Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Today was the topping-off ceremony for the new Conrad Hotel Indianapolis. How awesome is it to have an internationally reknowned luxury hotel brand going up here in Indy before it goes to Chicago or Atlanta or DC or LA or Denver, or even Cincy, KC, St Louis, Minneapolis?

This place is going to be great. Will really cater to the upper crust crowd, probably lots of celebrities, big business people, and the richies who come to town for the races (especially F1).

Now, if I could just scrape up the cash to stay one night there...

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I will admit that scrounging up enough cash for one night became an objective once I learned about this place. I've never stayed in a 5 star. When is this place supposed to open?

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

Indy wrote:

I will admit that scrounging up enough cash for one night became an objective once I learned about this place. I've never stayed in a 5 star. When is this place supposed to open?
Might be an objective of mine as well... once some other bills are paid off...

I think I read somewhere the Conrad opens in the Fall of 2006.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

The next 3 years will be interesting here. It will feature....

Opening of the Conrad
Opening of the new Central Library
Opening of the new Stadium
Opening of the new Airport

What else?

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

A380s start rolling into FedEx. Not sure any other airline that comes into Indy has any on order. Or any need for such a large plane, for that matter.

That will be an interesting sight. And I believe the main reason for the new 15,000 foot runway planned for the south side of I-70.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

15,000 feet???? You have got to be kidding me. That big? The A380 passenger version is able to use the existing parallel runways at IND. But then again an A380 loaded with cargo is probably a great deal heavier. When is the new runway supposed to be constructed? The original plan I saw called for the runway in 2007 but after 9/11 the FAA docs were revised and that runway was pushed out beyond 2015 or 2020. Whats the scoop?

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

They expect the A380 to gross something like 1,200,000 pounds at takeoff in cargo configuration, including fuel, for a trans-Pacific flight departing from IND (likely most flights will have a stopover in Ancorage, though). You may be right on the FAA pushing back construction of the new runway.

I do know that FedEx is taking delivery of eight A380s in late 2007 or early 2008. At least one of them (likely more) that I know of will be flying out of IND.

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 4
Location:

I'm really suprised that FedEX is still expanding at IND.

At one time (a couple years ago), there was a lot of complaints about noise polution. Wonder what ever became of the issue?

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

sendMEtoLAS wrote:

At one time (a couple years ago), there was a lot of complaints about noise polution. Wonder what ever became of the issue?
There was an agreement reached with Hendricks County that planes taking off westbound had to climb to a certain altitude within like 5 miles.

The new runway (south of I-70) will direct westbound takeoffs in a West-northwesterly direction that will take planes over mainly industrial areas of eastern Hendricks County prior to getting enough altitude that the noise pollution is cut to acceptable levels.

At least, that is my understanding.

And yes, the FedEx hub in Indy stands at approx 5,500 employees with an additional 500-700 (mostly entry-level, part-time) jobs coming with the next expansion (I believe having something to do with International cargo going to Asia). The Memphis hub was at 6,700 employees last time I checked.

There are now operations conducted at the FedEx hub 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

This started as a Conrad topic but quickly became a Fedex topic so I moved it to the Fedex forum.

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

Indy wrote:

This started as a Conrad topic but quickly became a Fedex topic so I moved it to the Fedex forum.
Good move...

And here I was about to post a few pictures of the Conrad-to-be that I took this evening... well, once the wife gets them uploaded to our site...

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Tell her she is slacking

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

The Eastside of the Conrad from across Illinois Street (standing in front of the Wm H Block Building).

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

Northside of the Conrad, putting a piece of the ediface in place on the west side of the building.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Shesh.. now that I move the topic into Fedex cuz it turned into a Fedex conversation you post the pics. lol. I'll just move it back to where it was and just forget it ever got moved.

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

Same shot a few seconds later, without the zoom.

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

From the other side...

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Thanks for the good pics. I guess I am going to have to drive myself downtown one day and check out the work.

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 4
Location:

Is that the hotel that the construction workers are picketing? Meridian ST?

I was driving through downtown last week durring the day and the picketers were certainly upset. Very vocal.

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 22
Location:

sendMEtoLAS wrote:

Is that the hotel that the construction workers are picketing? Meridian ST?

I was driving through downtown last week durring the day and the picketers were certainly upset. Very vocal.
These were taken yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon/evening, and I don't recall seeing any picketers. The Conrad is going up at the corner of Washington and Illinois, directly behind the Emmis building, and will be attached to Circle Centre Mall via the Artsgarden.