Good news for Indianapolis local economy

[Guy Raveh]

Always good news when large companies invest in the local economy and development:

http://www.ibj.com/exacttarget-parent/PARAMS/artic...

ExactTarget parent wants to build office tower in Indianapolis

Jared Council

Salesforce.com, the customer relationship management firm that acquired Indianapolis-based ExactTarget Inc. last year, is looking to build an office tower in the city.

Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of the San Fransisco-based firm, told IBJ on Tuesday that the company is looking to build its fifth tower in Indianapolis. Benioff counted four signature towers in London, Paris, Tokyo and San Francisco, with the latter still under construction. (In a coincidental development Tuesday, London city officials prevented Salesforce from renaming the 46-story Heron Tower the Salesforce Tower.)

"We'd like to build a Salesforce tower in Indianapolis, we just haven't found the right opportunity yet," Benioff said in a brief interview after hosting a keynote presentation at ExactTarget's annual conference, Connections 2014.

"If we can find the right developer, the right piece of land, we'd love to have a Salesforce tower here."

IBJ reported in February that ExactTarget was evaluating downtown sites where it could build a headquarters tower as large as 500,000 square feet.

At the time, ExactTarget employed about 1,000 people downtown spread across 215,000 square feet in three locations: the Guaranty Building on Monument Circle, the Century Building at Pennsylvania and Maryland streets, and the Gibson Building at Michigan Street and Capitol Avenue.

The three leases have expiration dates ranging from 2016 to 2021, according to a filing ExactTarget made with the Securities and Exchange Commission in early 2013.

Marc Lotter, spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, said the city has not seen any proposal by Salesforce. But he noted that city, real estate and other leaders had been discussing for years the prospect of a new space for the rapidly growing ExactTarget.

Benioff