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CELEBRATING 40 YEARS

Virus puts tourism industry on edgeBy Mickey Shueymshuey@ibj.com

In Columbus, Ohio, officials have closed off the international Arnold Sports Festival to the public, fearing the spread of a novel coronavirus.

In Chicago, the International House-wares Association canceled a McCormick Place show expected to bring attendees from 45 countries, as did software giant Oracle, which is taking its event online.

And companies nationwide—including Salesforce, KAR Global and Cummins Inc.—have restricted or discouraged non-essential business travel, a move that pre-vents employees from attending confer-ences, meetings and trade shows.

The moves could put a dent in conven-tion and event business across the country and in Indianapolis, even though no case of COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavi-rus, had been detected here by press time.

So far, none of the nearly 20 high-profile

See TOURISM page 39A

By Anthony Schoettleaschoettle@ibj.com

The long-planned 16 Tech Innovation District along Indiana Avenue northwest of downtown is at a pivotal moment—one its organizers say could serve as a cata-lyst for tremendous growth at the 50-acre campus and for central Indiana overall.

The first office building in the $500 million project will open in June.

And work is underway to turn the for-mer Citizens Water headquarters into a

16 TechFirst office building set to open in June; Innovation Hub with artisan market to follow

109,000-square-foot Innovation Hub with a makerspace, an artisan food market-place and a business incubator with flex-ible office space.

The hub—expected to open next Janu-ary—will provide the amenities that orga-nizers say should draw established com-panies, startups and big thinkers to the campus, sparking a powerful economic engine of collaboration and innovation.

Interest in 16 Tech is already

Above are interior and exterior renderings for the Innovation Hub, which will feature a makerspace, an artisan food marketplace and a business incubator with flexible office space. (Renderings courtesy of 16 Tech Innovation District)

Dozens of college basketball games are scheduled to be played in Indianapolis the next few weeks. None has been canceled, though the NCAA hasn’t ruled out playing games without fans. (IBJ photo/Mickey Shuey)

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Meet people and programs that

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Section C | March 6, 2020

high—with the first 120,000-square-foot building fully leased and a second office building, which is still in the blueprint phase, almost one-third pre-leased.

And, project developers said, interest is building for a 200- to 250-unit apartment complex that is set to start going up later this year.

“This project has been a long time in the works, but now, with the construc-tion and imminent opening of these first buildings, it’s becoming very real,” said 16 Tech CEO Bob Coy. “We’re starting to see a visual transformation, and with that happening momentum for this project is building and will feed on itself.”

Eventually the campus, nestled between White River and Fall Creek, is expected to include parks, walking paths and other amenities. And within a decade,

See 16 TECH page 36A

becoming real

No cancellations yet

Reprinted with permission of IBJ Media, Indianapolis Business Journal, copyright 2020

36A | INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL | MARCH 6, 2020

organizers say, it could employ more than 3,000 highly skilled workers and boast more than 1 million square feet of office and lab space.

The project—initiated by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Indiana University and other partners—is over-seen by the not-for-profit 16 Tech Com-munity Corp. and is funded through a variety of public and private sources.

So far, more than $10 million for gen-eral operations is coming from Lilly Endowment Inc., Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation and other corporate, philan-thropic and individual donors.

And organizers have raised more than $100 million in funding for public infra-structure and physical development of the district, including:◗ $55  million from the city for public

infrastructure.◗ $33  million from Lilly Endowment

for land acquisition, public infrastructure and place-making projects.◗ $23  million in Innovation Hub

financing through federal and state tax credits and a $7.3 million loan from Lake City Bank.

Construction costs for Innovation Building 1, Innovation Building 2 and the residential development are being funded by the developer of those projects, India-napolis-based Browning Investments.

And 16 Tech Community Corp. has signed three key deals to operate the Innovation Hub, including a multi-year deal with 1776—which manages seven

incubators in Penn-sylvania, Virginia, Delaware, New Jer-sey and Washington, D.C.—to oversee the development of the flexible office space and innovation area.

Alex Bandar, founder of the Idea Foundry in Colum-bus, Ohio, has been signed to a multi-year deal to shepherd the makerspace. Bandar, who is working on a handful of maker-space projects throughout Ohio, has been consulting with 16 Tech for the past sev-eral months.

And 16 Tech has hired local chef Craig Baker to usher in the artisan market. Baker has worked in several local and national restaurants—most recently Cun-ningham Restaurant Group as the execu-tive chef—and runs the consulting firm CCCB Inc.

All-star lineupThe additions of

Bandar, Baker and 1776’s chief, Shel-ton Mercer, are a big boost to the project, Coy said. “This is an all-star lineup.”

Key to the Innova-tion Hub, Bandar said, is creating not only a physical facility with space and tools where people can work and gather, but also events and programming that bring people together for an exchange of ideas.

The 15,000-square-foot makerspace is expected to mirror some concepts from

the Idea Foundry, which is one of the larg-est makerspaces in the world, with more than 800 members and 60,000 square feet of space.

The 16 Tech makerspace will feature computer-controlled machine tools, 3D printers and robotics in a member-driven workshop and fabrication studio, along with STEM programs for students and a collaboration hub for local startups and other companies. While Bandar said the focus will be on “making physical prod-ucts,” there will also be coding and app-development classes as well as internet-of-things training.

Bandar found his passion for the maker movement during a moment of humilia-tion. Having just received his doctorate in computational metallurgy from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, his sister—an artistic metalsmith, sculptor and pro-fessor of jewelry in Vermont—asked him to teach her students about the sci-ence behind welding metal. Armed with his new degree and “giant ego,” Ban-dar said he discovered in five minutes that he wasn’t able to teach the students anything practical.

“They were all better machinists, welders and blacksmiths than I,” he said. “If I had an idea, maybe I could write a computer program about it or design an alloy, but if my sister or her artist friends had an idea, they just made the damn thing.”

From there, Bandar decided he wanted to create a place that put a premium on creativity and where people could come and trade ideas, learn from one another and “make stuff—practical hardware products and software

programs and apps.”Out of that, The Idea Center in Ohio

was born 12 years ago and has forged a national reputation. Bandar said 16 Tech’s makerspace could have that kind of repu-tation—and up to 500 members—within five years.

Membership costs for the makerspace are still being finalized, Bandar said, but would likely be in the $50- to $100-per-month range with discounts for students and entrepreneurs. Corporate member-ships would be in the $100- to $300-per-month range.

“Being a member of the makerspace means you’re a part of a community and you can share resources with other com-munity members,” Bandar said.

The much-acclaimed Idea Foundry is much larger in square footage compared to the planned makerspace at 16 Tech, but Bandar doesn’t think that will hurt the local venue.

“In Columbus, things are pretty spread out,” Bandar said. “Having a more com-pact footprint, I think, could really help bring people together for the type of networking and exchange of ideas we’re looking for.”

There’s already been lots of interest in the makerspace with only a modicum of marketing and publicity.

“Our Facebook page has 500 followers and we’ve had meetups with 50 people here,” Bandar said. “We definitely see a big interest. We’re going to have our next meetup later this month and from there they will recur monthly. We think the fol-lowing will grow pretty quickly, and once

16 TECHContinued from page 1A

Bandar

Mercer

Coming to fruitionThe 16 Tech Innovation District plans to open its first office building in June, with work underway on a 109,000-square-foot Innovation Hub.

Source: 16 Tech Community Corp.

Innovation Hub ◗ 109,000 square feet ◗ $23 million: funded by state

tax credits, New Markets Tax Credits and a $7.3 million loan from Lake City Bank

◗ incubator/flexible office space, advanced maker-space, artisan marketplace

◗ Demolition has started; projected opening is January 2021.

1250 Indiana Ave. ◗ 60,000 square feet ◗ adaptive to office or flex space

structured parking

Central Green

16 Tech bridge ◗ $14.5 million ◗ Design will be chosen through an inter-

national competition.

residential ◗ 200-250 multifamily units ◗ Groundbreaking set for late

summer; projected opening is 2022.

Innovation 1 office building ◗ 120,000 square feet ◗ fully leased ◗ to open in June

Innovation 2 office building ◗ 140,000 square feet ◗ will begin construction when

60%-70% pre-leased ◗ projected opening is mid-2022

COOK REGENTEC

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Reprinted with permission of IBJ Media, Indianapolis Business Journal, copyright 2020

MARCH 6, 2020 | INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL | 37A

this facility opens and people see what we have to offer, it will really take off.”

Bandar envisions the makerspace attracting a wide variety of users, includ-ing serious-minded business folks, people making and testing a product for a side hustle, and even hobbyists.

More than co-working spaceMercer, the brains

behind new-look innovation centers at seven locations on the East Coast, was a “very meaning-ful” hire for 16 Tech, Coy said.

“What he’s doing is not the typical co-working space. That far undersells what he’s created,” said Coy, who was CEO of a seed-stage investment organization in Cincinnati before coming to 16 Tech in mid-2017. “1776 brings an element of connectivity to its projects and capitalizes on a mentorship network it has built nationally and globally.”

Mercer, a serial entrepreneur who has played in the business arenas of sports and entertainment, made a splash in 2015 with his work on the Pennovation Center, a 60,000-square-foot innovation hub at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“The co-working space is just one ele-ment of what we’re doing at 16 Tech,” Mercer told IBJ. “Not only are we going to have various flexible office and desk options, we’ll have garage areas for inno-vation, suites for corporations, meet-ing and conference rooms, and other creative elements.”

Those elements will include a bleacher area that will connect the first and sec-ond floors of the facility—and that can also seat 75 or so for gatherings—as well as lab space for things like robotics and biosciences.

“In addition,” he added, “every mem-ber will have access to growth services, mentoring and coaching. We can help members with things like raising capi-tal, putting together a pitch deck or a pricing model, designing a website and developing a go-to market strategy. We’re a full-service incubator and accelera-tor. This space will be absolutely unique to Indianapolis.”

Rental prices in the flexible office space will start as low as $200 per month and will be competitive with other co-working spaces in the market.

Pennovation reached capacity in 3-1/2 years, Mercer said.

“I see the same type of success in Indianapolis,” he said. “I think we’ll have more than 250 members and dozens of companies within three years.”

Mercer emphasized that while the Inno-vation Hub building might appear to have three separate components, “it’s designed to work as a single ecosystem with deep integration.”

Recipe for success?16 Tech is cooking up a recipe for suc-

cess, Coy said, with the addition of Baker to head up planning of the artisan food marketplace, which will feature eight eat-eries and 16 retailers.

The artisan market will be fashioned

Continued from previous page after a European-style farmers market with a “free-flowing atmosphere that feels like you’re outside,” Baker said.

“It’s going to be more like a retail center, with a butcher shop, bakery, barber and flower shops,” he added. The space will be all on one floor with seating “in the center, more like a living room than a formal market.”

“We feel this [market] is the glue,” Baker said. “Everyone needs to eat.

“Key to this place is the location. Everyone will walk by twice a day,” he said. “We’re the heartbeat of this facility where people from various backgrounds will cross paths and gather.”

But the artisan marketplace won’t just serve passersby. It will also be a place for restaurateurs and retailers to innovate.

Baker, a big advocate of the Indiana-grown movement, intends to showcase a wide variety of food options and is open to working with startup eateries as well as more established food-service providers. Baker anticipates holding events in the space, too, including restaurant rollouts and food introductions.

Retail booth rent will be as low as $20 a day with utilities included. Restaurant space will be about $2,000 a month, Baker said.

The spaces will be designed so they can change tenants in three days, he said. Many of the restaurants will also offer

delivery options, not only for surrounding businesses but for area residents as well.

The artisan marketplace is key to achieving the vision to make 16 Tech a place where people “live, work and play,” Coy said.

About 25% of the space in the food marketplace is already spoken for with non-binding pre-lease deals, Baker said. “We expect to make tenant announce-ments at the end of March,” he added.

Flurry of construction aheadConstruction on 16 Tech’s third build-

ing—its second office building, Inno-vation 2—won’t begin until it is 60% to 70% filled through pre-lease deals. 16 Tech officials have letters of interest for about 30% of the space, and they are opti-mistic they will hit the threshold to start construction on the 140,000-square-foot building by the end of this year.

Construction of that building—which is directly south of Innovation 1—will take approximately 18 months, with the building targeted to open in mid 2022.

Construction of 16 Tech’s first housing project—a 200- to 250-unit complex—is also set to begin this year. Coy said the development is expected to expand over time, with as many as 750 housing units constructed by 2030.

Innovation 1, which will be owned by Browning, cost $30 million to construct, and is fully leased. It will house small, tech-oriented companies, as well as two major biosciences groups.

The Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine, part of the Indiana University

School of Medicine, will be on the fourth floor, while the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute will take up much of the first three floors.

IBRI is already headquartered on 16 Tech property, in the Biotechnology Research and Training Center at 1345 W. 16th St. IBRI researchers collaborate with private firms and academia on a variety of high-impact, long-term projects.

The top two floors of Innovation 1 will house the Central Indiana Corporate Part-nership and its affiliated organizations, including BioCrossroads, Conexus Indi-ana and TechPoint. The groups promote a variety of fields, including life sciences, logistics and technology.

“This is not just a real estate devel-opment,” said Ian Nicolini, vice presi-dent of economic development for the Indy Chamber.

“You can’t confuse this with other office parks or complexes,” he said. “This is a place where key busi-nesspeople, entre-preneurs, people in research and devel-opment will all come together with bank-ers and venture capitalists to help India-napolis be a city that competes for jobs of the future.

“And the fact that an important part of the plan is to reach out to the area neigh-borhoods—businesses and residents in the area—only strengthens it as a hub of innovation.”•

Coy

Baker

Nicolini

Reprinted with permission of IBJ Media, Indianapolis Business Journal, copyright 2020