Founded in central Indiana, Marsh Supermarkets Inc. at its peak operated well over 100 stores, with a critical mass in the nine-county Indianapolis metro area. In 2017—11 years after a private equity firm took ownership—just 63 stores remained. Marsh declared bankruptcy in May 2017. From those 63 stores, Marsh closed the majority and sold 26 to Kroger and Needlers.That left a lot of cavernous retail real estate on the market in the Indianapolis area, often occupying sites in shopping centers reserved for huge anchor tenants. But today you’d be hard-pressed to find more than a few vacant Marshes in the nine-county area. The vast majority are accounted for with new tenants or entirely new developments. And the range of solutions found for these sites is breathtaking. One Marsh became a preschool. Another became a church. A pickleball palace. A trampoline park. A headquarters for an IndyCar team. At least a couple spaces were split in two, making room for more specialized grocery stores.After hearing news last week about the site of a former Beech Grove Marsh being redeveloped for a plumbing trade school, IBJ Podcast host Mason King called longtime local retail real estate broker Bill French. After 41 years, French has seen it all, and he has kept detailed records on how former Marsh spaces have been recast, revamped or replaced. Consider this week’s edition of the podcast a tour, as French explains the unique challenges of remaking a signature supermarket space. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

It’s time to unpack the latest developments in Mayor Joe Hogsett’s plan to establish a Major League Soccer team in downtown Indianapolis. Among other things, the team needs a stadium to play in. The city earmarked about 16 acres in the southeast quadrant of the Mile Square and held discussions with MLS officials. We were left with a cliffhanger: Can the city get state approval for the taxing district that would help pay for the stadium? That’s where we’ll kick off this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, but we’re going to cover much more ground in this sector of the Mile Square. That includes the newly announced, $78 million practice and training facility for the Indiana Fever, which will be developed less than a soccer pitch away from the prospective stadium site. In the other direction, the Fever facility will be catercorner to the campus containing Commission Row, Bicentennial Unity Plaza and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home of the Fever and the Indiana Pacers. A block to the west of Gainbridge is the future site of a $312 million development that will include a high-end hotel and a 4,000-seat concert venue. The next step in the development process for that project has already begun. What do many of these latest developments in the southeast quadrant of the Mile Square have in common? Real estate developer Herb Simon and his family, who own a majority stake in the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever. In this week’s edition of the podcast, IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey walks us through all of the latest developments—or in some cases the lack of obvious progress—in this burgeoning sports, entertainment and hospitality sector of downtown. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The official release date of this episode is Jan. 20, which not coincidentally is Inauguration Day. President Trump will outline his vision for second term, but we already have a sense of what to expect in terms of economic policy. Four of the biggest themes are prioritizing tax cuts, decreasing regulation in several major industries, increasing tariffs on imported goods from trading partners Mexico, Canada and China, and cracking down on illegal immigration. And in fact, podcast host Mason King discussed a few of these in an episode after the election in November with IBJ finance columnist Pete Dunn. What’s interesting is how quickly some of Pete’s predictions have come true in just two months. At the same, some of the market-moving elements of the economy have shifted enough in two months that Pete is open to a second look. And then there’s the event with huge economic implications that few could have predicted: the devastating wildfires that have wiped out parts of Los Angeles and its immediate environs. So Pete is back this week to discuss what we can expect to see in at least the next year or two in a free-wheeling conversation hitting rising inflation, stubbornly high costs for consumer goods, the meandering stock market, mass deportations and what could be the biggest economic story of 2025—the impact of the LA fires on the housing industry. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

After five years leading apartment development for Indianapolis-based real estate firm Birge & Held, Jarod Brown decided he wanted a business with his name on the door. So he struck out on his own in late 2022 and soon hung his shingle for Brown Capital Group on an historic building in Broad Ripple. As a developer, he hit the ground running with an impressive set of established relationships and a strong track record in central Indiana. He currently is working on several major apartment projects in various stages of development in the Indy area, including The Grounds, a 236-unit project at 22nd and Central; The Row, a three-building complex by the Monon Trail at 22nd Street; Rosedale Hills Apartments, a 132-unit project on the south side of Indianapolis; and The Grove, a 188-unit complex in Whitestown.For his firm’s headquarters, Brown bought the former Broad Ripple Library building at 6219 Guilford Ave. The 76-year-old building is currently under renovation for BCG’s offices, as well as for co-working space the firm plans to offer. Interviewing Brown in the old children’s reading room, IBJ Podcast host Mason King took this opportunity to learn more about a bread-and-butter element of IBJ’s news coverage: real estate development. Brown gives an insider’s view of the most important elements of his strategy, the vital task that dominates his time, and the whole process of creating apartment projects from identifying desirable land to swinging open the doors to tenants. And Brown sees his headquarters as an investment in the future of Broad Ripple Village, which he believes has its best years ahead of it. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

2024 was a big year for entertainment in Indianapolis. Taylor Swift came to town for three concerts of course. But major sports events including NBA All-Star Weekend, the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials and Indianapolis 500 included multiple concerts and arts events. Even celebrations around the eclipse featured music and the arts.   So will 2025 be a letdown? IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener sat down with IBJ’s arts and entertainment reporter Dave Lindquist to find out what’s on the docket this year in entertainment. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Indy-based Furniture maker Purposeful Design LLC—which lives under the umbrella of the nonprofit Sagamore Institute—works with local relief organizations to recruit people who have struggled with addiction, homelessness, incarceration and other obstacles to self-sufficiency. As apprentices and craftspeople, the workers learn skills that can help them find employment, as well as workplace habits that will help them keep their jobs and advance. The numbers indicate Purposeful Design is working. Officials expect revenue of $2.7 million in 2024, and its sales typically cover 85% of the cost of doing business. The rest comes from grants and charitable gifts that are used to invest in machinery or other needs that make the operation more efficient. Over 11 years, more than 240 people have been employed and trained by Purposeful Design. Some sign on for six-month apprenticeships and move on to other jobs; some stay longer. For this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King first interviews Dewey Titus, a former addict who has been with Purposeful Design for five years and now is the supervisor of its metal shop. The impact has been profound: "I went from being alone and homeless and then in five years having my family come together," Titus said. Then we hear from Brady Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing, about the organization’s origin story and mission. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

IndyCar and Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden doesn’t take his hands off the steering wheel when he leaves the cockpit of his No. 2 Chevy. He enjoys being a very hands-on caretaker of his career, business interests and financial life. As he says in his IBJ Podcast interview this week, “Maybe I’m just too type-A, but I want to know where every dollar is.”That includes tracking his philanthropic efforts, sourcing new merchandise and, as we’re going to cover in great detail this week, managing his investment portfolio. He says that if he weren't a racer, "I think I'd be an equity trader or some kind of strategist." After Newgarden had a bad experience with an investment adviser early in career, he dedicated himself to mastering investment strategy for diversified growth holdings. He does his own research, handles his own trades, and, according to Newgarden, performs quite well when he pits himself against the S&P 500, so IBJ Podcast host Mason King wanted to pick his brain about his approach. They also chat about his plans to create a nonprofit for his philanthropy next year, as well as introduce a new line of merch. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Indianapolis-based concert company MOKB Presents recently announced plans to open a 1,200-capacity venue in early 2026 at the former site of Well Done Marketing in Fountain Square’s Murphy Arts Building. The plans for a new indoor venue means outdoor concerts at shows at the Hi-Fi Annex — located in the parking lot outside the Murphy building — will end next fall. Hi-Fi Annex debuted in June 2020 as a temporary place for MOKB Presents to stage shows while the pandemic limited the company’s indoor options. But the popular concerts continued long after. The new venue will be MOKB’s third concert space in the Murphy building — and each will accommodate a different sized crowds. In this week's episode, IBJ arts and entertainment reporter Dave Lindquist talks with MOKB Presents partners Josh Baker and Dan Kemer about why musicians and their management care about venues of different sizes and why shows open to all ages can help a music community grow. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

Windsor Jewelry has operated within a stone’s throw of Monument Circle since the year 1919. Some of its client relationships go back five generations. It has been owned by only three people: its founder, Sig Asher; then Asher’s son-in-law, Herman Logan; and then Greg Bires, an employee who bought the business from Logan in 1998. It has survived the Great Depression, the economic hardships of World War II, the Great Recession and, most recently, the one-two punch of the pandemic and rioters who broke into the store twice in mid-2020. Last week, Windsor’s dedicated customers and passersby on Meridian Street learned that everything must go. Bires has decided to retire and is selling the store’s inventory at deep discounts with plans to close up shop early next year. Business has been good, he says. In fact, he’s been making inroads with a new generation of customers. And it’s possible the Windsor Jewelry name might live on, if Bires could be persuaded by some prospective buyer to sell the store’s intellectual property. But it appears that Windsor Jewelry as we know it will end its run at about 105 years old and just after Bires hits his 70th birthday in December. Bires is our guest this week for a wide-ranging conversation about how he came to the decision to retire after about 55 years in the jewelry business—a career that started in his early teens. He also explains how the shop was able to persevere through the pandemic era and then take advantage of the way downtown is morphing into more of a residential center. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Donald Trump is headed for a second term in the White House. The pundits have had ample opportunity to dissect the political implications of his victory. For this week’s podcast, we wanted to explore the potential financial repercussions of a new Trump administration.There’s no mystery about his fondness toward tariffs—the taxes applied by the government for imported or exported goods as a way to influence foreign trade. Trump has enthusiastically proposed a 10% to 20% tax on most foreign products, and a 60% tariff on goods from China. On the American front, he wants to lower corporate taxes and extend the tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that are set to expire soon. His administration is widely expected to loosen corporate regulations and otherwise defang watchdog agencies. He is seen as devoted friend of the financial, defense and crypto sectors. Wall Street was thrilled with his election victory: The stock market almost literally jumped for joy on Nov. 6, posting some of the biggest gains seen in many months. Trump’s policies will affect street-level consumers and investors in direct and indirect ways—some intentional and perhaps some unintentional. IBJ financial columnist Peter Dunn, aka Pete the Planner, is our guest this week to help us make sense of what could be in store for us, the stock market, the federal debt, the economy and inflation over the next four years. The tariffs in particular could be problematic for some American industries, including the automobile sector, and could have the effect of boosting inflation. Pete also suspects that the pharmaceutical industry could have a tough time, which might affect Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

One way you can gauge the health of a city is the number of cranes on its skyline. One of the biggest contributors of cranes over downtown in the last two years has been the $4.3 billion IU Health hospital campus under construction just south of Methodist Hospital. It’s a generational development for that side of downtown, but IU Health officials want to make sure it doesn’t overshadow the many needs of historic neighborhoods to the north and to the west. For several years the hospital system has been planning an initiative and nonprofit organization known as Indy Health District. It focuses on five neighborhoods with a total of about 9,000 residents who, due to a number of socioeconomic factors, have a much lower life expectancy than folks who live in other parts of the Indy metropolitan area. The district’s leaders want to find solutions for most, if not all, of the issues weighing on these neighbors, including housing, transportation, land use, safety and food deserts. It’s an incredibly ambitious undertaking that’s a bit difficult to wrap your brain around. It also prompts a healthy amount of skepticism. So we’ve invited Jamal Smith to lay out the plans for us. He’s executive director of Indy Health District and executive director of government affairs and strategic partnerships for IU Health. And he grew up with some of the impediments to success and good health that the residents of the district face. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.  

Last week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast featured Chris Gahl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Visit Indy, unpacking the strategy for promoting Indianapolis to a worldwide audience during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. As promised, we have a follow-up interview with Gahl this week that is so different from last week’s that we needed to carve out a separate space for it. Gahl is one of the most recognizable figures among those who promote Indianapolis—and one of the most important voices for the city’s brand of Midwestern hospitality and inclusive values. He’s known for his sunny disposition and easy way for expressing enthusiasm for almost any topic. But his adult life was shaped by childhood tragedy—the murder of his father. Thomas E. Gahl, a U.S. probation officer for the Southern District of Indiana, was killed in 1986 by a parolee in Fountain Square. It of course was a catastrophic event for Gahl, his mother and his younger brother, Nick. Even today, he’s sorting through the repercussions of the loss of his father. The tragedy reverberated in a different way in 2018 when Gahl was diagnosed with cancer. A father of two boys himself, Chris couldn’t help but see the potential for his sons to suffer a similar loss. Under the care of a legend in the Indianapolis medical community, he got a clean bill of health last year. And he generously agreed to talk about the lessons from his cancer journey and his father’s death for this week’s edition of the podcast. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Does anyone need reminding that Indianapolis is less than two weeks away from hosting Taylor Swift and the last U.S. dates for the Eras Tour? There of course are three shows scheduled Nov. 1, 2 and 3 in Lucas Oil Stadium, and more than 50 related events planned across the city to entertain fans over what essentially will be a major holiday downtown. About 200,000 people are expected to come downtown that weekend to either attend or simply celebrate the concerts. About 195,000 tickets have been sold, and about 80% of the ticket holders will come from outside Indiana. This is an immense marketing opportunity for Visit Indy, the agency in charge of promoting Indianapolis for conventions, entertainment and other tourism. Not only will the eyes of the world be trained on Indianapolis for an entire weekend, giving Visit Indy an unbeatable hook for hyping the city in its best light, but it will have days to make a lasting impression on tens of thousands of people just getting to know the city. The Eras Tour also will bring an untold number of corporate leaders and celebrities to the city, each with the potential to make a measurable impact on Indianapolis.In this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King talks strategy with Chris Gahl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Visit Indy. He explains how Visit Indy plans to leverage this nearly unprecedented opportunity with a campaign that incorporates social media, geofencing, Indianapolis International Airport, hotel managers, an army of volunteers, curated tours for corporate and celebrity VIPs, the Visit Indy suite at Lucas Oil Stadium and even outreach to Lyft and Uber drivers. Photo by Paolo Villanueva (@itspaolopv) via Flickr   The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

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.