BizVoice May / June 2017

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May/June 2017 – BizVoice/Indiana Chamber 17
a six-year period.
In trying to expand beyond 2,000 to 3,000 square feet and move
closer to the heart of downtown, he says, “What I found early on was I
had to do a five- or seven-year lease and I had to put it on my own
personal credit. That’s a problem when you start talking about
$7,000, $10,000 a month and the business fails.”
The solution: If you can’t find what you are looking for, create it.
Halls of learning
The Union, located at 525 South Meridian Street in the capital
city, is located between the downtown office operation of Rolls-Royce
Corp. and the nearby Eli Lilly & Company campus. The building has a
long history of its own.
Dedicated in 1895 as the Industrial Training School, the
122,000-square foot facility (also now 122 years old) is said to be the
first vocational high school in the nation. It served for many years as
the home for Manual and later Wood high schools before the latter
closed in 1978. Brougher Insurance Group converted it into an office
building in 1984, and Lilly occupied the space beginning in early 2000.
Three investors and real estate veterans – John Teibel, Brad Teibel
and Al Krygier – with much of their experience in northwest Indiana
purchased the building in 2015. Various uses (including apartments,
condominiums, office space and more) were contemplated with none hitting
the mark until a mutual acquaintance brought Hurley into the mix.
“I came over here, walked in for the very first time and saw that
gym, and I thought not only was this a great space for SmartFile, but
this would be a great space for tech companies like SmartFile,” he
enthusiastically recalls. “I said to John Teibel, ‘I don’t know how
we’re going to make this happen but I want to be part of it.’ ”
That first viewing and conversation took place approximately one
year ago. Fast forward to today and The Union will soon be home for
about 15 tech companies, a Launch Indy version of the successful
Launch Fishers co-working space, the Purdue Polytechnic High School
Indianapolis (featured in the May-June 2016 BizVoice®), an undisclosed
anchor tenant and more.
A Hoosier ‘Gem’
The beauty of The Union comes, in part, in reviving the history
of the building and in the simplicity of meeting the needs of today’s
companies. In a tour, Hurley points to reutilizing iron beams and two bell
towers that were part of the original structure. The former schoolyard
will be a courtyard gathering space, complete with a four-story slide.
Technology and Innovation: Yearlong Series
The Studebaker Corporation was a longtime driver of the South
Bend economy. On that site today, the developing Ignition Park is
striving to meet the needs of innovators and entrepreneurs.
Flexibility is the key to serving companies on that growth spiral.
The HeadQuarters co-working space opened in late 2016, while the
Notre Dame Turbomachinery Laboratory is a $36 million facility
working with industry and government partners. Others in the Catalyst
One and Catalyst Two buildings are in varying stages of development.
Brad Toothaker, managing partner of the Great Lakes Capital (GLC)
family of companies as well as president and CEO of Bradley Company,
says there is not really a size description that fits Ignition Park tenants.
“It’s a little more thematic in terms of R&D, high tech and
information systems. We are intended to be a next phase growth location
for companies (whether coming from Innovation Park at Notre Dame
or other locations) to continue to have some shared resources for a
period of time … from there, we can scale internally into dedicated
spaces that might be needed.”
Toothaker, with his real estate background, is fully aware of the
long-term lease challenge inherent in the traditional space model.
“That’s part of the reason the Ignition Park development includes
a couple of buildings, and ultimately more buildings, with long-term
substantial tenant commitments – to be able to offer this space where
people can add one seat at a time and on a very flexible basis,” he
shares. “Ultimately, that 10-employee group turns into 25 people and
they make a longer-term commitment to lease space in 5,000 square
feet or whatever it may be.”
Toothaker notes that traditional office space is “capital intensive,”
but that innovation space developers are making a “capital investment
commitment up front in creating the space to begin with. But you’re
not going to be customizing it and spending a lot of additional money
downstream.”
Great Lakes purchased 13 acres from the city of South Bend to
build Catalyst One and Catalyst Two. As those facilities near 100%
occupancy, there is room for more buildings on that site and the
company has the option to purchase 11 additional acres. Work on
the next facilities could begin later this year.
Before Ignition Park became the hub of such activities, Great
Lakes was working with area companies like SMART Temps and Vennli.
“We’ve done that on a case-by-case basis for many years, scaling
them up over time with their space requirements,” Toothaker reveals.
“We structured rent scenarios, invested in them and grew them in a
way that was comfortable for them and stayed flexible for their growth.”
Great Lakes has a GLC Ventures arm that is actively working
with others and aiding companies at various financing stages.
Toothaker cites another recent development in the world of
co-working and beyond, which he describes as “really cool.”
“More companies are sharing space and mixing intelligence and
resources. So you might have three engineers with different
companies that are in different space but have collaborative
intelligence that can benefit one another.”
Igniting Development in South Bend
RESOURCE: Brad Toothaker, Great Lakes Capital, at
John Hurley, CEO of SmartFile, is passionate about the potential for The
Union 525 – already 100% leased before building renovations are complete.