Developing story: Indiana's major real-estate development companies.

INDIANA REAL-ESTATE companies are making their mark around the state and across the country Two Indianapolis-based companies continue to dominate their sectors nationally while Indiana's major developers are catering to demand for office, retail and distribution space.

When Kite Realty Group launched its IPO last year (NYSE:KRG), it became the fourth publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in Indiana. Kite is focused on development of high-quality neighborhood and community shopping centers in selected growth markets in the U.S. It owns interests in 42 operating properties totaling about six million square feet, and 14 properties under development with a projected 2.1 million square feet.

In Indiana, Kite's shopping-center properties include eight in Hamilton County, four in Indianapolis and single locations in seven other cities. Prior to its IPO, Kite Development Corp. and Mansur Real Estate Services, Indianapolis, were selected by the city of Indianapolis to develop the long-vacant and highly desirable property on the northeast corner of Washington and Illinois streets. With Kite's IPO, principals Al Kite, Paul Kite, John Kite and Tom McGowan took over the project under Circle Block Partners LLC, a privately held entity, and own the home of the city's newest luxury hotel, the 23-story Conrad Indianapolis, set to open in the spring.

Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG), is the country's largest retail REIT and a member of the S&P 500 index. It continues to grow throughout the U.S. and internationally, with a Hong Kong office opened earlier this year. Expanding beyond its regional mall moniker, it also focuses on development of its Premium Outlet centers and open-air community and lifestyle centers in upscale areas, such as Clay Terrace, a joint venture with Lauth Property Group, opened in Carmel last year. An even bigger open-air Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville, with a mix of retail shops, restaurants, office space and landscaped acres, will open in 2007.

Simon, led by president and CEO David Simon, is cementing its Indiana base with the construction of its new headquarters just south of the Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis. The $55 million, 14-floor, 350,000-square-foot facility will be ready for occupancy next fall.

Windrose Medical Properties Trust (NYSE: WRS), Indianapolis, is a self-managed specialty medical properties REIT that was formed and went public in 2002 and owns property in 10 states. Although headquartered in the Hoosier state, the REIT doesn't own medical facilities here. It's an evolution of Hospital Affiliates Development Corp., Nashville, Tenn., which has been involved in medical facility planning and development for 27 years. HADC is now a wholly owned subsidiary.

In September Windrose completed the acquisition of its 14th property in Atlanta, part of a $92 million acquisition blitz in 2005. Its strategy is to acquire $25 million in outpatient medical properties per quarter. Fred Klipsch, chairman of Klipsch Audio, Indianapolis, is chairman and CEO of Windrose.

Duke Realty Group (NYSE: DRG) is the largest mixed office and industrial REIT, according to NAREIT, the industry's trade association. It has 115 million square feet of office and industrial properties in 14 cities in the Midwest and South, and 4,400 acres of land to support 65 million square feet of development.

On the commercial/industrial side in Indiana, it owns 20 million square feet and manages another 2 million. The formidable Park 100 on the Indianapolis northwest side was Duke's first development in 1972, and is now one of the largest complexes of its kind in the country. It has 72 buildings and nearly 11 million square feet. Less than 30 of its 1,500 acres remain to be developed. Others among the eight Duke industrial developments in central Indiana include the Plainfield Business Park, where its eighth building, a 650,000-square-foot spec facility, will be completed in the spring; and Lebanon Business Park in Boone County, a 700-acre, master-planned light-industry park.

On the office-park side, Duke owns 3.1 million square feet in Indianapolis and Carmel and manages 2 million. Its premier property, with 1.2 million square feet, is Parkwood Crossing at Meridian and 96th streets. Its ninth building opens next month with more than 200,000 square feet and finishes out the original development begun in 1990. Parkwood West, on 25 acres just across Meridian Street, will be next up for development and will have three buildings and 580,000 square feet.

One of Duke's most adventurous projects to date is Anson, a mixed residential, office, retail, medical and industrial development off Interstate 65 in Boone County. Starting with 300 acres, Duke plans to develop 1,700 acres by 2013, including parks and trails. In announcing Anson last fall, president and CEO Dennis D. Oklak called it a "unique opportunity to develop our core product types in a master-planned community. Anson is the next great piece of land in the Indianapolis metropolitan area with over three miles of interstate front-age and two interchanges serving the site."

On the privately held side, Holladay Properties, South Bend, has ownership and/or management responsibility for more than 375 properties with thousands of tenants in 15 states. Formed in 1952 by architect Wallace F. Holladay to build single-family tract homes, it has grown into one the largest privately held developers, design/build firms and fully integrated real-estate companies in the eastern half of the United States. Additional offices are in Portage, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Miami, Nashville, Tenn., and Lafayette, Louisiana. Half of its employees and half of its revenues are from outside the state, says president John Phair, and size-wise, its nearest Indiana private competitors are Lauth Property Group and Browning Investments, both from Indianapolis.

"Over the past several years we have embarked on a number of major mixed-use land developments," says Phair, "the largest being AmeriPlex in Indianapolis, which we really got rolling with in 1996. At 1,500 acres on buildout we are only about halfway through the project. The Interstate 70 expansion and interchange at AmeriPlex creates a real opportunity for the next phase of that project to be a unique development for us and for central Indiana. That project is known as Seventy West and will include a variety of destination retailers and other assets." It will encompass 375 acres, with an investment of $500 million.

Other smaller similar projects followed AmeriPlex Indianapolis, including AmeriPlex at the Port in Portage, AmeriPlex at South Bend and AmeriPlex at the Crossroads in Merrillville, a joint venture with the Purdue Research Foundation. The latter is a good example of the type of cooperative projects Holladay thrives on, including a business incubator and Learning Center, both 50,000 square feet. "I believe that the Purdue partnership is the single most exciting relationship we have today," says Phair. The site is more than 350 acres and will be home to a couple thousand employees.

"Our project at Portage is on the verge of a major development, which will contribute greatly to the goal of community leaders to enhance the character of the Indiana lakeshore area," says Phair. "We participated with the city of Portage in an ambitious master-planning effort, Portage Northside Master Plan, this spring. We are working with state and local officials on a major development at AmeriPlex, which will bring this plan several steps closer to reality The Portage and Merrillville projects further extend our stake in, and commitment to, northwest Indiana."

Development of the large parks has sparked the need for retail development. "That is why our newest initiative in-house is the establishment of our retail development division, which is based in Cincinnati, under the direction of Mike Dunham and his staff," says Doug Hunt, senior vice president for development, Indianapolis. "In addition to the Indiana retail opportunities, we have prospects or pending proposals in several other states."

The industrial side has been great for the last couple years, says Phair, but he's beginning to hear rumblings from his industrial clients and from his own intuition that things may slow down in that sector in 2006. "The medical side and the retail side should be steady. In fact, he predicts that the new retail division will be its fastest growing in a year.

Browning Investments, Indianapolis, is focused on serving companies with logistical needs, because it's a natural--Indiana's ideal Midwest location means they can move goods to 65 percent of the country's population in a day's drive. Modern bulk distribution buildings, with 36-foot-tall clearance and docks on both sides to make throughput a breeze, are its specialty. According to executive vice president for investments Dennis Dye, there's no hotter spot for Browning's buildings, ranging from 400,000 to 800,000 square feet, than Plainfield, where similar construction now totals about 35 million square feet.

Its 500-acre Airtech Park in Plainfield has only three more sites for bulk distribution and is expected to be full in 2007. Next year and a mile and a half away on Ronald Reagan Parkway (formerly Six Points Road), Browning will begin development of another 870 acres called Central Logistics.

Regency Commercial Associates, Evansville, owns 1.3 million square feet of property, all retail except for Evansville where it continues to develop 142 acres at Cross Pointe for mixed-use restaurant and office space. Five buildings are currently under construction, one that it will own; the others, including the new headquarters for Cresline Plastic Pipe, are on purchased land.

Regency Commercial's goal is to satisfy the wants and needs of its customers while generating an attractive return for its 30 investors, says president and CEO Jim McKinney. Its retail strategy includes building in Indiana county-seat towns, such as Washington and Lebanon, in addition to several locations in Evansville. It also has properties in Aurora and Seymour.

Lauth Property Group, Indianapolis, is engaged in all phases of commercial real estate throughout the United States, with current projects in 24 states totally nearly 10 million square feet. Additional offices are in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Orlando and Phoenix. Lauth does it all, from industrial to office to health care to retail. Health care is the fastest-growing segment with a two-year pipeline of more than 30 projects, including medical office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers, imagery centers and specialty hospitals.

Lauth broke ground last month on Meridian Corporate Plaza II, a four-story, multi-tenant, 136,000-square-foot office building west of Lauth's Indianapolis headquarters near Meridian and Interstate 465, and it continues to build out Intech Park, the state's largest office park. In a 50-50 joint venture with Cook Group of Bloomington, Lauth is redeveloping the French Lick Springs Resort and Casino, as well as the West Baden Springs Resort. The first phase of the $312 million dollar project will be open in November 2006. Robert L. Lauth is chairman and CEO.

After building out the master-planned Precedent Office Park on the city's north side, The Precedent Companies, Indianapolis, sold all but one building several years ago. Now it's building there once again with the construction of phase one of a 190,000-square-foot office project. The first 75,000-square-foot building will open next summer and is half leased. It will be connected to phase two, placed at a right angle, by a 12,000-square-foot building housing a conference facility.

On the industrial side, Precedent began developing the Mount Comfort Commercial Park in western Hancock County just north of I-70 and Mount Comfort Road five years ago. Its third big building there will be 1 million square feet on spec, built in two phases starting in the next few months. The first building was leased and then sold; the second, a 456,000-square-foot modern bulk warehouse facility, is leased to Caterpillar Logistics. "We're pretty flexible," says Randy Aikman, president. "Most developers want to sell right away." The initial development encompasses 170 acres, 120 used for the first three buildings. An additional 100 acres are available for future development.

The Broadbent Co., Indianapolis, owns 3.8 million square feet of real estate, mainly in 35 retail strip centers. The bulk of the properties are in the Indianapolis area near major malls, with three more in Fishers, one in Carmel and one in Greenwood. Other properties are in Fort Wayne, Evansville, Grand Rapids and Louisville.

Three new retail sites under development by Broadbent are a 37,600-square-foot center in Plainfield, a 41,600-square-foot center in Fishers and a center near Jacksonville, Florida; all will be available in the spring. The goal of George P. Broadbent, president and co-founder the company in 1972, is to continue expanding the company through shopping-center development, construction services and development of self-storage facilities.

HDG Mansur Capital Group, Indianapolis, led by Harold D. Garrison, chairman and CEO, is a holding company for two separate companies performing very different services through its offices here, in New York and London. HDG Mansur Investment Services provides real-estate wealth-management services for high net-worth individuals and select institutions worldwide, makes acquisitions on their behalf and manages a $1.2 billion real-estate fund.

HDG Mansur Properties is the real-estate-development arm specializing in retail/mixed-use, residential, master-planned community and leisure projects. In Indianapolis it owns three downtown office buildings, including HDG's headquarters building, 120 Monument Circle, and has just finished development of Watermark, 41 townhomes and condos on the canal. Its 850-acre golf community, Hamilton Proper in Fishers, has just four remaining sections.

Wininger/Stolberg Group, Bloomington, continues development of the Bloomington Technology Park and its Liberty Station retail component on the city's west side, with only one lot remaining, which will be developed for retail or office use next year. Hilton Homewood Suites will open in the park in less than 90 days.

The bigger news is development of Renwick, Bloomington's version of "traditional neighborhood development," says Eric Stolberg, president of Wininger/Stolberg Commercial. After more than 10 years of planning, its 80 acres will include a variety of housing options, much of it in the neoclassical style, a park and preserved woodlands. The heart of the community is the Village Center, where two-story buildings will house retail and offices down and residential up. The infrastructure is nearly complete, and the Village Center will start coming online next summer.

Destination retail experiences that lure shoppers from a distance are the reason to be for Premier Property USA, headquartered in Indianapolis. Metropolis in Plainfield held its grand opening to fanfare late last month with the completion of most of its 850,000-square-foot open-air lifestyle center that is said to rival Clay Terrace in Carmel. With the growth of Hendricks County rivaling that of Hamilton, it's a natural. CEO Christopher P. White started the company in 1993 and brought former Galyan's exec David Zoba on board a year ago as president and COO. Additional centers owned by the company, in operation or under development, are in Indianapolis, the Cincinnati area, Virginia, Georgia and Pennsylvania.