The IBJ Podcast

Born in Mumbai, local TED expert bringing global sports leaders to Indy

Neelay Bhatt was born in Mumbai, India, and didn’t move to Indiana until 2006, after he finished a graduate degree in sports administration. But he found a home here because he speaks the language of sports and developed a strong network of local sports executives. In 2023, he founded a consultancy in Carmel that focuses in part on master planning, strategic planning and business planning, which it has been engaged to do for a massive sports and leisure destination in Portugal. Meanwhile, Bhatt has been a key player on the local organizing committees for the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, and 2024 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium.

His latest roles in the local sports community are co-chair and curator of TEDSports Indianapolis, the first-ever TED event to focus exclusively on sports. Taking place Sept. 9-11 in downtown Indy, it’s expected to draw up to 1,000 executives, educators and trendsetters from across the globe for a series of seminars, panels, workshops and curated experiences. There also is a significant networking component, potentially generating new opportunities for the city.

In this week’s edition of the podcast, Bhatt discusses his upbringing in India, how he was influenced by his grandmother who grew up in pre-independence India, how he became involved in the TED talk ecosystem and how he hopes Indianapolis can take advantage of TEDSports.

 

Pete the Planner on the Social Security cliff and potential for benefit cuts

Since 1940, Social Security has provided a modest amount of money every month to retirees from a fund that collects payroll taxes on those who are still working. But the ratio of people who are employed to people who are retired has shrunk significantly in recent generations. According to the Social Security Administration, the fund will be depleted by 2035, eliminating any reserves, meaning retiree benefits will be paid directly from incoming taxes. That won’t be enough to satisfy all obligations to retirees, and their benefits will drop by an estimated 17%.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s drive to eliminate a huge chunk of the federal work force has sparked anxiety among retirees and the soon-to-be-retired. The announced cuts include a portion of those who work for the Social Security Administration. Trump’s team also wants to close dozens of Social Security field offices while tightening measures for Social Security candidates or recipients to prove their identities. Advocates for retirees say these changes could lead to massive delays for services.

IBJ personal finance columnist Peter Dunn, aka Pete the Planner, is our guest this week on the podcast to provide context and break down the issues that could have a serious impact on the tens of millions of retirees who receive Social Security. And here’s is a quick preview of Pete’s advice: If you’re planning for retirement right now, your best move is to save as if you won’t receive Social Security.

Former NBA exec on joining Pacers’ parent firm, Caitlin Clark’s potential, deal with Kevin Hart company

Joey Graziano was a senior vice president for the NBA with global responsibilities when he began working with Pacers Sports & Entertainment on the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis. The way he tells it, Graziano soon became convinced that the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever and the city of Indianapolis on the whole presented enormous potential for growth. Six months ago, he left the NBA and became the executive vice president of strategy and new business ventures for Pacers Sports & Entertainment. Just to refresh your memory, that’s the company controlled by the Herb Simon family that owns the Pacers and Fever.

Last month, PS&E announced a deal with Hartbeat, the production company founded by comedian and actor Kevin Hart, to produce live entertainment in conjunction with key dates on the schedules of the Pacers and Fever, as well as big events downtown. The first Hartbeat production, a music and comedy festival, will take place during WNBA All-Star Weekend in July in Indianapolis. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Graziano discusses preparations for the All-Star Weekend, the deal with Hartbeat, how Caitlin Clark and the rest of the Fever can make big strides in her second season, and how PS&E views several new projects by Gainbridge Fieldhouse as part of an overarching strategy. He also talks about growing up as the son of a New York City fireman, who instilled the value of offering your help where its most needed.

Tech founder on building teams, loving pivots, fostering startup hustle in high schools

Scott Lingle grew up in Indianapolis with parents who were always looking for a side hustle and ways to eliminate debt. Their entrepreneurial pursuits included flipping  houses—"I lived in 20 houses growing up," Lingle says—and rehabilitating a host of other products for resale. Scott Lingle knew early on that he wanted to be in sales. After a distinguished career in the insurance industry, he took a big entrepreneurial leap. In 2015, he co-founded Remodel Health, which after initial growing pains became one of fasting-growing firms in Indianapolis throughout the early 2020s. It was ranked 13^th on IBJ’s list in 2024, with a 123% increase in annual revenue between 2021 and 2023, topping out at nearly $15 million.

Lingle stepped down as CEO several years ago but stayed as board chairman while pursuing other interests and investing opportunities. Among his projects, he co-founded High School Hustle, an initiative to encourage Indianapolis students to start and grow businesses with the guidance of mentors who have done the same. It’s now in its second year and available at nearly 20 high schools. There’s a secondary goal that could be of benefit for the Indianapolis startup community: creating networks of well-established entrepreneurs who fund the students work and the younger business leaders who coach them.

In this week’s edition of the podcast, Lingle shares the lessons he learned about taking chances, building elite teams and embracing the quintessential entrepreneurial challenge of pivoting multiple times. He also lays out the strategy behind High School Hustle and its plans for national expansion.

Third-gen Indy hotelier on industry ups and downs, $43.5M Ball State project

Based in Indianapolis, the Schahet family has been managing and developing hotels since the 1960s. The family firm Schahet Hotels currently has nine properties in its portfolio, mostly in central Indiana, with a 10^th hotel under construction in Muncie and an 11^th in the final planning stages. There’s still room in the lodging industry for mom-and-pop hoteliers—although in this case it was father and son—who can amass significant holdings in particular niches and geographic areas. Family operators like the Schahets are an integral part of the Indy area’s hospitality fabric.

 

It is NOT an industry for the meek. Ask Greg Schahet, a third-generation Schahet hotelier who joined the family firm a few months before 9/11 and has since helped the company navigate the Great Recession, the pandemic and the current economic crunch from inflation and interest rates. As president and chief financial officer, he’s guiding development of the downtown Muncie project called The Cantio, a $43.5 million boutique-style hotel that represents a departure for the firm.

 

In this week’s edition of the podcast, Greg Schahet shares financial war stories from moments in the last three decades when it seemed like the industry had turned upside-down. He also talks strategy, including explaining why Schahet has such a high concentration of hotels near Indianapolis International Airport and why it went outside its comfort zone with the high-profile Cantio.

Marsh Davis on a career saving Indiana landmarks, bringing right people to the table

Indiana has been a national leader in historic preservation for decades. Hoosiers have a strong record for studying, cataloguing and saving homes, churches, farms, factories, covered bridges, monuments, courthouses, hotels, libraries and even entire commercial districts and neighborhoods deemed to have historic value. Since being founded in 1960, the nonprofit group Indiana Landmarks has promoted and supported historic preservation efforts, often positioned at or near the center of major projects or helping bring the right parties to the table and acting as an adviser. It has 43 full-time employees and nine field offices around Indiana and is considered the largest statewide historic preservation organization in America.

Marsh Davis has worked for Indiana Landmarks for 37 years—the last 19 of which as the group’s president. He is retiring on April 15 but is headed right back into historic preservation as the new owner of a large Victorian home in New Harmony that needs a considerable amount of work. Leading by example has been one of the themes of his tenure. His legacy includes the $24 million restoration of the former Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis. Finished in 2011, it became Lankmarks' statewide headquarters as well as a multi-space events venue in the city’s Old Northside Historic District.

With a handful of weeks left in Davis' tenure, IBJ Podcast host Mason King sat down with the outgoing president to discuss the value of historic preservation and its influence on Indianapolis; the projects that stand out over four decades; the one that got away; and how he hopes his tenure as president will be remembered.

The risks tariffs pose to Indiana’s manufacturing-heavy economy

Podcast listeners might remember about three months ago when regular guest Pete the Planner predicted that President Donald Trump’s plans for tariffs could have a pronounced effect on some elements of Indiana’s economy. Trump wasted little time once his second term began last month, imposing or thratening to impose a barrage of tariffs on many of America’s trading partners—and in particular Canada, Mexico and China, who are among Indiana’s top six importers of goods. For example, on Feb. 1, Trump said he would implement a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% additional tarif on imports from China. On Feb. 3, he agreed to a 30-day pause on tariffs against Mexico and Canada. On Feb. 9, Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. Those tariffs aren’t set to go into effect until March 12. However, as IBJ has learned from Indiana companies in the last several weeks, simply the threat of tariffs against a trading partner can be disruptive for American companies.

All of IBJ's reporters have been working on stories about tariffs, but we left the big picture to the newest addition to our reporting bullpen—someone who is uniquely qualified to investigate the interplay of tariffs and manufacturing. You might already be familiar with Daniel Lee, a longtime Indiana business journalist who also has significant experience in the state’s manufacturing sector. He’s making his debut on the IBJ Podcast this week to first give us a broad-based assessment of the risks posed by tariffs and then provide some specific examples of companies dealing with vulnerability to the effects of tariffs. That includes one major firm that largely has been able to inoculate itself against tariffs on important goods.

With billions at stake, hyperscale data centers become charged issue in Indiana

You don’t need to be too technically savvy to pick up on the charged atmosphere surrounding large-scale data centers. Various technology-heavy industries need data centers as a kind of way station and storage point for all the electronic information they generate and process. As technology evolves at a breakneck speed, the size of these centers grows. In October, the financial firm Blackstone forecast that over the next five years, the United States will see $1 trillion in data center investments.

Indiana really wasn’t on the map of the big tech firms, at least in terms of building centers, until very recently. In the last 14 months, seven data center projects have been announced for the state representing more than $15 billion in potential investment. Some Indiana legislators see them as huge economic development opportunities. Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, has said, quote, “I want every data center that we can get in the state of Indiana.” But the sudden surge in announced centers has generated a lot of concern as well about their drain on Indiana utilities and, in some cases, their water-intensive cooling systems.

Indiana lawmakers are considering a spate of bills regarding data centers in the current legislative session. IBJ technology reporter Susan Orr is our guest this week on the IBJ Podcast to get us current on the demand for data centers and how that’s manifesting in Indiana.

A preschool, a church, a pickleball palace—tracking the transformations of Indy’s vacant Marsh supermarkets

Founded in central Indiana, Marsh Supermarkets Inc. at its peak operated well over 100 stores, with a critical mass in the nine-county Indianapolis metro area. In 2017—11 years after a private equity firm took ownership—just 63 stores remained. Marsh declared bankruptcy in May 2017. From those 63 stores, Marsh closed the majority and sold 26 to Kroger and Needlers.

That left a lot of cavernous retail real estate on the market in the Indianapolis area, often occupying sites in shopping centers reserved for huge anchor tenants. But today you’d be hard-pressed to find more than a few vacant Marshes in the nine-county area. The vast majority are accounted for with new tenants or entirely new developments. And the range of solutions found for these sites is breathtaking. One Marsh became a preschool. Another became a church. A pickleball palace. A trampoline park. A headquarters for an IndyCar team. At least a couple spaces were split in two, making room for more specialized grocery stores.

After hearing news last week about the site of a former Beech Grove Marsh being redeveloped for a plumbing trade school, IBJ Podcast host Mason King called longtime local retail real estate broker Bill French. After 41 years, French has seen it all, and he has kept detailed records on how former Marsh spaces have been recast, revamped or replaced. Consider this week’s edition of the podcast a tour, as French explains the unique challenges of remaking a signature supermarket space.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The latest on downtown soccer stadium, $78M Fever facility and Simon hotel/concert venue

It’s time to unpack the latest developments in Mayor Joe Hogsett’s plan to establish a Major League Soccer team in downtown Indianapolis. Among other things, the team needs a stadium to play in. The city earmarked about 16 acres in the southeast quadrant of the Mile Square and held discussions with MLS officials. We were left with a cliffhanger: Can the city get state approval for the taxing district that would help pay for the stadium? 

That’s where we’ll kick off this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, but we’re going to cover much more ground in this sector of the Mile Square. That includes the newly announced, $78 million practice and training facility for the Indiana Fever, which will be developed less than a soccer pitch away from the prospective stadium site. In the other direction, the Fever facility will be catercorner to the campus containing Commission Row, Bicentennial Unity Plaza and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home of the Fever and the Indiana Pacers. A block to the west of Gainbridge is the future site of a $312 million development that will include a high-end hotel and a 4,000-seat concert venue. The next step in the development process for that project has already begun.

What do many of these latest developments in the southeast quadrant of the Mile Square have in common? Real estate developer Herb Simon and his family, who own a majority stake in the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever. In this week’s edition of the podcast, IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey walks us through all of the latest developments—or in some cases the lack of obvious progress—in this burgeoning sports, entertainment and hospitality sector of downtown.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.