The LEAP Research and Innovation District under development near Lebanon represents a shift in the way economic development officials are working to attract companies to Indiana and create jobs. Its detractors have objected to the strategy by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to corner thousands of acres of rural land for the project. Some are highly skeptical about the impact of channeling tens of millions of gallons of water per day to the site for its tenants. You could argue that the thing giving LEAP the most sizzle and credibility right now is its future anchor tenant: Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. In total, Lilly has committed to investing more than $13 billion in its facilities and activities at the district. It has revealed its plans over four announcements in the last two and a half years, with the most recent coming earlier this month: a $4.5 billion project called the Lilly Medicine Foundry. Where the previous investments were all about manufacturing, this latest announcement is more about research. The so-called foundry will focus on how to make new medicines better and faster, while also increasing capacity for clinical trial medicines. Other potential payoffs for Hoosiers include creating an anticipated 400 full-time jobs for highly skilled workers, who will include engineers, scientists and operations personnel.In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, reporter John Russell puts it all in context and explores in greater depth the potential impact of the foundry as Lilly hovers near a milestone that would make it one of the most valuable companies in America. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Sonja and Alex Overhiser are among the most influential chefs in Indiana, but you won’t find them working in any restaurant. From the kitchen in their home south of Broad Ripple, they have created, tested and posted more than 3,000 recipes to their 14-year-old food-influencer website, acouplecooks.com. It logs millions of pageviews per month, while the Overhisers also maintain a social media following that includes about 107,000 subscribers on Instagram and 96,000 followers on Pinterest. For the last several years, they also have been working on a glossy cookbook for publisher Chronicle Books that leverages the punny hook in their brand: A Couple Cooks. They’re not just two relatives: Sonja and Alex are married, and the cookbook addresses the joys and challenges of people who work together to make the same dishes. Titled “A Couple Cooks: 100 Recipes to Cook Together,” it also includes step-by-step instructions for sharing the workload for each dish. It will be available online and on bookstore shelves on Oct. 15. The “cook together” angle helped the Overhisers land their book deal with Chronicle, which has given the $40 final product a hard-cover heft and high-end sheen suitable for a holiday or newlywed gift. As the guests for this week’s IBJ Podcast, the Overhisers pull the curtain back on the process for finding a literary agent and getting a deal with a publisher, as well as the process for marketing a cookbook. They also take us back to the early days of establishing acouplecooks.com. They worked for seven years to develop a fan base and learn the ins-and-outs of internet creator commerce before quitting their day jobs and going all-in on their food-blogger platform.  

Readers of IBJ’s annual lists of fastest-growing Indianapolis-area companies might be familiar with GroundBreakers, formerly known as GroundBreakers Hydrovac Excavation. Between 2021 and 2023, its annual revenue grew 143.1% to $18.9 million, which was good for 10th place on our most recent list. All of that growth came under President Andrea Sloan, who was recruited in 2018 to become the chief executive and buy the firm. She acquired it in chunks and became the outright owner in 2021. So who is Andrea Sloan? Is she one of those management ringers that private equity firms hire to take over companies? Nope. Did she have a resume full of experience in the construction and utility services fields? No. Did she have an MBA? No. Andrea Sloan’s rise is a testament to many of the less traditional paths to business leadership we’ve discussed over the years on the podcast, as well as some of the less measurable philosophies of career management. Sloan is a veteran of the U.S. Army Reserves, an entrepreneur and a jack of all trades with significant experience in a wide variety of fields. She also is a proponent of the “fake it til you make it” philosophy, enthusiastic networking, creating a supportive culture and always saying “yes” to opportunities. As our guest on this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, Sloan discusses growing up on the east side of Indianapolis and attending Scecina Memorial High School. She shares what she learned from the reserves, co-founding a company and taking a side trip into state government. She extols the virtues of taking chances, finding mentors and hiring other veterans. And she recalls what she calls her “Pretty Woman” moment, when the banks that declined to loan Groundbreakers money started seeking out her business. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The Indiana Fever's 2024 season has been transformational for the team on the court, in the box office and in the revenue column, in particular with the advent of two major difference-makers. One, of course, is all-star rookie Caitlin Clark, and the other is the rapidly advancing technology that the sales and marketing teams use to entertain—and retain—ticket holders from the Fever’s sold-out games in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Todd Taylor, president of business operations for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, joins the IBJ Podcast this week to detail how the Pacers and Fever are using artificial intelligence and customer data to make potent connections with fans, as well as how the teams expect to be able to use those elements in the future. They can gather data to build customer profiles about attendees and what they enjoy about the experience; customize the communication they receive and when they receive it; and provide personalized offers. In the future, the teams hope to be able recognize where fans are in the fieldhouse at any given time and interact with them digitally. Taylor also explains how PS&E adjusted to the explosion in demand for tickets, how his staff calibrates ticket pricing for a vastly expanded array of options, and how its content creators are feeding the marketing beast. At the beginning of the conversation, Taylor takes us back to early 2024 as the sales and marketing teams began preparing for the very likely possibility that the Fever would draft Clark. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion, however, and the department needed to consider other scenarios. Of course, ticket demand eventually skyrocketed, leading to three straight weeks of fielding requests for ticket packages. Staffers must remain flexible as the playoffs progress. For example, they won’t know whether there will even be a first-round game in Indy until Wednesday night. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Now in its 23rd year, the Orr Fellowship program has helped develop an astounding number of leaders in Indiana’s tech and entrepreneurial ecosystems. It now counts 624 alumni who have worked at—and in some cases founded—nearly 300 significant companies and organizations. The program was established in 2001 to help develop the early careers of promising college graduates, in part by matching them with high-growth Indiana companies for two-year stays. In addition to employment, the fellowship offers vast networking opportunities, workshops, pitch competitions and stipends to learn new skills. The hope is that Orr Fellows will decide to stay in-state and form the foundation for new generations of leadership. Indeed, 84% of fellows remain in-state immediately after the program. If you take into account all of the alumni over 23 years, about 60% are still Hoosiers. We can get a robust sense of the big picture by narrowing the focus to an Indianapolis-based startup named Malomo. It was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Yaw Aning, who was a member of Orr Fellowship’s Class of 2007. Malomo’s head of strategy and operations is Alicia Gaba, a member of the Fellowship’s Class of 2008 and who joined Malomo in 2021. Mariah Parsons, who currently is Malomo’s head of marketing, joined the firm as a fellow in 2021 and was promoted to the leadership team soon after the fellowship ended.All three are guests on this week’s podcast to talk about their experiences as fellows and a concept we call horizontal networking. In this case, it’s how Orr Fellows lean on their peers for mentoring, career support, job opportunities and even capital as they help grow central Indiana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. We also take a side trip to talk about Indiana brain drain and whether that concern is less relevant in the age of remote work.

On Sept. 18, we will learn whether or not the Federal Reserve will lower its federal funds interest rate for the first time in four years. It could be one of the biggest financial events of the year, leading to lower interest rates for lending and quite possibly a big bump in spending in the U.S. economy. In this episode of the podcast, our concern lies in its effect on the interest rates banks pay consumers for parking their money in savings. That interest rate also would go down. For the podcast, we’re defining savings as money you want to be able to get your hands on fairly quickly without disrupting your long-term investment strategy. But it’s not necessarily the money you keep in your checking account either. It’s relatively liquid—some people still call it “cash”. But you want to be able to watch it grow—at least a little bit. There are lots of options for savers, such as passbook savings accounts, high-yield-savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market accounts. And you almost certainly know someone who wants to punt their savings to tangible assets like gold. Each option has advantages and drawbacks, depending on how quickly you want to access your money, how much interest you can get and the amount of exposure to risk. IBJ Podcast host Mason King always has been a money-under-the-mattress kind of guy, but he realizes now that this is tantamount to hiding your head in the sand while the dessert cart rolls by. This week, IBJ columnist Pete the Planner fills us in on the Fed’s impending interest rate decision and the best places to stash your cash. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

We are in the era of peak entertainment. Through our phones, computers and televisions, we have access to nearly every movie, album, TV show, book and video game ever created. You'd think many of us would decide it isn’t necessary to leave our homes. In the Indianapolis area, that apparently is not the case. IBJ just published its 2024-25 arts and entertainment calendar, and the number of music, dance, comedy, literary, film and theatrical events—not to mention art fairs and exhibits— to choose from is astonishing for an area that two generations ago was known as “India-no-place.” IBJ arts reporter Dave Lindquist has curated a list of 125 artistically significant and culturally relevant offerings that our readers can trust will be worth their time. Looking at this list, we can learn a lot about how the arts and entertainment ecosystem in central Indiana has changed. Right off the bat, you’ll see that the 125 picks represent 60 venues, many of which only recently debuted as suburban communities engage in an arts amenities arms race. Not only is Indianapolis now a regular stop for Broadway performers like Leslie Odom Jr., it’s also a place that’s developing work for Broadway. Movies and musicians just beginning to sniff international recognition come to Indianapolis to help gain momentum. And then there’s the generation-defining cultural phenomenon, Taylor Swift, who has chosen Indianapolis for the climax of the Eras Tour in America. For this week’s IBJ Podcast, Dave has culled 10 events from his list for deeper discussion, and host Mason King adds a few more. And then they start examining the potential impact and import of “Swiftianapolis,” coming in early November. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

Indiana University demographers released projections last week that show the state's population growth cratering until it hits near-zero growth by the 2050s. In fact, more than two-thirds of Indiana’s 92 counties will see losses in population over the next 30 years, according to the estimates from the Indiana Business Research Center at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. This can be explained by a grim but relatively simple phenomenon: The number of deaths in the state will begin surpassing the number of births in the 2040s. At that point, migration from other areas will account for all of Indiana’s population growth. Meager population growth would have serious repercussions for our labor force and economy, putting pressure on officials across the state to make Indiana as appealing a place to live as possible.The counties with large cities will be the exceptions. The 11-county Indianapolis metro area is expected to add residents at a relatively robust clip over several decades. In fact, the metro area is projected to hit about 2,497,000 residents by 2050—an increase of nearly 405,000 from 2020. And the state’s five fastest-growing counties will be suburban Indianapolis counties. The question now is, “What should public officials on the city, county and state level do with this information?” Matt Kinghorn, the principal researcher on the IBRC study, is our guest this week to break down the numbers, explain what’s behind these expected trends, dig into the challenges facing the state and provide a preview for a tale of two different Indianas. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

You easily could argue that the biggest business newsmaker of the year so far in Indianapolis is the Indiana Fever. It started with drafting Caitlin Clark in April, leading to an explosion of interest in women’s professional basketball with sold-out stadiums and best-ever TV ratings for the spor—and now the news that the Fever will host the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game. Olivia West has had a front row seat for the Fever phenomenon (not that she ever sits down) as one of the in-arena emcees for Fever games—one of the folks who hype up the crowd, host games for fans during breaks in play and feature Fever sponsors. This is her second season in the role after essentially talking the Fever into giving her the job. Pacers Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Fever, then was quick to give her the same role for Indiana Pacers games last season. What’s even more impressive is that her work for the Pacers and Fever is a side gig. Her full-time day job is with Eli Lilly and Co. as a DEI program consultant. Olivia West is a classic up-and-comer, having cut her teeth as an entrepreneur as a 4-H member in La Porte Indiana before attending Purdue University for agricultural economics and then branching into marketing. She’s a big proponent of finding and leveraging your particular gifts, which for her means excelling in personal communication, networking and refusing to accept “no” as an answer. She is among the young leaders IBJ chose for its “20 In Their Twenties” Class of 2024 last week, and she’s our guest this week on the IBJ Podcast in a happy coincidence, given the news about the WNBA All-Star Game. Her mindset of opportunity meeting persistence is perhaps best captured in her story of how she became an emcee for the Fever. She also shares the many practical lessons she learned showing and selling pigs in La Porte, as well as playing basketball. And she discusses the evolution of the Fever this season and the importance of believing in your own greatness. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

One easily could argue that the most significant real estate development in central Indiana from the last 15 years was the JW Marriott Indianapolis, which opened in February 2011. With more than 1,000 rooms over 34 glass-encased floors, it instantly became the tallest and largest hotel in central Indiana. It also played an outsized role in the city’s strategy to attract more convention and event business. You’ll recall that Lucas Oil Stadium was completed in 2008. The new Indianapolis International Airport terminal debuted in 2008. Also in 2008, the Indiana Convention Center started a major expansion, which was completed in 2011. With the JW Marriott added to the mix, the city could go a long way to realizing its ambitions of hosting a larger variety of meetings and prominent events. It remains the Big Kahuna of downtown hotels while also serving as the city’s largest billboard—a canvas for hundred-foot graphics commemorating special events. Phil Ray has been general manager of the JW Marriott for the last decade and had leadership roles in other major local hotels going back to 2003. He has a 34-story perspective on how the city’s status as a convention and tourism destination has evolved, as well as the latest efforts to attract more convention business. Ray and IBJ Podcast host Mason King have a wide-ranging discussion this week on topics such as the new taxing district the city is considering for beautification and public safety efforts downtown, and the city-funded construction of an 800-room hotel that would become the JW Marriott’s biggest competitor. They also discuss how the JW Marriott weathered the first year of pandemic and then became a key player in the audacious effort in 2021 to host all of March Madness in the Indianapolis area.

The footprint of the Indiana Pacers on the southeast side of downtown Indianapolis would roughly correspond with a size 6,329 athletic shoe. Gainbridge Fieldhouse actually is owned by the Marion County’s Capital Improvement Board, which owns most of downtown’s major sports and convention facilities. But there’s no doubt that its primary occupants are the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, both owned to a large degree by real estate developer Herb Simon and his family. (FYI: Billionaire businessman Steve Rales has a minority stake in the Pacers.) But in recent years, the Simon family’s real estate holdings near and immediately adjacent to the fieldhouse have grown by leaps and bounds.We’re beginning to see the outlines of a critical mass of hospitality and entertainment properties controlled by the Simons that could balloon to even greater size if the Simons are involved—as they are widely believed to be—in plans to bring a Major League Soccer team to Indianapolis. It would play in an arena to be built just a couple of blocks east of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and almost certainly would use a large parcel of land recently purchased by the Simons.IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey has been on top of these developments for several years and is the man who can help connect the dots. In his latest reporting, he has details on plans from the Simons to create a $300 million luxury hotel and concert venue complex directly across Pennsylvania Street from the fieldhouse. Shuey joins us for this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast to take stock of the Simons’ current and planned investments and how they could form a cohesive entertainment and hospitality ecosystem on downtown’s southeast side. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

The debut of the Speedway eatery Borage in June was one of the hottest local restaurant launches in recent memory, covered by most of the major media outlets in the Indianapolis market—including IBJ. Its co-creators—Josh Kline and Zoe Taylor—had won considerable acclaim as chefs for nationally lauded Milktooth in Fletcher Place. The concept for Borage was unique, combining a restaurant, a bakery and a market in one L-shaped building. And Taylor and Kline wanted to make a point of providing fair compensation for employees, guaranteeing at least $20 an hour.IBJ’s Dave Lindquist outlined their plans—and the investment from a local real estate developer that made the project possible—in a story that ran on June 7. This edition of the IBJ Podcast follows up on how the business is shaking out after the June 12 grand opening. Zoe Taylor brings us up to date on what she and Kline have learned in the last six weeks about what’s working and what has needed tweaking.As Taylor readily admits, running the financial side of a restaurant doesn’t come easy to them, so perhaps their biggest challenge has been learning how to budget and make the business sustainable. Borage hasn’t been profitable right out of the gate, and Taylor and Kline realize the timeline for profitability for a small independent restaurant typically stretches many months. For the time being, they're opting not to take salaries.  The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.    

The Federal Reserve has indicated interest rate cuts are coming after policy makers spent the past two years using higher rates to try to tamp down inflation. IBJ personal finance columnist Peter Dunn, known to many readers as Pete the Planner, talks in this week's podcast about how reduced rates will stoke the economy as businesses and consumers start spending and investing. Dunn explains why "people make really dumb decisions" when interest rates fall and consumer confidence rises. And he explains what might be a better option. Dunn also references his "power percentage" calculation, which he has written about in the past. You can read a column about the power percentage here.   The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

More than 50,000 Catholics from across the United States are set to arrive in Indianapolis this week for the church’s first national gathering in more than 80 years, marking one of the most significant religious events the city has ever hosted. The National Eucharistic Congress, scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday at the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, will feature church services, speakers, presentations, religious sacraments, exhibitions, concerts and live podcasts. As mainstream religions continue to lose followers, this event will be laser-focused on one of Christianity’s foundational sacraments—the Eucharist, otherwise known as Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper. It also will stage one of the most conspicuous outdoor public gatherings in Indianapolis’ recent history, outside of the Speedway: a mile-long procession through downtown that could be attended by as many as 50,000 people. Our guest this week is Ken Ogorek of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, who discusses the revival and purpose of the Eucharistic Congress after an 83-year absence. We also hit on the ways this event is different from many of the religion conferences and annual meetings that Indianapolis hosts and how local organizers are providing accommodations for participants with a variety of needs. And we delve into how church leaders will evaluate the impact of the congress once the attendees are gone.    

Our guest this week is Ben Rose, a longtime creative force in the Indianapolis arts community who recently was named the inaugural artistic director of the fledgling Indianapolis Black Theatre Co. If you want to think about it as a startup, the theater has a long runway thanks to a campaign that raised $1.5 million dollars. Part of Rose’s job as artistic director will be to establish revenue streams that can maintain momentum once that first round of funding runs outRose has several outside-the-box ideas for supporting the company while serving the careers of company members both on and off stage. They’re influenced in part by a varied career that took him to Atlanta and Los Angeles for significant periods of time, as well as his professional experience in several artistic modes, including stage acting, writing, videography, filmmaking and photography. And he has learned to see the world through several lenses due to his unusual upbringing as a mixed-race child from Indianapolis who was adopted by a white family at a very early age and grew up in relatively rural Tipton.In this week’s episode of the podcast, Rose discusses how he forged a career in the arts through what he calls fortunate, back-door opportunities and developed his vision for how Indianapolis Black Theatre Company can sustain itself while helping its members find work in other venues. He also delves into the group’s first official production which has something to say about taking professional risks in places where you might not have felt welcome in the past. It’s a staged reading of a play about a groundbreaking black woman who became the first professional female baseball player as a member of the Indianapolis Clowns in the previously all-male Negro Leagues. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

WWE and the Indiana Sports Corp. announced a first-of-its-kind agreement last week that will bring three of pro wrestling's top events to Lucas Oil Stadium over the next eight years. The deal means Indianapolis will host "Royal Rumble" on Feb. 1, 2025, and then “WrestleMania" and “SummerSlam” in the years after. This week on the podcast, we’re giving host Mason King a break and turning the podcast microphone over to IBJ arts reporter Dave Lindquist. His guest is our own Mickey Shuey, who – among other things – covers tourism and the business of sports for IBJ. He's got the latest on the WWE deal—including the history that led to the impactful agreement. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Over the last four decades, residents of Hamilton County have amassed a wealth of options for hospital care. The county is already home to 11 acute-care and specialty hospitals with a total of nearly 800 beds—while many Indiana counties have no hospitals, or a single facility with less than 50 beds. Some consumer advocates say the hospital systems are chasing business in the suburbs, where household income is high and residents have generous health insurance packages, while curtailing or closing hospital services in less prosperous, more rural parts of Indiana. Several of the health systems say they are simply following the market and providing health care where the population is growing the fastest.  The latest entry into the Hamilton County market was announced this month: Community Health Network says it’s planning to open a $335 million campus in Westfield, which would make it Community’s first hospital facility in Hamilton County. As the guest on this week’s edition of the podcast, IBJ health care reporter John Russell is using this opportunity to take stock of the county’s hospital marketplace, what’s behind the boom, and to ask what’s prompting this additional growth. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

Earlier this month, the owner of the Mass Ave sushi eatery Forty Five Degrees celebrated the restaurant’s 16th anniversary. Bill Pritt was told he was crazy in 2008 for trying to create a restaurant at the six-lane intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, College Avenue and St. Clair Street. A smart real estate move during the recession gave him ownership of the retail space on that corner, laying the groundwork for future success. After a three-year stint as president of the board for the not-for-profit Damien Center, Pritt is rededicating his energy to what he loves most—the hospitality industry. Earlier this year, he purchased a parcel at 555 Delaware St. with a former Regions bank branch that Pritt plans to turn into a casual dining spot called Harrison’s Restaurant. And in May he purchased the building on Mass Ave that houses the Metro Nightclub and Restaurant, as well the business itself. He isn’t planning on changing the longtime institution for gay nightlife as much as he wants to spruce it up and improve operations.This week on the IBJ Podcast, Pritt discusses his early years in the restaurant business, which including working the drive-thru at a Steak ’n Shake and eventually buying the Blu Martini restaurant and nightclub at the age of 27. He also digs into the origin story of Forty Five Degrees and the real estate acquisition—and yogurt shop—that helped him succeed. And he serves up details from his plans for Harrison’s Restaurant and the Metro.The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

Our subject today is a little touchy, but it requires some discussion due to the effect in can have on your financial future and the quality of your relationships with family members. This episode is all about inheritance, including the best and worst ways you can deal with a life-altering influx of money and/or property. The bottom line is that the inheritance recipient benefits from someone’s death. And that seems distasteful. Nobody wants to look greedy at the expense of a family member’s life. But because it seems distasteful, we don’t talk about inheritance very much. And because we don’t talk about it, some folks don’t handle it very well. It helps to start with a little context. According to the Federal Reserve, the average inheritance today is about $46,000, although the vast majority goes to wealthy families and more than two thirds of households receive nothing. It’s also smart to keep in mind that your perception of a potential benefactor’s wealth is probably  wildly off, so making assumptions about future inheritances is a big mistake when doing financial planning. IBJ personal finance columnist Pete Dunn, aka Pete the Planner, has seen many recipients mishandle and waste inheritances, especially when they view them apart from their long-term financial strategies. In this week’s episode, Pete also shares his thoughts about how much you would need to inherit in order to immediately retire; why putting a big downpayment on a lake house might not be advisable; and why preventing family squabbles should be a key goal in planning to divide your assets. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

Usually when we’re talking about economic impact in Indianapolis we’re referring to a multimillion-dollar real estate project or a one-off sports or convention event like GenCon or the Super Bowl. But much of the talk in the last few months has been about a living, breathing basketball star from Iowa who in a very short period of time has changed the financial expectations for women’s basketball, not only for the Indiana Fever but the entire WNBA. Of course, that's Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark, who is bringing thousands of new fans downtown for every Fever home game. Clark has arrived in the WNBA at an opportune moment. The league is in negotiations for a new media rights deal, which could significantly increase revenue. And after this season, the players union and the league can negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement that could significantly raise compensation. You’ll recall the outrage heard across social media last month when fans learned that due to the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement Clark’s salary this season would be just a smidge over $76,000—about one-hundredth of what top rookies earn in the NBA. On this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, we have two guests to discuss the short-term and long-term effects of Caitlin Clark’s stardom on the Indiana Fever, the WNBA and Indianapolis. (We should acknowledge that for all of the attention Clark received last year for her otherworldy shooting and her pursuit of the NCAA Division I scoring record, the WNBA already was on an upswing, and there are at least a dozen high-profile rookies in the league this year driving fans to games.) Our guests are Ann Bastianelli, teaching professor in marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and Beth Livingston, an associate professor in industrial relations at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. They dive into all of these issues, as well as whether another poor showing by the Fever this season will take some of the wind out of the sails of the "Caitlin Clark effect." The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

Three weeks ago, we released an episode of the IBJ Podcast explaining the sudden, multilayered and high-pitched battle over building a soccer stadium in downtown Indianapolis. Since then, the drama has taken several turns with fresh revelations about what’s underneath the ground set aside for the stadium complex that developer Keystone Group wants to build and who owns the land the city has identified for another site that Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration has championed. Meanwhile, a proposal for a taxing district that would cover most of the cost for the latter stadium is wending its way to the City-County Council, with a key committee vote coming on May 28. So we thought this would be a great opportunity to bring you up to date. IBJ’s Mickey Shuey joins the podcast to discuss his piece in the latest issue of IBJ about what an Indy-based stadium for Major League Soccer—America’s highest professional league—could look like. But first some history: In late April, everything that we had assumed about the future of pro soccer in Indianapolis and the creation of a publicly owned downtown stadium for the Indy Eleven soccer team received a swift kick between the stitches. The owner of the Indy Eleven, who also owns the development firm Keystone Group, accused the city of backing out of negotiations to finalize the stadium deal and support financing for a $1.5 billion mixed-use project that the stadium would anchor. Then Mayor Joe Hogsett announced that the city indeed had halted negotiations, claiming in part that the numbers didn’t add up. Indy Eleven and Keystone representatives disagreed. Hogsett also said the city had been working with an undisclosed group of investors who believed they could bring a Major League Soccer franchise to the city. Since our last podcast, IBJ broke the story that the Simon family, which owns the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, has purchased a large swath of land where the investor group’s stadium would be located. City-County Council President Vop Osili volunteered to sponsor the proposal for financing the stadium after the councilor for that district refused to do so. On May 28, the same day this podcast debuts, the proposal will be considered by the council’s Rules and Public Policy Committee, which Osili chairs, although a vote to deny the proposal won’t stop it from reaching the City-County Council. And in maybe the biggest revelations yet, both the Hogsett administration and Keystone revealed what they know—or have estimated—about the human remains and gravesites that are buried on the 20-acre site Keystone has been trying to develop. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Carolyn Gentle-Genitty grew up in Belize, the eldest of five children whose parents operated a food cart and canteen. She applied to a private all-girls high school and, upon being accepted, worked with her parents to negotiate the terms that would allow them to afford it. She paid for her associate’s degree through work study, earned a full scholarship to cover the cost of her bachelor’s degree, and paid for her master’s degree through a promissory loan. So she’s no stranger to the barriers that can keep young people from attending college. Today, she's preparing to lead the creation of Founder’s College at Butler University, a two-year program designed for high school graduates who face significant barriers to higher education. Students at the college will be able to earn associates degrees in subjects such as in business management, data analytics and health care—all while paying virtually nothing for the education. Gentle-Genitty comes to the position of inaugural dean after a distinguished career at Indiana University. After earning her PhD in social work from IU, she went on to lead the university’s Bachelor of Social Work program on its Indianapolis campus before moving into system-wide leadership roles, including developing online education programs, overseeing academic policy and programs, and improving transfer policies. But Butler also has touted her built-in empathy with the future students of Founder’s College, having faced so many obstacles to her own education and benefitting from the help of administrators who took an interest. In this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, she lays out the mission of the college, how it will attract students for its first cohorts, and the many steps and decisions required to get the classes up and running. She also expands on her youth in Belize and the chain of events that took her far beyond her initial goal of simply finishing high school. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Our guest this week is Jesse Rice, who took a circuitous route to becoming one of Indianapolis’ most unpredictable arts, entertainment and community entrepreneurs. He grew up in a blue-collar family in a small town, and then went to Purdue University with hopes of going to med school. He flipped his focus to finance and ended up working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and J.P. Morgan Chase. He and a friend started kicking around ideas for a venue where they could serve their own beer and feature live music. As Rice says, “I think of something I want that needs to happen, and I just somehow make it happen.” So was born Black Circle Brewing Company, just west of the intersection of 46th Street and Keystone Avenue, which opened in 2016. In addition to craft beverages and some family friendly areas, it features a broad spectrum of entertainment, including heavy metal, drag and comedy shows. In 2019, he opened an eclectic spot a few blocks to the west called Loom, which became the new home of Black Circle’s brewing operation, as well as a co-working space, a bar, a pinball parlor and a coin-operated laundromat. Just last October, he bought a 99-year-old building at 3317 E. 10th St. that once was home to American Legion Post 465. Now in the midst of renovation, Rice envisions that project as an event venue, a recording studio and temporary accommodations for visiting musicians. Rice readily admits he had no grand plan when he started on this path eight years ago, but there’s something to be said for making it up as you go. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Rice discusses how he developed the first two venues while maintaining his career in corporate America and then in 2019, pursuing an MBA. He also details what he learned in the master’s program and how that changed how he ran Black Circle Brewing Co., the umbrella firm for all of these projects. And he takes a look back at what he’s created over eight years and what he thinks is most valuable. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Less than two weeks ago, everything that we had assumed about the future of pro soccer in Indianapolis and the creation of a publicly owned downtown stadium for the Indy Eleven soccer team received a swift kick between the stitches. With head-spinning speed on April 25, the owner of the Indy Eleven accused the city of backing out of negotiations to finalize the stadium deal and support financing for a $1.5 billion mixed use project that the stadium would anchor. Then Mayor Joe Hogsett announced that the city indeed had halted negotiations, claiming in part that the numbers didn’t add up. Indy Eleven representatives disagreed. Hogsett also said the city had been working with an undisclosed group of investors who believed they could bring a Major League Soccer franchise to the city. In fact, Hogsett revealed that he had just met face-to-face with MLS officials in New York and believed the time was right for Indianapolis to take its shot at the top rung of American professional soccer. That's a relatively simple synopsis, but this set of events has a bewildering number of layers. The Indy Eleven is owned by the same man who owns the development firm Keystone Group, which planned to make the stadium the centerpiece of the $1.5 billion sports, business and residential campus downtown. In fact, it already has broken ground on the site. State legislators gave Indianapolis the means to harness tax revenue to pay for the majority of the stadium, and now the city has proposed using the same tool for a publicly owned soccer stadium that could be built a couple of blocks east of Gainbridge Fieldhouse. City-county councilors, who would have to approve the taxing district, have been skeptical and non-committal. In the meantime, the Indy Eleven continue to play on the IUPUI campus, having built more than a decade of relationships and goodwill in the city soccer community. Can two pro soccer franchises exist in the same city? And does this anonymous ownership group really have the wherewithal to even cover the entry fee for MLS, which most recently was $500 million? IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey is uniquely qualified to cover this story, since two of his main beats for IBJ are the business of sports and real estate development. For the IBJ Podcast this week, Shuey and host Mason King lay out a clear timeline of events and help unpack and unravel all of these issues, while looking ahead to what might happen next. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Our guest this week is Brandi Davis-Handy, who in February was named president of AES Indiana. That’s the electricity utility for Marion County and portions of the greater Indianapolis area, serving more than 500,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers. Davis-Handy was promoted from her position as chief customer officer, and prior to that she spent much of her career at parent firm AES Corp. in communications and public relations roles.That experience is entirely relevant to a major issue she now faces as president. In November, AES Indiana upgraded several customer-related systems that were at least a quarter of a century old. The complex operation hasn’t gone entirely as planned. At the height of the problems with the rollout, about 10% of the company’s customers were affected by billing issues—for example, being charged the wrong amount for service or not even receiving a bill. The fixes are ongoing despite the efforts of more than 400 people working on the project.Davis-Handy’s goals as president include improving customer service and communication, as well as the reliability of service. In this episode of the IBJ Podcast, she discusses the problems with the upgrade. She outlines the challenges of trying to grow the business when it’s hemmed in by other electric utilities, as well as the company’s final push to eliminate coal as a source of energy for creating electricity. And she discusses growing up in the Indianapolis area with dreams of becoming the next Oprah Winfrey and pursuing a career in media. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.