc. filed the lien April 8 to secure its claim on money the company said it spent on design and engineering services and other preliminary project work. CTE, whose representatives once served as the public face of…

Read More

Up to the challenge: Stadium project leader has been here before

John Klipsch didn’t necessarily set out to take control of one of the largest public-works projects in Indianapolis history, but he prepared for it nonetheless. “My degree is in counseling,” he said with a wry smile. “This is how my career has evolved over the years.” So here he is, two months before work is scheduled to begin on a $900 million stadium construction and convention center expansion project, relying on his professional experience and personal dedication to get the…

Read More

Main post office pondering move: Relocation could prompt sale of 16 acres across street from proposed stadium

It’s not in the path of a new stadium planned for downtown Indianapolis, but the downtown post office may get out of the way anyway. U.S. Postal Service officials are negotiating an agreement to sell land the postal service owns within the stadium footprint, and a spokesman said that discussion is part of a larger scheme to relocate the entire facility. “They’re talking about moving the whole thing,” said Al Eakle, public affairs officer for the USPS’ Indiana district. “Basically,…

Read More

After 5 years, USTA ready to serve up 96th Street HQ: Raymond James, First Merchants sign on as tenants

The locally based Midwest division of the U.S. Tennis Association is preparing to break ground on a 25,000-square-foot headquarters and hall of fame building on East 96th Street after five years of planning and courting tenants. The two-story office building was first conceived in 2000, but has been held up more than four years by a search for other tenants during a soft office market. The organization recently scored two tenants, Florida-based Raymond James & Associates Inc. and Muncie-based First…

Read More

Competition stakes claim on hospital’s turf: Dialysis center would sit 1 block south of Methodist

A real estate company has filed plans to build a medical office building and dialysis center downtown, in the shadow of Methodist Hospital and Clarian Health Partners. A and T Realty wants to plop a 13,416-square-foot office on what now is a parking lot a block south of Methodist, according to plans filed with the city. The development has no connection to Clarian, according to Mike Quinn, a lawyer representing A and T. Clarian, whose three downtown hospitals all offer…

Read More

BEHIND THE NEWS: Big investors turn up heat on tiny Century Realty

Big money from the coasts has been pouring into one of the nation’s most obscure publicly traded real estate companies-India n a p o l i s – b a s e d apartment owner Century Realty Trust-helping to propel the sleepy stock more than 50 percent higher over the past year. Here’s a sure bet: The investors didn’t become interested because they’re suddenly enamored with 74-year-old Chairman Jack Bradshaw’s slow-and-steady management approach. Quite the opposite, says one of the…

Read More

Mansion tenant’s HQ networks with history: Levey building’s interior design mixes new with the old

At the Louis Levey Mansion on North Meridian Street, the blending of past, present and future greets visitors as they walk through the heavy arched doors of Networks Financial Institute’s headquarters. In the entry hallway, a receptionist with all the latest technology on her desk sits under a Victorian-era stained-glass skylight. Around her, contemporary art hangs next to elaborately carved wood molding on the walls. Futuristic glass-and-chrome lighting fixtures hang from the ceilings, one of which has an original painted…

Read More

‘Rat’ campaign targets projects: Union-hired protesters picket non-union contractors

Union supporters have no plans to exterminate the giant rats that have become a common sight downtown, as they continue to pressure certain contractors to pay what they consider fair wages. That is the message from the Indiana/Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, the labor organization that has adopted the rodent as its mascot for a campaign targeting various downtown construction projects. Organizers said the effort is twofold: to create public awareness that union contractors are losing work, and to better…

Read More

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Vibrant city can be built without oceans, mountains

In late April and early May, two things happened. The Legislature adjourned on time and Forbes magazine released its seventh annual list of the best (and worst) metro areas to develop businesses and careers. Forbes based its ranking on business costs, living costs, education levels of the work force, qualityof-life issues as well as job and income growth and migration patterns. Indianapolis ranked 33rd out of 150 of the country’s largest metro areas, and there’s some good news in that…

Read More

Elite execs raking it in: As pay swells, critics urge restraint

Special Report: Elite execs raking it in As pay swells, critics urge restraint Highest-paid Indiana public company executives in fiscal ’04. Includes salary, bonus and other annual compensation, as well as long-term pay and stock option grants. 1) includes $1.7 million signing bonus received upon becoming CEO and president in August 2004 Turns out life’s certainties stretch way beyond the cliché about death and taxes, especially in corporate Indiana. If you’re a top executive at one of Indiana’s biggest public…

Read More

Stutz’s future includes condos: Developer envisions high-rise, nightclub as part of biz center

Stutz Business Center owner and visionary Turner Woodard last month rolled out a 10-year master plan for the Stutz that could bring condominiums, retail and a high-rise tower to the former auto-manufacturing plant at 10th Street and Capitol Avenue. Right now, Woodard concedes many of his plans are dreams. But with a blossoming life sciences corridor just to the west along the Central Canal, Woodard said he wants the 80-year-old Stutz to continue to be a hub of activity as…

Read More

BEHIND THE NEWS: Mall of America ruling cites Simon ‘subterfuge’

A federal appeals court last month issued a ruling that gave affiliates of the Simon family some of what they wanted-a larger ownership stake in Mall of America. But the three-judge panel also gave them a lashing over dealings with their partner in the Minnesota mega mall, the Ghermezian brothers of Canada. “This case presents the worst kind of self-dealing and subterfuge” by Simon affiliates, the court wrote. Ouch. At issue was a deal Simon Property Group Inc., the family’s…

Read More

Ex-Meridian CEO takes top talent to new firm: AHM Graves, Carmen fold into Resource

The sudden departure of Samuel F. Smith II from locally based Meridian Real Estate is proving to have a ripple effect in the local brokerage community. Smith’s new firm, Resource Commercial Real Estate, is up to six principals and 12 full-time brokers weeks after its official launch, and partners hint there may be more to come. Two small firms, Carmel-based AHM Graves Commercial Real Estate Services and Carmen Commercial Real Estate Services, have merged with Resource. The new company is…

Read More