Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly - Jan. 10, 2014

JANUARY 10-16, 2014 Daily updates at www.fwbusiness.com $1.00

Business WeeklyPAGE 3

GREATER FORT WAYNE

n INSIDEHappy thoughtsHigh workplace morale makes productive employees

LOCAL NEWS

PAGE 6

Local news ....................3-7BizView ..............................8Real estate ...................... 10People on the Move ..... 14Top Lists .....................17-18BizLeads.....................18-20

Looking to growTower sought its own acquisition

Vol. 10 Issue 2

LOCAL NEWS

BARRY ROCHFORD

STORM PUTS REGION IN DEEP FREEZE

Glenbrook Square was largely deserted Jan. 6 when record-breaking snow and low temperatures gripped northeast Indiana and much of the rest of the state. A state of emergency kept most businesses closed and vehicles off the roads. For more, read the story on page 6.

First Financial moves into Fort WayneCincinnati bank hires former Tower lendersBY DOUG [email protected]

First Financial Bank has opened a Summit City banking center with two teams of bankers who used to work for Fort Wayne-based Tower Bank & Trust Co.

First Financial and its parent company, First Finan-cial Bancorp, both have their headquarters inCincinnati. As of Sept. 30, the company had$6.3 billion in assets, $3.9 billion in loans and$4.7 billion in deposits, including more than $1.9 million in Indiana deposits.

Claude Davis, chairman and chief executiveoffi cer of the company and president and CEOof the bank, said its 110 banking centers include45 in Indiana. Its downtown Fort Wayne locationin the former Merrill Lynch building at 130 W. Main St. was announced Jan. 6 in a prepared statement.

“We had interest in the Fort Wayne market for several years and what we were looking forwas the right entry point in the market and so the availability of these teams is what created theopportunity to enter the market now,” Davis saidin an interview.

Davis

n See FIRST on PAGE 20

Saint Francis waits for word on Legacy fundingUniversity is poised to begin renovations at downtown Fort Wayne campusBY LINDA [email protected]

The University of Saint Francis is still stitching together the pieces of the $12 million in funding that it needs to get its downtown Fort Wayne campus up

and running in the former Scottish Rite and Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce buildings.

It already is cutting it close if it is to get the buildings renovated and ready for classes by the fall of 2015, CFO Rich Bienz said. The selection of an architect,

the completion of plans and the exten-sive renovations to the two buildings are expected to take about 18 months to complete.

The university plans to use the down-n See USF on PAGE 21

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PAGE 2 fwbusiness.com GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n January 10-16, 2014

Old National Bancorp, which expects to complete its acquisition of Fort Wayne-based Tower Financial Corp. by the end of the quarter, now has a southern Michigan bank in its sights.

The Evansville bank company announced Jan. 8 it planned to acquire Ann Arbor-based United Bancorp Inc., parent of United Bank & Trust. The Michigan bank’s 18 branches will double Old National’s presence in the

state to 36 full-service offi ces.The agreement approved by the boards

of both companies values the deal at about $13.17 per share, or a total of $173 million.

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Tower made its own acquisition overtures before ONB dealBY DOUG [email protected]

The Fort Wayne-based parent of Tower Bank & Trust Co. may have been on the other end of an acquisition agreement by now if a smaller Indiana bank it approached had responded differently.

Instead, Tower Financial Corp. will hold a special meeting at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 7 at the Land-mark Conference & Reception Center, 6222 Ellison Road, Fort Wayne, where its shareholders will vote on an offer by Evansville-based Old National Corp. to buy Tower for $6.75 in cash and 1.2 shares of Old National for each Tower share.

The deal was announced Sept. 10. A prospectus published last month to provide Tower shareholders detailed infor-mation on Old National’s offer included an account of how the acquisition came about.

It depicted a board that was convinced Tower had to grow substantially to remain independent and was willing to attempt that through acquisition before its duty to maximize shareholder value pushed it in another direction.

Initially, “the decision to sell was not one that was high on our radar,” Michael Cahill, president and chief exec-utive offi cer of the bank and its holding company, said in an interview.

“We were having really good progress

on our own and thought there was some real opportunity on the part of folks who might want to become part of Tower.”

Members of Tower’s senior manage-ment and of its board, chaired by Keith Busse, began the process in 2011 of reviewing other community banks they thought might fi t within its growth profi le.

“During this time, Cahill and Busse

Tower Financial Corp. shareholders will vote on the proposed acquisition by Old National Bancorp Feb. 7 in Fort Wayne.

PHOTOILLUSTRATION BY BARRY ROCHFORD

ALSO IN BW Merger helps

boost Tower stock price 116% in 2013. Top List, page 17

n See TOWER on PAGE 7

Old National stays busy

The value of construction permits issued in Allen County in 2013 totaled $569.6 million, an increase of $59 million, or 11.6 percent, from 2012.

Totals were up in both the c o m m e r c i a l and residen-tial sectors, according to a year-end report from the Allen County Building D e p a r t m e n t . C o m m e r c i a l permit values rose to $307.9 million, an increase of $24.2 million, or 8.5 percent, from the year before. Resi-dential permit values surged to $261.7 million, an increase of $34.8 million, or 15.3 percent, from 2012. The number of new home permits issued in the county

climbed to 839 in 2013 from 689 the year before.

Totals include new buildings as well as additions, renovations, repairs, alterations and other projects.

BND COMMERCIALSteve Wesner represented the land-

lord, M-B-C Corp., and Roger Koehlinger represented the tenant, God’s Automotive LLC, in the renewal of a lease of 1,500 square feet of space at 2215 Parnell Ave.

Karl Behrens represented the landlord, Rogers Markets Inc., in the renewal of a lease of 6,000 square feet of space at 312 E. Dupont Road to the tenant, Pathway Community Church.

David Norton and Dave Stemen repre-sented the landlord, CMSJ Holdings LLC, in the renewal of a lease of 1,904 square feet of space at 10826-10828 Coldwater Road. Norton also represented the tenant, Quality Counseling & Psychological Services.

Stemen represented the tenant, KCI USA Inc., in the lease of 1,350 square feet of space in Pierceton from McClure Properties.

Behrens represented the tenant,

Goodman Networks Inc., in the lease of 69,329 square feet of space at 3102 Brooklyn Ave. from landlord, Aerl L.C.

Phil Knapke represented the buyer, Kroger Limited Partnership II, in the purchase of 4,444 square feet of space at 5765 Falls Drive from Liberty Mills Investments of Fort Wayne LLC.

CBRE/STURGESBrad Sturges represented the owner

of the former Borders bookstore space at 4320 Coldwater Road in the new lease of 26,081 square feet of space to Fresh Thyme Farmers Market.

Karen Spake and Carolyn Spake-Leeper represented the seller, JCIM US LLC, in the sale of a 65,790-square-foot industrial building on 9.63 acres at 300 S. Progress Drive, Kendallville.

Spake and Spake-Leeper represented the landlord, Peggy Mills LLC, in the lease of a 5,000-square-foot industrial building located at 4835 Jean Drive. The new tenant is F&M Tile Co.

Spake and Spake-Leeper represented the owner, Peg Perego USA Inc., in the lease of a 40,000-square-foot industrial building at 3605 Independence Drive to Tri State Warehousing.

Bill Cupp represented the buyer, Reflec-tive Industries LLC, in the acquisition of a 34,628-square-foot industrial building at 2101 Renner Drive, Hartford City.

Cupp represented the landlord, Inter-state Properties LLP, in the lease of an additional 18,000 square feet of industrial space at 5503 Distribution Drive to Trelle-borg Sealing Solutions US Inc.

Alexander Genova represented the seller, Hook-Super X LLC, in the sale of 1.6 acres at 1703 Carroll Road. The site will be a new location for Indiana Phys-ical Therapy.

REDS, WHITES AND PASTELSPainting with a Twist, a franchise that

combines instructional art with wine, will celebrate its grand opening Jan. 16 at 6425 W. Jefferson Blvd.

The Fort Wayne studio is owned by Marshall and Bonnie Springer, who had considered the idea previously and decided to move forward with the franchise after Marshall Springer was furloughed from his Air National Guard position during the

last government shutdown.Painting with a Twist, known previ-

ously as Corks N Canvas, was founded in 2007. It offers programs for a variety ofcustomers and occasions, from birthdayparties to bachelorette parties to informal friend get-togethers.

“Being laid off without income got me thinking. Given the current political situa-tion, there was no way of telling how long the shutdown might last or when the next one might start. So I decided I needed tofind another way of generating income,” Springer said.

“There’s something about the idea of getting people together over a glass ofwine and showing them how to tap intotheir inner artist,” he continued. “And Ilike the fact that we also cater to children.We change the theme of the painting and serve them soda, of course. But the kids have every bit as much fun as the adults.”

The Springers remodeled the spaceadjacent to Chop’s Steaks & Seafood to meet their needs and hired paintinginstructors. They even conducted somepre-opening classes to iron out the bugs.

Springer is continuing with the National Guard and has no intention of retiring soon.

For information or to sign up for aclass, visit PaintingWithATwist.com/fort-wayne.

UPSTAR, MLS NAME 2014 OFFICERS

The Upstate Alliance of Realtors and the UPSTAR Multiple Listing Servicehave installed new officers for 2014.

UPSTAR officers are: J. Kyle Ness, Real Living Ness Bros., president; David Mervar, Beer & Mervar Realtors, presi-dent-elect; and Brenda Williams, Century 21 Bradley Realty, secretary/treasurer.Adam Smith, Coldwell Banker RothWehrly Graber, is the immediate pastpresident of UPSTAR and the new presi-dent of the UPSTAR MLS.

If you have items for the real-estate and retail column, please contact Linda Lipp by e-mail at [email protected], by phone at (260) 426-2640, ext. 307, or by mail at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808.

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111 East Ludwig Road, Suite 101Fort Wayne, IN 46825260.423.4311w w w.naihd.com

Congratulations to

on their new location at 4632 Ardmore Avenue. Paul Refakis represented the landlord, Keystone Ventures, where Tyler Binkley represented the tenant, Asplundh Construction Corp.

Contact Paul or Tyler for all your commercial real estate needs.

Paul [email protected]

Tyler [email protected]

Surge in new home construction helps lift permit totalsn Reporter’s

NOTEBOOK

REAL ESTATE & RETAIL

Linda Lipp

The Allen County office of Purdue Univer-sity’s Coopera-tive Extension Service will host a free workshop every month this winter and spring, which could help improve e c o n o m i c stability and asset growth for area families through better access to main-stream financial services.

An announce-ment on the Get Checking work-shop said it is designed for “clients and families who have never had checking or savings accounts at a bank or credit union, mismanaged accounts at banks and credits unions so those accounts are now closed without committing fraud, or have accounts, but continue to still use predatory lenders.”

The workshop will be offered from 1-5 p.m. Jan. 23, March 18 and May 14, and 5-9 p.m. Feb. 18, April 15 and June 16 at the extension service’s office at 4001 Crescent Ave. on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Topics covered during the sessions will range from “Choosing an Account Right for You” to “Keys to Successful Money Management and Credit.”

Preregistration is required for the work-shop by contacting Vickie Hadley at the extension service at (260) 481-6826 or [email protected] or at its office in person or at the home and money page of its website at www.extension.purdue.edu/allen.

The Get Checking workshop is part of the Bank on Fort Wayne financial education initiative announced in 2011 with support from ProFed, Tower Bank, 3Rivers Federal Credit Union, Lake City Bank, Midwest America Federal Credit Union, Fifth Third Bank, PNC Bank, Markle Bank, Grabill Bank, 1st Source Bank, Old National Bank, First Federal Savings Bank of Huntington and Fire Police City County Federal Union.

Markle Bank and Grabill Bank have since merged to become IAB Financial Bank.

Completion of the workshop will earn participants a certificate, which will allow

them to open a bank or credit union account with a participating institution. Qualified participants also will receive a $50 incentive to open an account.

INDIANA SENATORS VOTE FOR YELLEN CONFIRMATION

Janet Yellen, vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, will become its 15th chair and the first woman in that position when she is sworn in Feb. 1.

Yellen’s nomination to a four-year term as chair was announced by the Obama administration on Oct. 9 and confirmed through a bipartisan vote of the U.S. Senate on Jan. 6.

A White House statement on her confir-mation said she was among the coun-try’s most respected economists, and as a leading voice on the Fed for more than a decade she helped pull the economy out of recession.

With her confirmation, “the Amer-ican people will have a fierce champion who understands that the ultimate goal of economic and financial policymaking is to improve the lives, jobs and standard of living of American workers and their fami-lies,” the statement said.

“Janet is committed to the Fed’s dual mandate of keeping inflation in check while also addressing our most important economic challenge by reducing unem-ployment and creating jobs.”

Yellen was confirmed by a margin of more than 2-to-1, with 56 senators voting in favor, 26 voting against and 18 not voting. U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., and U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., both voted in favor.

U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, tempered his congratulations with a plug for his policy preferences. As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, he had authored the H.R. 492 legislation to end the Fed’s “dual mandate” and force it to focus on sound monetary policy.

“While I congratulate Ms. Yellen on her confirmation, I also invite her to work with Congress on solutions that restore confi-dence and encourage economic growth through predictable, rules-based monetary policy,” he said in the statement.

“Printing money won’t create the jobs Americans need, no matter who chairs the Federal Reserve.”

The statement said “as a part of its ‘Federal Reserve Centennial Oversight Project,’ the Financial Services Committee will hold an aggressive series of hearings on the Fed this year.”

The committee deals with banking system, insurance, housing, economic, and securities and exchange issues and has

responsibility for the nation’s monetary policy and matters relating to international finance.

Stutzman introduced his Focusing the Fed on the Currency of the United States, or the FFOCUS Act of 2013, about two months after his office announced his selection for the House Financial Services Committee.

In a statement explaining the FFOCUS Act, Stutzman had said last February “more than twelve million Americans are out of work but, instead of pursuing an aggressive pro-growth agenda, this Administration is hoping the Federal Reserve will ‘solve’ the problem by firing up the printing presses.

“Printing money is no substitute for sound job growth policies. Since 1978, the Federal Reserve’s contradictory dual mandate to fight unemployment and infla-tion has become a crutch for politicians who lack the courage to tackle the real problems.”

If you have items for the banking and finance column, please contact Doug LeDuc by e-mail at [email protected], by phone at (260) 426-2640, ext. 309, or by mail at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808.


Extension service hosts Get Checking workshopn Reporter’s

NOTEBOOK

BANKING & FINANCE

Doug LeDuc

BRIEFLYALLEN COUNTY

IPFW APPOINTS NEW VICE CHANCELLOR

Wendy Kobler was named vicechancellor for advancement at IndianaUniversity-Purdue University Fort Wayne, the school announced.

She will be responsible for develop-ment, marketing and alumni relations at the university. She worked for four years as vice president of marketing, communication and advancement atAlabama A&M University in Hunts-ville, Ala., where she also was a member of the president’s executivecabinet and advised the school’s board of trustees.

Kobler’s background includesworking as the marketing and public-re-lations manager for Fiscal Systemsand serving as the lead conference organizer for the U.S. Army Spaceand Missile Defense Conference. Shealso owned her own business, KoblerCommunications.

She has a bachelor’s degree inmarketing from the University of West Florida and a master’s degreein secondary education from AlabamaA&M University.


FILE PHOTO

40 UNDER 40 NOMINATION DEADLINE EXTENDED

Know of someone under the age of 40 making a difference in northeast Indiana? Business Weekly is accepting nominations for its fifth-annual 40 Under 40 awards, which recognize individuals for their professional and civic achievements. Winners will be featured in a special Business Weekly publication and be honored at an event that begins at 6 p.m. March 19 at Ceruti’s Banquet & Event Center in Fort Wayne. The nomination deadline has been extended to Jan. 22. To nominate yourself or another individual, go to FWBusiness.com/events/40_under_40 and click on “40 Under 40 Nominations.”

Storm has chilling effect on businesses‘Extraordinary’ event shuts down commerceBY JOEL [email protected]

A freezing blast of weather blowing in from the North Pole shut down much of Fort Wayne Jan. 6 and brought an as-yet-unquantified slowdown in busi-ness.

Gov. Mike Pence declared a state of emergency in parts of Indiana. The National Guard mobilized to assist those stuck on the highways as much of the rest of the state hunkered indoors. Temperatures fell far below zero and roughly a foot of snow fell across north-east Indiana.

Although it was difficult to get a full accounting due to the fact that many still had not returned to their offices, many area businesses shut down because of the snowstorm and dangerously low temperatures. One such business was

Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne.“We were closed the entire day on

Monday (Jan. 6) … It was the first time in the company’s history that we ever closed down,” spokesman Christopher Guerin said of the professional audio equipment and instrument seller. “That’s 35 years, so that’s pretty extraordinary.”n See STORM on PAGE 7

n “It’s very rare for us to shut down, but it was one of those scenarios of cold weather and heavy snow that you might see only once every 20 years or so.”

Geoff ThomasLutheran Health Network

C’mon, get happyLincoln National paper outlines tie between morale, productivityBY DOUG [email protected]

It may seem coun-terintuitive, but all the small talk you soon will be hearing among co-workers about next month’s Super Bowl XLVIII could actually help improve the produc-tivity of your workplace.

If you need an excuse for this or other light-hearted office chitchat, you can find it in a white paper Dr. Les Kertay released last year praising the benefits of workplace camaraderie.

Kertay is the Group Protection chief medical officer for Lincoln National Corp., an insurance and financial-services company with a headquarters in Philadel-phia and annuity operations based in Fort Wayne. The company is known for its Lincoln Financial Group brand.

The white paper, “Happiness and the Bottom Line: The Happy Worker Prescrip-tion,” explains what contributes to employee happiness and how that relates to employee success and workplace productivity.

The subject interests Lincoln partly because group insurance costs can be affected by the incidence and duration of workplace absences, and Kertay said happi-ness in the workplace can affect the inci-dence and duration of those absences.

The “Happy Worker Prescription” provides an overview of research on the subject, such as Healthways-Gallup find-ings that employees who are unhappy at work are seven times more likely to be absent from it.

“We know one of the things that drives disability duration and workplace absence duration is the attitude and general health and well-being of the employee,” Kertay said. “The primary drivers are going to be the severity of whatever illness occurs, but once you get beyond that, it’s affected by psycho-social factors and that includes the workplace environment.

“What’s good for the employee is also good for the employer, and indirectly is good for the insurer, but the primary thing really is doing the right thing by the employee.”

The kind of well-being that Kertay

describes involves more than just feeling good and includes the development ofenriching relationships and a sense of engagement and meaning.

An increasing amount of research has been conducted examining factors thatcontribute to happiness and well-being, butmost of it has focused on what individuals can do to work toward improving their own situation, he said.

Kertay said he also has found evidence that employers can do a great deal to createan environment in which employees are more likely to enjoy their work.

“I think one thing that’s probably the most striking in the (research) literature is the importance of relationships and personalconnections in the work force,” he said.

“By way of example, employers some-times will tend to discourage the water-cooler conversations like it’s a time waster, and you certainly don’t want your people spending the whole day gathered aroundthe water cooler. But at the same time, thosesocial relationships are a very importantpart of their job satisfaction.

“It’s important for employers to payattention to and provide opportunities foremployees to have those social connec-tions.”

Kertay said employers can make a work-place more enjoyable by investing in the training of managers to teach them how to create a work environment that promotes a positive attitude and the kind of collabora-tion where team members want to see eachother succeed.

Kertay

STOCK.XCHNG

n See HAPPY on PAGE 7


met and engaged in various levels of discussions with eight banks, which TFC had identified as banks that might either have an interest in being acquired by TFC — in either a cash or equity transaction or a combination of both — or that might have an interest in considering a merger of equals transaction,” the prospectus said.

“One proposal made by TFC to acquire one of these banks in the summer of 2012 was rejected, and an attempt in the first quarter of 2013 to interest another bank to engage in a board-level special committee discussion, regarding a possible merger of equals transaction, was rejected by that bank in April 2013,” it said.

“Other than these two items, the discussions did not result in any indica-tions of interest on the part of any banks, it becoming apparent to TFC that both its balance sheet limitations and relatively small public equity float were, and would continue to be impediments to its attrac-tiveness as an acquirer.”

Tower entered into an ongoing advi-sory relation during the summer of 2011 with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a New York-based investment bank specializing in the financial-services industry. KBW began analyzing strategic alternatives for Tower without a formal agreement for that purpose during the fall of 2012.

It studied banks of interest to Tower as a potential acquisition to project their likely cost, identify any challenges they would present and determine the impact they would have on Tower’s performance.

A special committee including Busse, Robert Taylor, Ron Turpin and William Niezer was formed last February to review acquisition possibilities and to consider the interest other banks had shown in acquiring Tower.

In addition to Old National, five banks had expressed interest in acquiring Tower. The prospectus does not identify those banks or the banks Tower studied as potential acquisitions, and Cahill declined to identify them.

Tower was not interested in a transac-tion with any institution that did not have a culture similar to its own, which was rooted deeply in community banking.

Richard Sawyer, Tower’s chief financial officer, had raised Tower’s profile some in September 2012 during a presentation on the company at an Invest Indiana confer-ence in Indianapolis that was attended by Robert Jones, Old National’s CEO.

Jones ran into Busse that evening at a dinner hosted by Stifel Financial Corp., an investment bank that had a relation-ship with Tower dating back to 2004.

Jones had said at that time that he would like to meet with Busse in Fort Wayne at some point in the future but there were no serious discussions.

Jones followed that up last March 11 by bringing Jim Ryan, an Old National executive vice president, to a meeting at Eddie Merlot’s restaurant in Fort Wayne with Busse, Cahill and KBW represen-tatives.

The same group gathered for a confer-ence call on March 20, where a request was made for an indication of value based on publicly available information, without starting any formal negotiations. A range of $18 to $22 per share was provided two days later.

After the merger of equals transaction was rejected in April, a KBW presenta-tion persuaded the special committee that there were not enough suitable opportu-nities for Tower to grow through acqui-sition.

“We felt there was a big gap between pricing and timing and all sorts of other considerations, but you don’t know that until you go out and give it your best effort,” Cahill said.

After its April meeting, the committee authorized Busse to seek further pricing guidance from Old National, which responded that it would pay $22 per share, subject to its due-diligence findings.

The banks signed a mutual confiden-tiality agreement to explore a deal on May 16. Old National conducted its due diligence in July and informed Tower that it could hold to $22 per share, then Jones made a presentation to Tower’s board on Aug. 7, which convinced its members the banks would be a good cultural fit.

“It’s not as simple as someone putting an equation on the chalkboard; there’s an awful lot of qualitative and quantitative discussion that goes into this,” Cahill said.

“Value is not just a point-in-time price paid for stock,” he said. “How the commu-nity views you, how your employees view you, how your customers view you — that all impacts value.”

Continued from PAGE 3

n TOWER: Dinner put wheels in motionn “It’s not as simple as someone putting an equation on the chalkboard; there’s an awful lot of qualitative and quantitative discussion that goes into this.”

Michael CahillTower Financial Corp.

Guerin said it was difficult to esti-mate how much revenue the company lost on account of the winter shutdown. He said the company can take in as much as $1 million per day in sales, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it lost that much Jan. 6, since if customers had intended to make a purchase they could just make it on another day. The company stayed closed Jan. 6 out of concern for the safety of its employees, he said.

“On really bad-weather days, we don’t want anyone to risk an accident to get here,” Guerin said. Jan. 6 “was just over-the-top extreme.”

Other businesses closed down to avoid the icy blast.

All RediMed urgent-care clinics closed, along with all offices and clinics of Lutheran Medical Group in north-east Indiana on Jan. 6, Lutheran Health Network spokesman Geoff Thomas said. Those with medical emergencies were advised to call 911 or go to hospital emergency rooms instead.

“Obviously, there was an inconve-nience factor of having to reschedule appointments, but I think we were able to get the word out in a timely way,”

Thomas said. “It’s very rare for us to shut down, but it was one of those scenarios of cold weather and heavy snow that you might see only once every 20 years or so.”

The cold snap came as a result of a disturbance in a semi-regular weather pattern that circles the North Pole, according to the Weather Channel. The relatively tight circle of the “polar vortex” was warped into an elongated loop that spanned much of the northern hemisphere, falling lopsidedly across North America and bringing the cold and snow.

One hub of business shut down by the winter storm was Jefferson Pointe in southwest Fort Wayne. Mall managers shut down the mall itself, as the emer-gency announcements did not allow for them to travel by road to be there, but individual store owners were free to open if they chose to do so, marketing manager Katrina Newman said.

“Once it’s a Level One emergency, only emergency personnel was allowed on the roads,” Newman said. “We did it for the safety of the public. It’s very rare for us to close the shopping center. I’ve been here for three years and we’ve never closed.”


n STORM: Employees’ safety paramount

“It’s really about investing in the emotional intelligence of your manager,” he said. “There’s business skills and there’s interpersonal skills, and investing in those people skills I think is important.

“It’s important for employees to know how their role contributes to the success of the team and how the team contributes to the success of the company,” Kertay said.

“They will control themselves (from going overboard with socializing) because people are invested in the success of the team and the success of the company. That kind of environment is both the most satisfying and the most productive. It takes care of itself if you have those pieces in place.”

Kertay said studies have shown the number of times a person experiences even brief moments of joy each day can strongly predict overall happiness, and employers can make a workplace more cheerful by increasing the number of favorable emotional events employees experience.

The American Psychological Associ-ation has an entire program devoted to nurturing a psychologically healthy work-

place, he said.Kertay offers employers the following

10 tips as his “Happy Worker Prescrip-tion” to create an enjoyable workplace culture:

• Make sure managers understand that employee happiness impacts productivity and helps keep your workforce fully engaged and productive.

• Hire happy people.• Invest in managers’ emotional intel-

ligence.• Provide recognition in the way the

employee values most.• Provide opportunities to socialize,

and encourage it.• Provide benefits that are important to

your employees and enhance their finan-cial security — and emphasize the value of those benefits.

• If there are issues with performance, address them directly, starting with the positive.

• If an individual or the team is showing signs of stress, listen without judgment.

• If you have done something wrong, apologize.

• Express interest in staff well-being, including when an employee is out of work.


n HAPPY: Provide opportunities to socialize

n BizView nPAGE 8 fwbusiness.com

Without Purdue University’s guid-ance and stewardship, Indiana Univer-sity-Purdue University Fort Wayne would not be celebrating its 50th anni-versary this year.

It would not have become the fi fth-largest public institution in Indiana. It would not have an expanded athletic center and a renovated student center — or one of a number of other facility investments that have been made on the northeast Fort Wayne campus.

Yet, Purdue’s management of IPFW has over time become something of an obstacle. Of a hindrance, not a help.

It’s time that Purdue’s president, Mitch Daniels, and its board of trustees recognize this and take action. IPFW is no longer simply a regional campus serving as a feeder school for West Lafayette. It is its own university, with its own unique set of circumstances and aspirations.

It should be provided the autonomy to decide how to best educate students in northeast Indiana for the next 50 years.

Education is the rallying cry in northeast Indiana and across the state as we attempt to improve economic condi-tions and our quality of life. Businesses expanding, companies relocating, developing and supporting a desirable work force — it all depends on our students obtaining a quality education that instills the skills employers want to see in their employees.

Education is so critical that the No. 1 priority for the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership over the next decade is raising to 60 percent the number of residents in the region ages 25 to 64 with a two- or four-year degree or professional credential. Other economic-development strategies — be they local or state-level — are grounded in the premise that education is the foundation for our future.

IPFW must have the freedom to provide the programs that northeast Indiana employers want and need. It should be able to offer advanced degrees that will help prepare students for future jobs at companies and within industries that are signifi cant to this region’s economy. And it should receive funding equitable to its status as one of the state’s largest universities.

Purdue’s leaders must work to help achieve this, and they must clear the bureaucratic quagmire and empower IPFW administrators and faculty so the university can set its own course. If they don’t, the calls for IPFW becoming its own independent degree-granting institution will grow stronger. And area business leaders will look to other universities — Notre Dame, for example, or Ball State — to offer the programs and degrees that northeast Indiana needs, and that Purdue failed to provide.

The Purdue problem

To begin the New Year, I want to apologize for an error in last week’s column. There I wrote that the personal property of commercial and indus-trial fi rms was assessed at the state level. That is not true. County assessors remain responsible for such assessments.

That error was not commented on by any of my readers. This lack of response indicates: a) I have no readers; b) I have no readers who know anything about the assessment of business personal property; c) I have no readers who care enough to put me on the right path; or d) your kindly local editor corrected my misstatement.

On Feb. 9, Lake Central High School in Lake County dedicates its new $120-million complex. This is a renovation and extension of its existing structure. The public will be invited to see what their money is buying and learn how education at Lake Central will be enhanced by the new facility.

For all of us, this is a good reminder that in some areas of the state progress is being made in reinvigorating education. Some citizens do not see the need for structural improvements. They will testify that, “What was good enough for me when I went to school ought to be good enough for today’s students.” At the other extreme are those inclined to say, “There is nothing too good for my child, and the school in my area ought to refl ect my values.”

Between these extremes are the many who recognize the quality of facilities infl uences the education students receive. Further, school build-ings are community assets that infl uence the loca-tion of families and businesses alike. The one-room, unheated wooden school with the two-seater privy has become a romanticized artifact of a time best forgotten. Structures and facilities adequate 20 year ago are out-of-date, as are teachers who have not modernized their methods and curriculum.

Every new education facility in Indiana should be the object of a community celebration. Given today’s fi nancial puritanism, no district dares to spend too much on frills and fads.

“Indiana, the state that works” is the latest frivolous slogan used to attract capital investment to Indiana. No doubt you heard this slogan was on a sign above Times Square during the year just past. It may still be there, if the state government does not have the good sense to take it down.

What does this assertion mean? Does it suggest Hoosiers work harder than those who live elsewhere? Does it signify the social and political mechanisms of Indiana are better attuned to each other than will found in Ohio? What is the New York visitor to think upon see this meaningless fl uff? Remember, this is only a 15-second message.

I was reminded of the Indiana works ad as I watched TV recently. There was an ad encouraging investment in Mongolia with essentially the same message. We have the people, the knowledge, the work ethic, the willing-ness to engage with business, etc. The ad agency for Mongolia missed its desired viewers, just as I suspect Indiana was taken by its ad agency with a sign in Times Square.

MORTON J. MARCUS is an economist, writer and speaker formerly with Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He can be reached at [email protected].

Odds and ends for the new year

n

EYE ON THE PIE

Morton J.

Marcus

n EDITORIAL

WHAT’S YOUR VIEW?Want to share your thoughts on something you’ve read? Business Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns. E-mail them to [email protected], fax them to (260) 426-2503 or mail them to Business Weekly, 3306 Inde-pendence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808. Business Weekly reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length.

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GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n January 10-16, 2014


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(Bloomberg) — U.S. apartment rents probably will rise 3.3 percent in 2014, little changed from last year, as the most construction in a decade boosts vacancies and limits landlords’ ability to increase rates more, Reis Inc. said.

The 41,683 apartment units completed in the fourth quarter were the highest since late 2003, the New York-based research company said in its quarterly report. Devel-opment rose from 29,560 units a year earlier and 37,546 in the third quarter.

Apartment construction in the U.S. has rebounded from a 50-year low reached fi ve years ago as rental demand surged with the tide of foreclosures from the housing collapse and increased diffi culty getting mortgages. Landlords were able to charge higher rents, particularly in new buildings, and the national vacancy rate was cut by almost half from 8 percent at the end of 2009. A boost in supply is set to temper rent growth this year, Reis said.

“Demand will not implode but will struggle to keep pace with escalating completions,” Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis, said in the report. “We anticipate that for the fi rst time since 2009 the national vacancy rate will rise in 2014.”

Still, with an improving job market and many new Class A properties commanding higher rents than the market average, rents probably will climb about 3.3 percent this year following a 3.2-percent gain in 2013, Reis said.

Rents paid after any landlord giveaways such as a month’s free rent climbed to an average of $1,083 a month in the fourth quarter from $1,074 in the previous three months and $1,049 a year earlier, Reis said. The vacancy rate, which has hovered close to a decade low for the past two years, fell to 4.1 percent from 4.2 percent in the third

quarter and 4.6 percent a year earlier. Vacancies reached 3.9 percent in 2001’s third quarter, according to Reis.

San Francisco, New York and Oakland had the biggest increases in effective rents from the third quarter, according to Reis. San Francisco’s average rent of $2,081, up 1.9 percent, was almost twice the national average, while New York’s stood at $3,105 and Oakland’s was $1,441.

For the year, Seattle had the biggest rent growth, rising 7.1 percent to $1,139 a month, Reis said. San Francisco was second, with rents up 5.6 percent, and San Jose, Calif., was third, at 5.5-percent growth.

Phoenix and Atlanta, which haven’t had as much construction because they were slower to recover than some markets, may have rent growth of about 4 percent this year, Jay Denton, vice president of research at Axiometrics Inc. He added that top markets such as San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland are likely to have gains of about 5 percent, down from 6 percent to 9 percent in 2013, according to data from the Dallas-based apartment research company.

The Bloomberg index of apartment real-estate invest-ment trusts dropped 6 percent after reinvested dividends in 2013, compared with a 2.4-percent gain for the broader Bloomberg REIT Index and a 32-percent return for the Standard & Poor’s 500.

n InFocus n

STOCK.XCHNG

Apartment rent gains tempered by rising constructionn “Demand will not implode but will struggle to keep pace with escalating completions.”

Ryan SeverinoReis Inc.

Offi ce rents increase in gradual market recovery, Reis says(Bloomberg) — U.S. offi ce rents rose

in the fourth quarter, extending a gradual recovery from the recession that’s prompted some landlords to sell buildings as occu-pancies climb.

Tenants paid an average of $23.48 a square foot, up from $23.32 in the previous three months and the 13th straight quarterly gain, according to a report by Reis Inc. Effective rents, the amount after any land-lord concessions, increased from $22.98 a year earlier, the New York-based research fi rm said.

Sluggish employment growth has trans-lated into a modest rebound in the offi ce market during the past four years. Tech-nology, energy and media companies have

led leasing, helping to lift property values in select cities including New York, San Francisco and Houston.

“Until the growth rate in high-wage, high-skill jobs that require offi ce space accelerates, expect slack demand for existing inventory to be the norm,” Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis, said in the report.

Occupied space rose by a net 8.52 million square feet in the fourth quarter, about even with the amount of new offi ces built during the period, Reis said. That helped keep the national vacancy rate at a four-year low of 16.9 percent, unchanged from the third quarter and down from 17.1 percent a year earlier.

New York and Washington had the coun-try’s lowest vacancy rates, at about 10 percent, while Boston, Dallas and San Jose, California, had the largest rent increases from the third quarter, according to Reis.

The fi rm estimates effective rents will rise 3.4 percent next year, following a 2.2-percent increase in 2013.

Blackstone Group LP, one of the biggest U.S. offi ce landlords since its 2007 purchase of Equity Offi ce Properties Trust, has sold about $5 billion of offi ce assets during the past year to take advantage of the recovery, a person with knowledge of the transactions said.

The fourth quarter’s net leasing gain of 8.52 million square feet was up from 3.11

million square feet a year earlier and 7.64 million in the third quarter, according to Reis.

Completions of new offi ce space totaled 9.13 million square feet, up from 3.6 million square feet a year earlier and 6.3 million square feet in the third quarter, the fi rm said.

Offi ce construction is rising from a low in 2012, when developers delivered 12.3 million square feet of space, the smallest in Reis records going back 15 years. For 2013 as a whole, developers completed 25.9 million square feet. In 2008, before the industry slump, completions averaged 16.4 million square feet a quarter.



Free workshops focus on Internet marketingKPC Media Group Inc. is offering a

series of free workshops aimed at small to medium-sized businesses throughout northeast Indiana and featuring Mike Blinder, national speaker, author and one of the nation’s leading Internet experts.

These free two-hour workshops will help decision makers learn how to grow their business on the Web by finding new customers, cost effectively, online.

“The ABCs of Interactive Marketing” workshop topics include: reaching thou-sands of potential customers; getting found on the Web; improving your website’s performance; and social-net-working strategies that guarantee success. In addition, participants have a chance to win a free business marketing makeover.

Workshops will be held:• 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20, Courtyard by

Marriott, 1150 S. Harrison St., Fort Wayne. Light snacks provided.

• 7:30 a.m. Jan. 21, Bridgewater Golf Course, 1818 Morningstar Road, Auburn. Continental breakfast provided.

• 11:30 a.m. Jan. 21, 6 Autumns Restaurant, 3855 State Road 127, Angola. Light lunch provided.

• 3:30 p.m. Jan. 21, Cobblestone Golf Course, 2702 Cobblestone Lane, Kendall-ville. Light snacks provided.

Reservations are required. To reserve a seat visit LocalMediaWorkshops.com, or call (260) 426-2640, ext. 358.

“KPC Media Group is pleased to sponsor these workshops featuring Mike Blinder, by far one of the leading experts in the field of Internet marketing,” said Terry Ward, COO of KPC Media Group. “We are proud to offer these free work-

shops as part of our ongoing commitment to help small to medium-sized businesses in northeast Indiana grow by providing high-quality educational opportunities for those who wish to learn and better target their products and services to potential customers.”

KPC Media Group has been locally owned since its founding in 1911. Along with the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, it publishes three daily newspa-pers, the Times Community Publications in Allen County, Family magazine and the Smart Shopper, along with phone books and real-estate guides in northeast Indiana.

The company also has commercial printing and direct-mail divisions, and offers expanded digital services through Keyflow Creative.

BRIEFLYIND IANA

IVY TECH MERGES REGIONS TO CUT COSTS

Ivy Tech Community College will consolidate some of its regions as it works to improve efficiencies and reduce costs.

The college last year merged its north-west and north-central regions. In an announcement Jan. 7, Ivy Tech said its East Central region, which includes campuses inAnderson, Marion, Muncie and New Castle, will be combined with its Richmond region,which includes a campus in Connersville.

East Central Chancellor Andrew Bownewill oversee the combined region.

In addition, Ivy Tech’s Columbus region, which includes a campus in Franklin, will be merged with the Southeast region, which has campuses in Batesville, Lawrenceburgand Madison. An interim chancellor will be named for the merged region.

Ivy Tech said its Greencastle campus,which is in the Wabash Valley region, willbe moved to its Central Indiana region.

The Ivy Tech Northeast region willremain unchanged.

In addition, the community college said it expects to name campus presidents atabout 20 sites across the state. The campuspresident title will replace the vice chan-cellor/dean title that exists now, and theposition will report to the chancellor for thatregion. No additional staff will be hired as a result of the change in title.

“Ivy Tech Community College is Indi-ana’s primary open enrollment institu-tion of higher education and the state’slargest college/university with over 100,000students each term,” board of trustee chairman Steve Schreckengast said in theannouncement. “The only way the state will reach its goal of increasing the number ofadults with a degree or certification to 60 percent by 2025 is if Ivy Tech is successful.

“We are focused on the success of our students and in keeping higher education affordable and accessible. At the same time we are faced with state funding challenges and must operate as efficiently as possibleand eliminate any unnecessary duplication.”

The community college said that state funding per full-tim equivalent students dropped from $3,248 in 2006 to $2,543 in 2012. Funding per student (part time and full time) presently is $1,210.

Follow BW on Twitter:

@fwbusiness


Three keys to social-media success in 2014

It’s a new year: time to instill better habits, establish new goals and look ahead to where you’d like to find yourself in 12 months. That makes it a great time to eval-uate your business’s social-media efforts to ensure you invest your time wisely and get the results you’re looking for. With that in mind, here are three things to focus on as you plan for the coming year:

1. Have a strategy. Few organizations take the time to approach social media strate-gically. Instead of determining goals, consid-ering the audience, and allocating resources toward the effort, they take a shotgun approach, dabbling in the use of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — to name just a few examples — without ever considering whether those tools are best suited to their needs and the needs of their audience.

Even if you have a well-established social media presence, it’s worth taking a few steps back to consider what you hope to accomplish and what strategies, tactics and platforms will get you there most effectively. The truth is, without a written social media strategy, it will be difficult to avoid knee-jerk reactions to things that, in the long run, don’t deserve much of your attention. A strategy is critical to keeping your efforts on track.

2. Integrate your social-media strategy with your larger marketing/communica-tion strategy. As you develop your social-media strategy, be sure to align your efforts with your larger marketing and communi-cation strategy. Doing so will allow you to leverage efficiencies and anticipate opportu-nities to position your brand in the right place at the right time.

Here’s an example: Let’s say your orga-nization hosts a big event every year. You’re probably using traditional marketing and communication methods to get the message out, whether you have an exclusive invite list or the event is open to the public. You also have probably considered the importance of the event — whether it’s for fundraising, customer engagement or employee morale — before establishing a budget and determining what tactics you’ll use to make it successful.

In the same way, you’ll want to consider what role social media can play in supporting those traditional marketing and communi-

cation tactics. Use social media prior to the event to get the word out and thereby increase attendance. Post photos or videos to your social-media profiles during the event to generate interest from and improve the attendees’ experience. And share recollec-tions from attendees after the event to turn them into advocates for your organization and get others thinking about what they missed — and why they should be part of the event next time.

This is just one example, but it under-scores the way in which social media should be a part of, not apart from, your marketing and communication efforts.

3. Evaluate your team, and invest in training, if needed. Like anything else in your business, the success of your social media strategy is contingent upon the skills and abilities of the people doing the work. It’s worth considering, therefore, whether you’ve assigned social media to the right people — those who are reliable and who communicate well. (Remember, managing a business’s social media strategy is a serious responsibility; the person you put in the lead effectively holds the keys to your brand.)

It’s also worthwhile to evaluate whether you’ve put enough resources toward social media, or whether it’s time to up the ante — perhaps even looking outside your orga-nization for support. Even if you have the right people in place, you’ll also want to think about whether your team needs training in order to keep up with the ever-changing social-media environment.

Many organizations think they can get by staffing social media with those who are self-taught. Many of those same organiza-tions end up with less-than-stellar outcomes — or, worse yet, serious public-relations problems — when a staff member uses poor judgment. The cost associated with those issues far outweighs the cost of training your employees in best practices.

Don’t wait another year to refine your company’s approach to social media. Investing a little time up front is certain to pay off when the time comes to look back at 2014.

ANTHONY JULIANO is a marketing and social media strategist, teacher, trainer and writer. He is vice president of marketing and social media strategy at Asher Agency in Fort Wayne, and he teaches social media and marketing classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Connect with him at LinkedIn.com/in/anthonyjuliano or via e-mail at [email protected].

n

ANTHONY JULIANO

CANICANI in Fort Wayne added several

staff members: Debra Bournes, Melissa Caballero, Sherry Mosley, Erina Pratt and Juanita Varnell in Head Start; and Jennifer Brando, Christina Castle, Amanda Chap-pell, Brandy Duncan, Brenda Mudd and Kimberly Overholser in community services.

SHAMBAUGH & SONWendy Bone was hired as accounts

payable clerk, LeAnn Court was hired as cafe worker and Xizosong Zou was hired as Java developer at Shambaugh & Son LP in Fort Wayne.

USSIUSSI in Columbia City announced

several recent staff changes:Paul Lich was hired as a team leader.Nathan Boothby was hired as a produc-

tion program manager.Jeffrey Boger was hired as a marketing

manager.Keith Gormley was hired as a buyer.Bruce Reidenbach was hired as a staff

engineer.Jeffrey White was hired as a buyer.Nathanial Schueth was promoted to a

Sales Representative 3.John Amos was promoted to a Senior

Test Engineer 2.Michael Duke was promoted to director

of production programs.Darrell Massman was promoted to

tooling and test engineering manager.Peter LeStrange was named undersea

products and tech marketing manager.

IAB FINANCIAL BANK

Senior Vice Presi-dent Thomas Obergfell was named to lead Fort Wayne-based IAB Finan-cial Bank’s business banking division.

Senior Vice President Rick Gentis will lead the agribusiness banking division.

First Vice President Andrew Marshall will lead the retail and small business banking divi-sion.

Vice President Douglas Fyock will lead the mortgage banking division.

NORTH EASTERN GROUP REALTY

Kristi Abel joined North Eastern Group Realty in Fort Wayne as an agent.

LUTHERAN LIFE VILLAGES

Suzan Moriarty joined Lutheran Life Villages in Fort Wayne as director of home care. She most recently was regional marketing director at Miller’s Merry Manor Home Healthcare Solutions.


n PEOPLE ON THE MOVEE-mail your People on the Move items to [email protected].

White

LeStrange

Reidenbach

Massman

Gormley

Duke

Boothby

Amos

Lich

Schueth

Obergfell

Gentis

Marshall

Fyock


If the state gets rid of the personal property tax, other rates would riseThe Indiana

General Assembly may consider elimi-nating property taxes on personal prop-erty in the upcoming session. Personal property is almost entirely business equipment. Elimi-nating this tax could encourage more busi-ness investment in Indiana, especially since some of our neighboring states have already eliminated this tax.

Personal property owners pay about a billion dollars in property taxes to local governments, which is 16 percent of total property taxes. Eliminating this tax would create some big tax and budget issues for legislators to consider. Here’s why.

Indiana limits the revenue that local governments raise from the property tax. There’s a maximum property-tax levy restricting most local government operating funds. The maximum levy increases from the previous year’s maximum based on a state formula. Most of the levy does not depend on changes in assessed value.

If we eliminate personal property from assessed value, total assessed value would be smaller. We calculate property tax rates by dividing the levy by assessed value. With the levy limited and assessed value smaller, most tax rates would go up. Personal property owners would pay less, but higher tax rates would shift this tax burden to everyone else.

Or taxes would shift, except for the prop-erty-tax caps. Indiana’s constitutional tax caps limit homeowner tax bills to 1 percent of assessed value before deductions. The caps limit rental housing, second homes and farmland taxes to 2 percent of assessed value and business land and building taxes to 3 percent.

Personal property elimination would raise tax rates and tax bills. In many cases, these higher tax bills would exceed taxpayer caps. Taxes paid by personal property owners would shift to other taxpayers, but the part above the caps would be unpaid. Local governments would lose that revenue.

Which taxpayers would pay more, and which governments would lose revenue? We have solid answers to these questions. In 2012, the Legislative Services Agency did a study of personal property tax elimina-tion, which is published in the Oct. 4, 2012 minutes of the Commission on State Tax and Financing Policy, http://www.in.gov/legisla-

tive/interim/committee/2012/committee/stfp.html.

The study estimated that $963 million in personal property tax payments was paid statewide in 2012. If personal property was removed from the tax base, other property owners would pay about $453 million in higher taxes, and $510 million would be revenue lost to local governments.

Homeowners would pay $170 million in added taxes, a 9-percent increase in the average homestead tax bill. Businesses would pay $176 million more on their land and buildings, which implies that businesses with a lot of equipment would see tax reductions while those with little equipment could see tax increases. Rental housing and farmland owners would pay the remaining $108 million.

Two factors cause huge variation among counties: how much personal property the county has, and how close the taxpayers are to their tax caps. In Delaware County, for example, personal property owners pay about 15 percent of property taxes; however, a large number of taxpayers are already at their tax caps. Further increases in tax rates would not raise their tax bills. But that means that some revenue that local governments collect from personal property taxpayers would not be collected from other taxpayers.

The LSA study estimates that 76 percent ofpersonal property taxes would become lostrevenue, while homeowner taxes would rise only 7 percent.

In Brown County, almost no taxpayers are at their caps. More than 99 percent ofpersonal property taxes would be shifted toother taxpayers. But Brown taxpayers have little personal property, so there’s not muchtax to shift. Homeowner taxes would go up only 4 percent.

Consider Pike County, though. Personalproperty owners pay 41 percent of Pike’staxes. Very few taxpayers are at their caps.With so much tax to shift, about two-thirds of personal property taxes would become lostrevenue, yet homeowner tax bills still wouldincrease 31 percent.

Businesses pay about a billion dollars inproperty taxes on their equipment. If those taxes are eliminated, about half the amountwould shift to other taxpayers, and about halfwould be lost revenue to local governments.That’s what would happen, anyway, if theGeneral Assembly made no other changes.Possible “other changes” will be the subject of debate.

LARRY DEBOER is a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University in West Lafay-ette.

n

LARRY DEBOER

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On the car lot, you’re going against decades of the wrong approach to salesI get a ton of

emails from people seeking insight or asking me to solve their sales dilemmas. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life and (most importantly) your sales thought process right now.

Dear Jeffrey, this is my first week in car sales. Can you tell me what sections of any of your books I could go to for help with deflecting that first “What’s your best price?” question. I want to build rapport and provide the value of my services in addition to the vehicle. I was thinking of using your “can you close a sale in five questions?” as my porcupine close, ignoring the price question, and asking my own question, “Jeffrey, how do you select a car or truck?” Any suggestions? — Rich

Rich, yes, I have a bunch of sugges-tions. First of all, you’re battling 100 years worth of doing it the wrong way. Yes, there have been a lot of cars sold, but oftentimes in spite of themselves. And the reason

people come in and want the best price is because they’ve already shopped online. They already know what the car costs. The customer is now more educated in the car business than the car salesperson is because the customer has probably shopped 10 different brands, and the car salesman pretty much only knows his own.

So the challenge for you as a salesperson is if you get a question of “What is your best price?” get it down to the model and say, “Look, I’ll give you my best price, but don’t you want to know if this is the right car for you? Why don’t we take it for a drive and then we’ll talk about how much it is if you really want it. If you don’t want it, there’s no sense in negotiating for it, and I’m assuming if I give you may best price, you’ll say ‘thanks’ and buy it. Otherwise, you’re going to go shop around and thank me and then go talk to my competition and that’s not what we want to do. We want to put you in a car. We want to make you feel great, and we want you to get the best car for your money today and when you sell it, and we want to make sure along the way that it’s maintained. Is that fair enough?”

Dear Jeffrey, I’m in sales and the manager of the office is also an agent. She distributes the Internet leads for the

other agents and regularly keeps the high-est-dollar leads for herself. We have a transparent database that percentage-wise shows she’s been doing this for over a year, yet she denies it. How do I deal with a manager like this? — Bill

Bill, you quit! You don’t want to work for a liar. You certainly don’t want to work for someone who garners all the leads for herself. Why don’t you give her all the leads and go get your own leads? Or, why don’t you go someplace where it’s more fair?

My recommendation is first talk to her boss and ask if there is any way the leads can be distributed more fairly. Obviously, if you were getting all the leads you might do the same thing yourself. It’s called cherry picking. She knows not only what the best lead is, but also what the easiest lead to close is. Maybe it should just be random, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, and split up the leads like that. If she fights it, she’s doing it the wrong way. You gotta be ethical, you gotta be honest or you gotta find another job.

Dear Jeffrey, I have a large insurance agency and we interview for salespeople quite often. “Looking for a professional with an aggressive sales demeanor.” Some-body told me of an interview question that

they ask and I’d like to get your opinion. During an interview, this person will askthe interviewee to bark like a dog. That’s apretty rough question isn’t it? If they don’tdo it, the person will end the interview.If they do it, the interview continues. Therationale is that if they don’t do it, they’renot inclined to get out of their comfortzone. If they bark, and they’re comfortablein doing it, they’ll be comfortable in doingthings out of their normal task. What doyou think of this? — Jay

Jay, what do you think of it? Do youthink it’s professional or do you think it’sthird grade? “Well, I’m sorry, candidate,you didn’t bark like a dog, so even thoughyou’re a great salesperson, you’re a smartguy and you’ve got a great attitude, you’redisqualified.”

Dude, that is the stupidest thing I’veever heard in my life! Why don’t they justcluck like a chicken? The challenge is this:If I’m interviewing people, I want to know if they’re smart, I want to know if they’reself-starting, I want to know if they have agreat attitude, and I want to know if theyhave some kind of past history of success. All the rest is irrelevant.

JEFFREY GITOMER, a syndicated columnist, can be reached at [email protected].

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n Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly TopList

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n Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly TopList

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n BizLeads n

NEWBUSINESSESEagle’s One Stop Inc.537 W. Main St.Butler, IN 46721Talal Haidous

Modern Homes of North-east Indiana LLC8501 E. 600 NorthChurubusco, IN 46723Michael R. Miller

Don’s Home Services LLC108 Graceland Ave.Claypool, IN 46510Donald Miller

Rum Monkey Enter-prises LLC15 S. Stickler RoadColumbia City, IN 46725Stephen Holloway

Lake City Strength and Conditioning LLC135 W. Tidewater TrailColumbia City, IN 46762Dustin L. Westafer

PBJ Realty LLC402 S. Main St.Columbia City, IN 46725Max A. Busz

SRG Properties LLC2 Hallmark SquareColumbia City, IN 46725Robert L. Grawcock Jr.

V I Cunningham LLC201 N. Walnut St.Columbia City, IN 46725Victor I. Cunningham

CMJ Enterprises Inc.1541 E. Poplar RoadColumbia City, IN 46725Christopher Cass

Hannah T LLC1730 W. Old Trail RoadColumbia City, IN 46725Duane Janssen

Swogger Farms Inc.1390 C.R. 5Corunna, IN 46730David R. Swogger

GMI Agency LLC147 S. 2nd St.Decatur, IN 46733Timothy Baker

Mary O. Razo LLC1502 Cherry LaneDecatur, IN 46733Mary O. Razo

Old Oak Tree Real Estate LLC119 S. Second St.Decatur, IN 46733Audra Snyder

CWV Properties LLC522 S. 13th St.Decatur, IN 46733Kevan Biggs

Swan Lake Real Estate LLC228 W. High St.Elkhart, IN 46516Glenn L. Duncan

Swan Lake Operating LLC228 W. High St.Elkhart, IN 46516Glenn L. Duncan

Rupp Unlimited LLC24871 Johannes CourtElkhart, IN 46514Dona Rupp

Ministerio Pentecostes Maranatha Inc.328 W. Dinehart Ave.Elkhart, IN 46517Manuel Perez

BJ Ripper Street Sup LLC3504 Henke St.Elkhart, IN 46514Ronald Migedt Jr.

Advanced Technical Products LLC121 W. Franklin St., Suite 400Elkhart, IN 46516James V. Woodsmall

Sonset Solutions Inc.2830 17th St.Elkhart, IN 46517Curtlin G. Bender

Numara Inc.2401 Middlebury St.Elkhart, IN 46517Wilmer Banegas

Fresh Paint Outreach Ministry Corp.1111 W. Bristol St.Elkhart, IN 46514Charles Rechtsteiner

Stadia Conception PC4703 Chester DriveElkhart, IN 46516Kenneth K. Jones Jr.

Paragon Technology Group LLC2110 Aeroplex DriveElkhart, IN 46514Roger Roy

LCM Realty VII LLC3501 C.R. 6 E.Elkhart, IN 46514Scott T. Mereness

Benham Ave. Property LLC1502 Benham Ave.Elkhart, IN 46516Gurcharn Singh

Elkhart Youth and Community Center Inc.200 E. Jackson St.Elkhart, IN 46516Darrell R. Peterson

Hernan Cortez Romo LLC932 Taylor St.Elkhart, IN 46516Hernan C. Romo

SLB Sales LLC3033 Twin Pines PointElkhart, IN 46514Chad Bosscher

Avery Installation Service Inc.4003 Augusta LaneElkhart, IN 46517Jason Owens

JSB Transport 1 LLC30356 Tower RoadElkhart, IN 46514Joyce Swilley

Epiclesis Consulting LLC60282 Pembrook LaneElkhart, IN 46517Patricia M. O’Connor

Resource Builders of Elkhart County Inc.127 Riverview Ave.Elkhart, IN 46516Jason Champaigne

Alta Equipment Company Inc.28255 Charlotte Ave., Building 2Elkhart, IN 46517Steven Greenwalt

Central Professional Services Inc.1439 Greenleaf Blvd.Elkhart, IN 46514William Rzepka

Z Code Services LLC321 W. Wolf Ave.Elkhart, IN 46516Olin L. Zuercher

Martin De La Luz Marquez LLC28208 Moore Ave.Elkhart, IN 46517Martin De La Luz Marquez

Nicodemus Cleaning Co.50766 AcornElkhart, IN 46514Leah Nicodemus

Half Crazy Runners LLC444 E. Main St.Fort Wayne, IN 46802Melanie L. Farr

The Hearthstone Guild LLC5809 Arlington Parkway N.Fort Wayne, IN 46835Ricardo J. Vaz De Carvalho

Hockey Training Prod-ucts LLC301 W. Jefferson Blvd., Suite 200Fort Wayne, IN 46802Robert L. Nicholson

Fast Transcription Inc.6015 TomahawkFort Wayne, IN 46804Kelly Fast

Corporate Cleaners LLC3338 Vantage Point Drive, Apt. 1BFort Wayne, IN 46825Rickyle Lunford

The Law Office of Berna-dette A. Olmos LLC538 Wallen Hills Drive, Apt. 1Fort Wayne, IN 46825Bernadette Olmos

PAGES 18-20


The Original Ember LLC5504 Gate Tree LaneFort Wayne, IN 46835Michael L. Dennison

Sweet Tea Games LLC1009 Upland Ridge DriveFort Wayne, IN 46825David Makonnen

Adala Community Inc.1241 E. Lewis St.Fort Wayne, IN 46803Amira Izedine

Achieve Physical Therapy LLC10315 Dawson’s Creek Blvd., Building 12, Suite HFort Wayne, IN 46825Loreto Bayani

C.A.M. Music Inc.2624 Maplecrest DriveFort Wayne, IN 46835Floyd Thomas

Post Land LLC221 Grandstand WayFort Wayne, IN 46825Lynda Wynn

Medics to Africa Ltd.919 S. Harrison St., Suite 250Fort Wayne, IN 46802Nicholas O. Blasio

Delagrange Detailing LLC5620 Litchfield RoadFort Wayne, IN 46835Ryan Delagrange

The Cooking Companion Inc.6007 Arbor Tree CoveFort Wayne, IN 46804Theresa Abubakr

BGW LLC301 W. Jefferson Blvd., Suite 200Fort Wayne, IN 46802Jon A. Bragalone

Family Satellite Services LLC14606 Indian Creek RoadFort Wayne, IN 46814Theresa Farber

Reynolds Rentals LLC215 E. Berry St.Fort Wayne, IN 46802Zachary E. Klutz

R&G Sports LLC7007 Mangrove LaneFort Wayne, IN 46835Angela Gebert

Cort Chilian LLC14828 Walnut Creek DriveFort Wayne, IN 46814Cort Chilian

Rose Real Estate Hold-ings LLC9008 Sea Wind PlaceFort Wayne, IN 46804Edward R. Rose

Cosmos LLC6832 Palmilla CourtFort Wayne, IN 46835Georgia Bourounis

Attention Too Detail Lawn and Landscape Service LLC7721 Aboite Center RoadFort Wayne, IN 46804Robert L. Stahl

MMW Investments LLC4433 Winding Brook RoadFort Wayne, IN 46814Monica M. Weigand

LMW Family Invest-ments LLC4433 Winding Brook RoadFort Wayne, IN 46814Laurence M. Weigand

Structural Engineering Services LLC301 W. Jefferson Blvd., Suite 200Fort Wayne, IN 46802Robert L. Nicholson

C&J Hill LLC6325 Rock Bluff CourtFort Wayne, IN 46819Charles L. Hill II

Royal Red Unlimited LLC1002 Lincoln Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46807Royce Bailey

Independent Physician Association LLC6819 Lima RoadFort Wayne, IN 46818William Hedrick

Midwest LTL Solutions Inc.10421 Oak Valley RoadFort Wayne, IN 46845Kris Hannah

Mitten of Indiana LLC921 E. Dupont RoadFort Wayne, IN 46825Norman E. Hall III

Cook Road Industrial Development LLC14704 Coldwater RoadFort Wayne, IN 46845Paul Vlaskamp

Avocet Trading LLC6015 Highview Drive, Suite GFort Wayne, IN 46818Deb Stewart

St. Joe Center Veterinary Realty LLC6515 Popp RoadFort Wayne, IN 46845Roy A. Coolman

Burlap Blooms LLC6109 Merlin DriveFort Wayne, IN 46818Rachel Degitz

Diamante LLC1003 Lake Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46805Ricardo D. Guerrero

Lafayette Place Invest-ment Collaborative LLC4538 W. Lafayette Espla-nadeFort Wayne, IN 46806John Lehner

Ruben Gonzalez Ramirez LLC324 E. Leith St.Fort Wayne, IN 46806Ruben G. Ramirez

Robbie’s Enterprises LLC2330 Beacon St.Fort Wayne, IN 46805Robert A. Wagner

DDL Investment Proper-ties LLC12118 Waycliffe CourtFort Wayne, IN 46845Debra D. Lucyk

Accardi LLC2330 Beacon St.Fort Wayne, IN 46805Robert A. Wagner

Women Ministerial Alliance of Fort Wayne/Allen County Inc.5610 Plaza DriveFort Wayne, IN 46806Diandra Bruen

Presser Media LLC5710 Coventry LaneFort Wayne, IN 46804Steve Presser

KNH Muzic LLC1125 Hugh St.Fort Wayne, IN 46803Kenneth Hayes

Raibains LLC2630 Grassy Creek RunFort Wayne, IN 46804Anil Rai

LVJ Financial LLC.3110 New Haven Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46803Vince Tippmann Jr.

RESIDENTIALBUILDINGPERMITSALLEN COUNTYABOITE TOWNSHIPSistevaris Builders13613 Paperbark Trail$479,900

EEL RIVER TOWNSHIPGranite Ridge Builders Inc.4307 Great Hollow Court$396,000

PERRY TOWNSHIPSlattery Builders LLC683 Perolla Drive$325,000

Granite Ridge Builders Inc.2506 Lobelia Court$151,913

Granite Ridge Builders Inc.16249 Gemma Pass$360,000

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIPAmos Lengacher18003 Cuba Road$70,000

ST. JOSEPH TOWNSHIPGranite Ridge Builders Inc.7783 Flutter Road$334,900

Equity Land Corp.8609 Legends Parkway$234,235

REAL-ESTATETRANSACTIONS468052905 Sherborne Blvd.From Linda J. Greaf to Hla Htay Kyi$80,000

2324 Oakridge RoadFrom Chad G. Stiebeling to Game Properties LLC$35,000

1714 Crescent Ave.From Allen County sheriff to Nationastar Mortgage LLC$74,808

1615 Dodge Ave.From John P. Gardner and Vida McCray-Gardner to Shane T. and Michelle E. Grim$241,000

2612 Nordholme Ave.From Alexander M. Garcia to James M. Burkhart$66,000

711 Glazier Ave.From Robert D. and Carol A. McCorkle to Bec305 Properties LLC$38,400

1610 Kentucky Ave.From Ronald J. Minnich to Larry W. Ashley$20,000

427 Constance Ave.From April K. Meyers to Gary B. and Deb J. Wells$65,000

468064815 Smith St.From James L. Schuchard II to Alexander Owea$15,000

3802 Clermont Ave.From Dyle Hughes to Vernon L. Ray Sr.$15,000

3006 Monroe St.From Gwendolyn G. Brown to Angelia and Daryl K. Burnett Sr.$35,000

4531 Bowser Ave.From Fort Wayne Habitat for Humanity Inc. to Nino Marina$10,000

4816 Montrose Ave.From Allen County sheriff to Fidelity Bank$30,000

3318 Heritage DriveFrom Allen County sheriff to Bank of America NA$75,000

4306 Plaza DriveFrom HUD to Zuniga J. Bernardino$14,000

2627 Capitol Ave.From 2627 Capitol Ave. LLC to Anthony A. Morgan$55,000

4428 Avondale DriveFrom Allen County sheriff to Deutsche Bank National Trust Co.$19,728

3610 Wayne TerraceFrom FNBN LLC to Javier D. Morales$8,000

468072411 Fox Ave.From Cama Corp. to Stra-tegic Redevelopment LLC$10,900

4007 S. Wayne Ave.From Mary J. Knight to Jonathon E. and Amber M. Recker$25,000

2605 Hoagland Ave.From Clint and Tara A. Baals to Roger C. Summers$14,000

4136 S. Wayne Ave.From Allen County sheriff to Bank of America NA$104,156

4415 S. Wayne Ave.From Barbara Reeb to Kyaw Wah Law$58,000

1221 W. Wildwood Ave.From Allen County Commu-nity Development Corp. to Maria E. Cruz$8,000

5720 S. Calhoun St.From Allen County Commu-nity Development Corp. to Cielo P. Villanueva$5,017

911 W. Oakdale DriveFrom Freddie Mac to Russell Kolkman$36,900

5319 Buell DriveFrom Mark A. and Jane Walls to Troy M. and Chalise M. Wieland$21,500

1153 W. Packard Ave.From Allen County sheriff to Jeff Piazza$12,781

468082523 Ellen Ave.From Amy R. and Duncan Rodman to Game Proper-ties LLC$60,000

4919 Lima RoadFrom Grand Prix Fort Wayne LLC c/o Cerberus Real Estate Capital Management LLC to Fort Wayne Hotel Suites Inc.$1,400,000

2116 Meridian St.From Larry D. Hilsmier trust to Richard Langeland$40,000

1336 Goshen Ave.From Sam L. and Diane E. Revett to Bruce D. and Sally Ainslie$50,000

1508 High St.From Jodie Billman to Paul and Elizabeth Holly$26,000

1617 St. MarysFrom Rick Widmann to Alex Palermo$10,000

4219 Patrick LaneFrom Barbara E. Belote to Darlene S. Ford$60,000

3016 Lincolndale Ave.From Chris Leeper to Rajesh N. Patel$59,000

1640 Sinclair St.From Allen County Commu-nity Development Corp. to Maria S. Diaz$7,500

3000 N. Wells St.From Allen County sheriff to Tower Bank & Trust Co.$50,000

1420 Melrose Ave.From Kelly L. Carpenter to Michael D. and Shirley J. Harvey$73,900

4915 Pocono CrossingFrom Lindsay L. Omlor to Shane P. and Kimberly S. Dafforn$118,500

4839 Anglers LaneFrom Jarod N. and Marisa A. Ray to Benjamin J. and Jessica R. Lindemann$149,500

708 Greenlawn Ave.From Fort Wayne Habitat for Humanity Inc. to Maung Soe & Aye Naw$90,000

1715 Diamond Creek RunFrom Michael E. Burgess and Ashleigh N. Smith to Jeffrey L. and Laura J. Harmon$112,900

2126 Colter CoveFrom Jared D. and Lisa R. Haagen to Christopher R. Sharpe$117,250

2402 Bellflower LaneFrom Fannie Mae to Samuel Aguirre$84,500

4680910605 Indianapolis RoadFrom Charles F. Dwyer to Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority$225,000

6108 Smith RoadFrom Sherry I. Zemen to Kim A. Hawk$109,900

2905 Koons St.From Robert Maddox Inc. to Jerome T. Slate$40,000

5516 Allendale DriveFrom Glenn B. Crowell to Steven and Geoffrey A. Burns$10,000

4020 Nokomis RoadFrom James L. and Ruthann Devine to Ralph and Shirley Cox$62,000

11122 Arranmore CoveFrom Equity Land Corp. to Heller & Son’s Inc.$39,865

6234 W. Ferguson RoadFrom Michael D. and Shirley J. Harvey to Kandace A. Basnett$119,000

4681414909 Brittwood CourtFrom Charles D. Crawford Jr. and Andrea M. Crawford to Jennifer M. Boyd$140,000

884 Beal Brook PassFrom Granite Ridge Builders Inc. to Brooke Southivong$141,700

1809 Rothbury CourtFrom Donald B. Fisher to Tahmoures and Farbod Salman$310,000

2920 Covington Manor RoadFrom Mark S. and Karen S. Willcutts to Julie J. Meyers$376,000

1525 White Coral CourtFrom Oakmont Develop-ment Co. LLC to Timberlin Homes LLC$69,900

2923 Arden CoveFrom John R. and Pamela D. Sampson to Gregory Ducharme$310,000

14628 Firethorne PathFrom Edward J. Caylor III to Dustin and Amanda Falk$152,500

11722 Tweedsmuir RunFrom Woodlands of Liberty Mills LLC to Granite Ridge Builders Inc.$36,000

536 Union Station DriveFrom Granite Ridge Builders Inc. to Amber R. Kidd$142,000

14903 Sandstone DriveFrom St. Joe Development Corp. to Windsor Inc.$45,600

7317 Rob Roy RoadFrom Midfirst Bank to HUD$128,172

325 Club Course DriveFrom Timothy J. and Sara K. Weir to Gregory S. and Jane P. Smith$325,000

10522 River Birch RunFrom Angela Sheets to Melissa K. and Chad E. Querry$310,000

2930 Treviso WayFrom Oakmont Develop-ment Co. LLC to Prime Properties Corp. Inc.$44,900

14129 Peddlers FordFrom John F. Popp Busi-ness Corp. to David and Ginny Diehl$140,000

14675 Sandstone DriveFrom Oakmont Developer Co. LLC to Buescher Construction Co. Inc.$49,900

576 Walkmans CoveFrom Granite Ridge Builders Inc. to Rebecca J. Armstead$139,600

1554 White Coral CourtFrom Oakmont Develop-ment Co. LLC to Buescher Construction Co. Inc.$64,900

14307 Bridgestone RoadFrom Patrick and Susan Sorenson to Lichun Chen and Jian Shen$286,100

10329 Greenoak Blvd.From Walter O. and Jeanette M. Jackson to Nicholas D. and Malak B. Heiny$330,000

14922 Blue Reef DriveFrom J1 Seven LLC to Windsor Inc.$39,900

325 Victoria Station WayFrom Granite Ridge Builders Inc. to Phillip J. andMarsha K. Perri$140,895


14576 Sandstone DriveFrom Oakmont Develop-ment Co. LLC to Arbor Home Building Corp.$52,900

468152005 Majestic LaneFrom Jennifer M. Boyd to Harold E. and Rhea L. Fox$85,500

3516 Walden RunFrom Allen County sheriff to Bradford Pepple Roth IRA$50,411

6203 Lombard PlaceFrom Jonathan and Devon Plant to Jessica Clayton$96,250

3104 Winslow PlaceFrom Maya T. Kaczmarek to Dennis R. and Judy A. Donahue$105,500

3718 Oak Park DriveFrom Midwest America Federal Credit Union to Ryan N. Barnett$79,500

3710 Bluegrass LaneFrom Allen County sheriff to Fannie Mae$119,130

3725 Well Meadow PlaceFrom Ramaier and Indram-bikai Sriram to Lien T. Huynh$199,000

6021 Cordava CourtFrom David B. and Sherry M. Vance to Michael R. and Ann Kendall$118,000

4220 Wedgewood DriveFrom Timothy Whiteman to Nicole C. Mahler$95,900

3415 Maxim DriveFrom Brian and Catherine A. Knipscheer to Barton E. and Kasey M. Price$156,500

1719 Greythorn DriveFrom Chad E. and Betsy A. Springer to Terence L. Bramley and Sarina L. Pitts$157,700

2636 Reed RoadFrom Maxine Hedges to Ghay Htoo$38,000

5721 Bayside DriveFrom Cosette M. Sheets Estate to KT Property Hold-ings LLC$69,500

2605 Regal CourtFrom Westport Homes of Fort Wayne Inc. to Game Properties LLC$54,000

4905 Woodmark CourtFrom Freddie Mac to Joy E. Denthouter$65,000

7103 S. Lake Knoll DriveFrom Delagrange Builders Inc. to Eunice A. Ware$156,400

1210 Langley PassFrom Terry M. and Carolyn V. Elijah to Melissa A. Durr$187,500

4614 Stellhorn RoadFrom Duetta R. Davis to Austen H. Snyder$101,000

4906 Galway DriveFrom ITS Investments LLC to Alex Palermo$55,000

Hoffman RoadFrom Wilmer Rohrbach to Doane A. Rohrback$68,544

8115 Asher DriveFrom Griff A. Neilson to Christopher J. and Beverly E. Irvin$167,500

4321 Meridith DriveFrom Val D. and Melody A. Asay to Rachel A. Matthews and Judy A. Woods$110,000

3721 Courtwood DriveFrom Veronica Shinabery to Peter and Laura Mapes$103,000

8031 Newfield DriveFrom Ellen M. Augsburger to Jeffery P. Buzzard$72,000

468162615 Dexter DriveFrom Allen County sheriff to Fannie Mae$64,752

2507 Oakwood DriveFrom the Oakwood residen-tial trust to May Thu$69,900

214 Rexford DriveFrom Allen County sheriff to Fannie Mae$89,631

3800 E. Paulding RoadFrom Khin Hlaing and Tin Aye to Min O. Sorn$35,000

5917 Lunada DriveFrom Freddie Mac to Paw Htun Aung$24,000

6002 Guild DriveFrom Alliance Property Management Ltd. to Okison.Com Inc.$160,000

BANKRUPTCIESALLEN COUNTYDiane Martz-Stowe2209 Rutgers DriveFort Wayne, IN 46819Assets: $71,650Liabilities: $106,592

Giovanna M. Schumaker5631 Kroemer RoadFort Wayne, IN 46818Assets: $118,439Liabilities: $161,401

Jillian R. and Benjamin C. Zwick321 W. Sherwood TerraceFort Wayne, IN 46807Assets: $86,444Liabilities: $156,152

Jamie L. Berrum4815 S. Anthony Blvd.Fort Wayne, IN 46806Assets: $3,375Liabilities: $9,674

Deanna J. Jones5924 Arbor Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46809Assets: $59,146Liabilities: $83,795

David L. Olry4602 Craftsbury CircleFort Wayne, IN 46818Assets: $159,850Liabilities: $91,048

Justin M. Hartwig2314 Poinsette DriveFort Wayne, IN 46808Assets: $83,050Liabilities: $94,059

Marty G. and Robin R. Piercy5330 Goshen Road, Lot #236Fort Wayne, IN 46818Assets: $24,800Liabilities: $82,510

Shalonda R. Tabron1013 Illsley DriveFort Wayne, IN 46807Assets: $8,150Liabilities: $60,426

Roger W. West Jr. and Kristina L. West15214 Grabill RoadGrabill, IN 46741Assets: $3,195Liabilities: $11,911

Sarah K. Anderson2627 Lynn Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46805Assets: $69,026Liabilities: $78,609

Craig A. Downey13202 Fox Brush LaneGrabill, IN 46741Assets: $107,225Liabilities: $98,110

Jill C. Buckel1915 Versailles VillageFort Wayne, IN 46808Assets: $2,450Liabilities: $22,569

Harold E. Matz4811 Lillie St.Fort Wayne, IN 46806Assets: $10,700Liabilities: $18,995

Joannie O. Schnellbach5717 Reed RoadFort Wayne, IN 46835Assets: $9,750Liabilities: $36,231

Sheena R. Greene2234 Versailles Village PlaceFort Wayne, IN 46808Assets: $13,200Liabilities: $11,018

Lanna S. Shipley213 W. Fleming Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46807Assets: $5,800Liabilities: $36,079

Beth L. Nelson516 Elmer St.Fort Wayne, IN 46808Assets: $2,805Liabilities: $157,067

LaTresha Benson7015 Woodlynn DriveFort Wayne, IN 46816Assets: $775Liabilities: $153,921

Katrina R. Harris118 Lexington Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46807Assets: $2,780Liabilities: $35,947

Laura L. Bowman302 W. Jacobs Ave.Fort Wayne, IN 46808Assets: $127,001Liabilities: $169,677

Tisha D. Heller9633 Skipjack CoveFort Wayne, IN 46835Assets: $186,044Liabilities: $177,652

Otis Sewell2623 River Cove TrailFort Wayne, IN 46825Assets: $464Liabilities: $12,010

Paul E. Goodridge Jr. and Samantha B. Goodridge13813 Yellow River RoadFort Wayne, IN 46818Assets: $24,046Liabilities: $58,251

Valerie D. Fowler6102 Rock Creek PlaceFort Wayne, IN 46818Assets: $39,235Liabilities: $62,127

Jennifer K. McDonough7027 Chartercrest DriveFort Wayne, IN 46815Assets: $2,783Liabilities: $26,275

DEKALB COUNTYDonald T. Walters4070 C.R. 50Auburn, IN 46706Assets: $133,815Liabilities: $253,621

Tina M. Nodine908 S. Randolph St.Garrett, IN 46738Assets: $64,016Liabilities: $100,858

Jeffrey P. and Brandi E. Burns1316 S. Jackson St.Auburn, IN 46706Assets: $9,560Liabilities: $66,243

The announcement said First Financial has hired Robert Slusser as its Fort Wayne market president and Brock Rauch as mortgage sales manager for its local operations. Slusser had been Tower’s lending director and Rauch had been its mortgage manager.

Along with Slusser, “we hired five addi-tional commercial lenders who all had been together as part of that team, as well as four mortgage loan officers who, in addition to Brock, had been together at Tower,” Davis said.

“We feel it’s critical for any bank to be staffed with local people who have local rela-tionships and knowledge of the local market.”

In addition to his Fort Wayne market pres-ident responsibilities, Slusser and a team of a half dozen bankers he leads will launch First Financial’s commercial lending platform in the area.

The platform includes commercial and industrial, commercial real estate and specialty finance credit products “as well as treasury management and deposit products to middle-market and small business clients,” the announcement said.

Tower Financial Corp., Tower Bank’s parent company, had reported the resigna-tion of five commercial lending officers in a Dec. 13 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If they had not left, they still would find themselves working under different leadership once Tower’s acquisition is completed by Evansville-based Old National Bancorp.

A Dec. 5 SEC filing had said Wendell Bontager, Tower’s chief lending officer and an executive vice president, had accepted an Old National offer to become its region presi-dent once the acquisition closes.

Mike Cahill, Tower Financial’s president and CEO, has accepted a position as an Old National senior consultant for the region, and Gary Schearer, president and CEO for Tower Trust Co., has accepted a position as an Old National senior vice president, client adviser manager.

Slusser limited his comments on the teams’ joining First Financial to remarks he provided in its prepared statement:

“We are excited to be joining First Finan-cial, one of the largest community banks serving Indiana and an organization with a strong commitment to client service.”

Members of the team Slusser will lead in the regional launch of First Financial’s commercial lending platform include: Andrew Holy, relationship manager; Seth Keirns, rela-tionship manager; Tim Kuhnen, relationship manager; Janna Murphy, administrative assis-tant; and Brian Ternet, relationship manager.

First Financial said the mortgage team it has hired for the new banking center averages more than 18 years of industry experience,

with most of that in the Fort Wayne area.In addition to Rauch, who also will lead the

bank’s E-Channel mortgage origination plat-form, the team includes: Bernie Christman, mortgage loan originator; Jon Halliwill, mort-gage loan originator; Tracy White, mortgage loan originator; and Nathan Willis, mortgage loan originator.

Rauch said in the prepared statement that “partnering with First Financial is a great opportunity and strong cultural fit for our mortgage team.

“First Financial’s expanded set of resi-dential mortgage products and enhanced resources will allow us to provide a greater number of mortgage solutions to existing and prospective homeowners in the greater Fort Wayne area.”

Davis said the company’s Fort Wayne banking center opened with a dozen associ-ates but he expects the size of its work force to grow to 20 this winter.

“Fort Wayne’s being the second largest metro area of the state made it an important market for us because Indiana is a significant part of our business, representing between 40 and 50 percent of our overall business,” he said in the interview.

“Secondly, we … have several markets around Fort Wayne that we already do busi-ness in and they view Fort Wayne as a regional hub for health care, for shopping and media, so it’s also a good complement to the business we already have in the area.”

Communities in the Fort Wayne area with First Financial branches include North Manchester 33 miles to the west and Van Wert, Ohio, 42 miles to the east.

The bank belongs to a nationwide network of automated teller machines, which includes some in Fort Wayne, and it has an active online banking account base and a very large and growing mobile banking account base, Davis said.

First Financial plans to spend the next several months evaluating potential locations for a permanent downtown banking center as well as potential locations for additional branches, he said.

First Financial has been watching what has been going on in Fort Wayne’s banking industry from its perspective as a company with a community bank business model. Davis said, “What Tower has done in the Fort Wayne market has been impressive.

“Our interaction has been with the indi-viduals we’ve hired, and we’ve been very impressed with their banking experience, their background and their business results in the market,” he said.

First Financial plans to add wealth management and a full line of consumer banking products and services later this year to the commercial and mortgage business it does in Fort Wayne.


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town campus to house its Keith Busse School of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership and its Media Entrepre-neurship Training in the Arts program. The business school currently has 162 undergrads enrolled, and the media tech program has 42. Moving downtown will give them room to grow, said Andrew Prall, vice president of academic affairs at Saint Francis.

One of the bigger parts of the proposed funding plan is a $3-million grant from the city’s Legacy Fort Wayne fund. An internal review committee is expected to make a recommendation by the end of the month on USF’s grant request, city spokesman John Perlich confirmed in an email.

The grant, which would require a 3-to-1 match by USF, or $9 million, also requires the approval of the City Council.

USF purchased the former Scottish Rite building on Berry Street, which it chris-tened the USF Performing Arts Center, two years ago this month, It closed on the purchase of the chamber building at 826 Ewing St. in November 2012, and all of that building’s tenants have finally moved out.

But its purchase of the Mizpah Shrine

building that sits between the other two, on the corner of Ewing and Berry, and the accompanying Shriners’ parking lot and ticket office at 413 W. Main St., on the neighboring block, still has not been finalized.

The former ticket office once housed a boat business. The underground tanks it used have been removed, but the sellers are still awaiting approvals from the Indiana Department of Environmental Manage-ment before the deal can close, said Mizpah Shrine recorder Ron Harruff. That probably will take another few months, he estimated.

The Shriners recently completed the renovation of the former Unfinished Furni-ture store at 1015 Memorial Way, across Parnell Avenue from the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, and have moved all their activities there.

The university has not developed any specific plans for the use of the Shrine building and ticket office, so there are no worries about completing renovations there by fall 2015. It is interested first and foremost in the large parking lot, Bienz said.

If the city awards the Legacy grant, the


n USF: IDEM approval delays Shriners deal

n See USF on PAGE 22

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funds would be paid out gradually as USF invests its own funds in the renovation work.

“As we spend $3 million, we would get $1 million,” Bienz explained.

USF is lining up other funding sources, including, perhaps, New Markets Tax Credits, Bienz said. The federal program, created in 2000 to spur investment in low-income areas, allows an entity to recoup 39 percent of its investment, refunded over seven years as income tax credits.

USF itself is tax-exempt, but it could sell the tax credits and still get about 82 percent of the value, or up to about $2 million, Bienz said.

The tax-credit program was part of the financing package developers and the city of Fort Wayne used to build the Harrison in downtown Fort Wayne.

The use of historic preservation incen-tives is also possible, but less likely because those come with some limitations on what can be done to qualifying structures.

“We’re researching what type of restric-tions there would be, and would those restrictions impact our future plans,” Bienz said.

The chamber and performing-arts buildings each will require about $5 million worth of work. Both need to have their heating, ventilation and air-condi-tioning systems replaced, and both require upgrades to make them handicapped accessible.

The chamber’s HVAC system was in such dire shape it had to be turned off. “We brought the building down because there were steam pipes leaking inside the walls,” Bienz said.

Since USF took over the building, the performing-arts center has hosted a number of concerts and community events in its auditorium and basement ballroom, along with 14 weddings, Bienz noted. Part of the planning for the renovations there will be scheduling the work, including the creation of new office and studio spaces, to minimize the disruption to other activities.

“The building will be offline for a short time,” Bienz said. “We’re trying to know when to do that.”

Its location in the heart of the downtown area will be a boon to USF’s experiential learning programs, which go well beyond traditional internship opportunities, Prall said.

The META program uses a proj-ect-based learning model that brings

together students with different majors to work together in teams to accomplish goals beneficial to both the business and arts communities, Prall said.

The Busse Entrepreneurial Program with Integrated Cooperatives, or EPIC, allows students to intern at a company for an extended period of time.

“They work exclusively within one business through their four-year career, inside various departments,” Prall said.

The program has achieved a 100-percent job placement record, “and a lot of our students come out with multiple job offers,” he said.

The Busse school also offers three master’s degree programs with online classes geared toward the adult learner rather than the traditional student. There are currently 102 students enrolled in those programs, “and the enrollment is growing almost by the day,” Prall said.

USF recently received a $1-million Lilly Foundation Inc. grant that it will use, in part, to launch both a concentration and a bachelor’s degree program in insurance and risk management. The first classes are expected to begin in fall 2014, and the program will move downtown when that campus is completed.


n USF: Other funding source could be New Markets Tax Credits BRIEFLYSTEUBEN COUNTY

LAWSUIT MOVES FORWARDThe ruling in the federal lawsuit

pitting owners of a strip club against thecity of Angola is the early stages but ithas been reduced to the point that a quickconclusion is possible.

On Dec. 31, U.S. Federal District Judge Robert Miller struck down many of the motions filed in the case between Alva and Sandra Butler and theircompany, BBL Inc., against Angola.Parties in the case were informed of theruling Jan. 2 by the court, The HeraldRepublican in Angola reported. On Jan. 3, a telephonic status hearing in the casewas scheduled for Jan. 30 with Miller and attorneys representing the parties.

The Butlers are owners of the Show-girl III strip club in Fort Wayne. Theysued Angola, claiming their efforts to open a club here were thwarted by the city in violation of their constitutional rights.

The portion of the case that remains involves whether Angola allowed qual-ified alternative sites to use as opposed to the one Butler purchased in August2012, the former Slider’s Grill & Bar property at 310 W. Wendell Jacob Ave.



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LEGEND ofLEADERSHIP AWARD

Business Weekly

Honoring Irene WaltersBreakfast

Thursday, February 27 7:30 AMLandmark Centre

Join community leaders as they pay tribute to this legendary leader.

Master of Ceremonies: Ben Eisbart, Steel Dynamics

Featuring remarks by:Marilyn Moran-Townsend,

CVC Communications

Larry Lee, Leepoxy Plastics

Cheri Becker, Leadership Fort Wayne

Mike Cahill, Tower Bank

Sharon Eisbart, Sharon Eisbart Corporate Art

Tickets $25 each Table of eight $150

Visit fwbusiness.com or call 260.426.2640 ext. 313

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Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly - Jan. 10, 2014

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