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The process that led USA Group Inc. to announce the move of its corporate headquarters downtown could easily be compared to solving a jigsaw puzzle. And the state and the city provided the final, crucial pieces.
Early last week, the Fishers-based corporation finally ironed out all the details on a move it has been pursuing since 1992. IBJ reported last year that the deal was in the works.
The city will give USA Group most of the old L.S. Ayres building on South Meridian Street between Washington and Maryland streets, including all the south tower and the upper four floors of the north tower. The first four floors will be occupied by a Circle Centre mall anchor, Parisian.
In return, USA Group has committed to spend $14 million to $21 million to renovate the 340,0000 square feet of space it will occupy. The project is expected to be completed in spring 1997.
According to Roy Nicholson, chief executive officer of USA Group, the deal involved "a thousand details that needed to be nailed down." But the deal wouldn't have happened if the company hadn't been able to resolve three key issues favorably.
*Nicholson said a potential deal-killer was resolved with a pact USA Group reached with the state June 2. After two years of on-and-off discussions, the state agreed to transfer responsibility for the loan division of State Student Assistance Commission of Indiana to USA Group's affiliate, USA Funds.
The agreement makes USA Funds the designated financial guarantor of student loans in Indiana--a designation it already holds in eight other states.
USA Funds, the largest guarantor of student loans in the nation, already guarantees the majority of Indiana's student loans. But the contract will allow other USA Group subsidiaries to provide additional services, such as computer software or consulting services, to students, colleges and lenders in Indiana.
Nicholson said the designation will bring in millions of dollars in additional business to USA Group, helping fuel the company's rapid expansion.
"A lot of other states would have loved to have us locate our corporate headquarters in their state," Nicholson said. "We are the largest guarantor of student loans in the country, so it didn't make sense to make this kind of investment in Indiana without that...