They Built Indiana’s First Wellness Lifestyle Community

It's not just a place to live. It's a community to join. Residents are encouraged to love their neighbors as themselves.

You look at the deep end and you just fully like diving board cannonball in and here you are.

We want to be the best and we want our clients to have a great experience. That's really our goal. We strive to do that.

What has been one of the most challenging pieces of the last 39 years that you've had to like look in the eyes and get through

from South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Before we get into the show, I need to remind you that today's episode is brought to you by my friends at NCW. You might remember when I had Dan Natalie on the show, talking about how they built a national staffing and recruiting company over the past 25 years, specializing in skilled trades. They are looking for new members to join their team.

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Today I'm joined by Isaac and Mike Duke who lead Duke Homes. Now Duke Homemes is a family-driven customdesigned home builder here in Bgersville Center Grove area just south of Indianapolis and they have nearly 40 years of experience shaping communities. They are known for their award-winning work on neighborhoods like Aberdine, Indiana's first wellness lifestyle community. The Dukes balance tradition and innovation while keeping strong ties to their Hoosier roots that run eight generations deep. Nine generations deep. Together, they've created homes that are all about people and timeless designs.

We're going to learn about the evolution of this business and building homes here in central Indiana over the last 40 years. Uh talk about, you know, the legacy that runs deep here in the Hoosier State and talk a little bit more about Indiana's first wellness lifestyle community at Aberdine. Gentlemen, welcome to the show.

Thank you. We're happy to be here,

guys. This is excit. We we literally got into talking family lineage before we started recording. And your kids are the grandkids right now are ninth generation hooers.

Mhm.

So, one thing that I've learned, especially as I've traveled around southern Indiana, is that family farms, uh, once they hit the hundred year, like the century mark, they can get plaques. Once they hit 150 years, I think they get pl and there might be one for 200 years, too. I'm not sure if we've gotten there yet. U, I think it's like we're getting close to being there with some of them. So you guys are the proud owners of a multi-generation family farm here in Indiana. How many years?

Revolutionary War family's been in the area. So that's where I grew up. That's my roots. Uh you know, farming and and always love that. Love love the land, love our area. Feel like that's where God put us, you know. Amen.

U so you know today I don't you know I think it was 1994 is the last year I did all the combining and planting planting corn and soybeans. So today my my dad you know had retired from a lumber company he was a CFO at and my younger brother they they run run the farm now you know I still have some still have some land and we have a bunch of cattle and grandkids do show steers and all that stuff but that's but uh but yeah I don't I don't get to do the dayto-day and my dad and brother keeping that going right now. So

that's awesome. Uh how big is your family? Like how many brothers and sisters?

I just have one one brother.

Okay. So, we got a a home builder and we have the farmer. That's I mean, talk about just like the craftsman. That's pretty cool. I do have to know like Center Grove today, you think big high school, obviously Carson Steel, previous guest of the podcast. Um, known for being a big school. I mean, when did you graduate from Center Grove?

I was 1982, you know, Center Grove, but I, you know, I grew up, uh, you know, back the Hoosier hysteria. You know, I vividly remember 1972 when we got to the semi-state and Guy Ogden hit the shot, you know, to move us into the, you know, to the final eight.

This is single. This is Oh, to the final.

This This was the just Yeah. Just when when it was the real basketball tournament,

different classes.

Yeah. No classes.

And and people There are some that really hate class basketball.

Yeah. I'm one of those.

There you go. But but so it was so cool because that was you know the whole community went went to the games. I mean you had to have reserved seats you know if we went to a regional we had to have everybody went to the lottery from from the community and to the gym to see if you got tickets pulled so you can go to the regional.

Isn't this crazy?

I mean it's so different. We all followed the buses you know everybody decorated their cars. So I grew up around that and I still love our our our you know our school and our community. It's just Yeah. And the area has always been agricultural, especially, you know.

Yeah.

Back then. And your parents went to Center Grove and

Yeah, my grandparents went to grandparents.

So, how big was like your graduating was your graduating class from Center Grove?

Mine was 364. So, we were we were at that time period where we're like in a one of the fastest growing schools in the in the state at that time. So,

what are the big what are the big industries that were fueling the south side of Indianapolis? Well, we're I mean, you know, like I said, we're one of the hidden gem areas right there, too, because we're so close to Indianapolis. We're just south of Indianapolis. We're very accessible to the airport. Then you've got Bloomington where you have our, you know, our Hoosiers down there. And then u and then Columbus. So, you've got Cummings there in Columbus. You got Cook and some other things at at at Bloomington. We got Eli Liy here in the south side. Just access to downtown is so much easier.

Yeah. And you're technically in Johnson County, right?

Yes, we're Johnson County.

I always thought it was interesting, too, but Center Grove still plays in like the county tournaments and stuff. Like it's very interesting dynamic on the south side and like and southsiders are really proud to be from the south side, which I similar to like they don't maybe get as much love as like the north side of Indianapolis, you know, like the Caramel and the Fisers and maybe not as many like national awards for

XYZ things. Um, but it is interesting that Southsiders are like, "Yeah, you're close to Columbus. You're close to Bloomington. The lakes that are down there,

close to Nashville, Indiana." Yeah.

One of my favorite spots. Um, so I have to say, Mike, what started you down this road of custom home building?

Well, I, you know, I went to I have a degree from Indiana University, uh, finance degree in real estate. You know, my desire was always to be involved in agriculture and and helping run the farm in some manner. By the time I got out, me and some guys were talking about uh buying a house and fixing up, you know, and just selling, just trying to figure out if, you know, we're all young, trying to figure out what we're going to do, hustle and all that. And my dad says, "Why don't you just build one?" So, this is really cool. But, you know, one of our one of our farms that we farm, he was the chairman of the board of the old like Burgersville State Bank.

and and I end up getting a 100% loan uh to do a spec and and it was only on two pages. It was all the bank docs. Today they're like, you know, like a book, but um yeah, I built that and sold it before it was done and just sort of took off. So,

what was that based on? Like you go in, this is 1986.

Yeah.

You go into Berserville State Bank. Is that still around?

No.

You go in there though and you say, "I want to build a home."

Yeah. I I just gra I don't have a ton of experience necessarily, but like why did they give you the money?

Well, I mean, my dad was in the industry, you know, what he what he did, Carly Lumber Company and growing up around that. My mom was a was a controller too at a small lumber company in Bgersville and, you know, just just family and so my dad helped co-sign on it, too, of course. But but uh but yeah, no, that uh

but they gave you that opportunity and that's one special piece of smaller communities.

Yeah, it's different now in banking. Back then you would you know, they would do that kind of stuff. Today, it's just so much more regulated. Yeah, it's a lot tougher.

It is interesting, too. But like even working with like regional banks versus working with like cha Chase is like it's it's like you if you the numbers don't math then like we don't do it versus if you you know find some of these smaller regional banks or you know local they're like they're more willing to like know like bet on people's character a little bit.

Yeah, they are. They want to be in the community more.

So, did you build this house by yourself? I'm smart enough to know that I'm not going to swing the hammer, but but I was fortunate grow, you know, growing up, I used to doodle floor plans in elementary. I didn't know why. I did have some architectural drafting classes in high school. So, I did I did like that growing up in the industry and and uh but yeah, I was skill sets, right?

Yeah, I was fortunate to know people that know things or things. So, I was just able to make some good uh good connections and and yeah, it was it was awesome. I like growing things. So, this is sort of similar, you know, growing a growing a house.

Yeah. Were you nervous? Like your dad goes in to help you build this thing, uh, you're 100% from the like if this thing if if something breaks or it doesn't work right or you don't get it built or like the foundation is uneven, you know, like you're on the line for it.

I believe everything I should do always should be done with excellence. I mean, I believe that, you know, that's what God's word says. So, wanted to do that. maybe I'm I was too overconfident, but I knew, you know, I knew where I I knew people that that, you know, was able to help me and uh uh so I wasn't afraid to ask some questions and and so on. So, but then after it started taking off and I started having clients coming in, it's like, you know, you're sitting there and you're sitting there in the office, they come in, they have no idea who who I who I am, but they start seeing our signs and they come in, it's like, you know, they look at you, you're just a 23 or 24 year old snotnosed kid. How are you going to build our house? Yeah.

So, it was it was difficult in the beginning, but it was it was a lot of fun. I mean, you had a lot of grind, a lot of

lot you had to put in a lot of hours, so I just had to do a lot of learning.

Did you like know you wanted to be an entrepreneur from the beginning?

Oh, yeah. I'm always I was always pitching ideas to my dad. Yeah.

All that stuff, too. So, I have the entrepreneurial mindset. What would you say to the entrepreneurs that might be listening

that are maybe still on the sideline and like not quite to the point to like, you know, go and take out this bank loan to build this house that that maybe will come together and what would you say to them to get them off the sideline?

You got to take some chances and, you know, but they need to be calculated well and you need to have good people around you to say, "Hey, if this is really stupid, they're going to tell you, not just let you go and do something you shouldn't do." But uh but I think it's just surrounding yourself with good people and you know getting some uh some feedback and and being willing to take take a take a take a chance.

I think that yeah it takes some serious courage especially like I feel like today everyone like wants to be an entrepreneur and it's like a side hustle this but this is you graduate college and you're like you know what this is what we're going to do. How quickly did you know that this was going to be like a a multi-deade career path for you?

Yeah. I mean, you're just starting out. You're not really thinking that far ahead. But my thought was I always wanted to take care of everybody and do everything right. So, it wasn't about that making every squeezing every dollar you could out of something. You always want to do it right. So, if there's something that needs corrected, you take care of it. You take care of people. If you take care of people, they're going to, you know, the word's going to get around. You're going to have good word of mouth and and you know, so I think we've been very blessed uh by by doing that.

Isaac, what do you remember about your dad? you know, growing this business as you were growing up. And did you know that you wanted to get into the family business right away?

We celebrated 35 years uh

four years ago. Yeah.

Four years ago. And we threw a surprise celebration for him. And I remember telling everyone uh that was at that that uh looking back um it was very impressive to you know see someone who spent so much time invested into building a business but who was also somehow always there for all of our sporting events um who was always there for us teaching us things uh in 4 helping us you know raise cattle and do projects. So, it was great to grow up with a role model who knows how to work hard and at the same time knows how to be there for their family. And um it was great just kind of getting to observe that being on the job sites at, you know, when I was in high school, I finally got to be out there and kind of cleaning up on on sites and working through the summer. And

this is finally got to I'm sure that's how you said it when you were in high school, too. Like, I finally get to, Dad. Yeah, I can't wait.

Uh I I was able to job shadow some of the different people. Um, but I never had the mindset of I'm going to come back here and make this a career. Um, that was never a thought.

Well, I want to get to that in one second. I want to dive into what you said there about a a lot of times in, you know, this is 2025, the hustle culture, the like never stop working. And I can be guilty of it too like there'll be times that I'll just, you know, start working and not stop working like you know 8 to 8 or whatever. What would you say like and often that can be uh the Achilles heel of some entrepreneur like how many of the most famous entrepreneurs do you know that have had

two three plus marriages you know their kids hate them like all these different like I think I I just finished Steve Jobs's biography and like his I think his daughter like still like till the day he died like did not like him like they did not get along

I think multiple wives all this whole thing

what do you say to like entrepreneurs or how do you think about prioritizing izing family, prioritizing your business like like not even though like okay I'm building this business to have something for my family and to provide and all these things

but like still showing up for you know games and stuff.

Take that back to you know my faith. So I mean when we started my my wife uh and I u

which we got married just about a year after I started but you know the whole thing of doing

doing the business yeah we got married and then we're going to wait a while to have kids but some way or another we end up having two kids before our first wedding anniversary cuz his older brothers are twins identical twins so doing that starting a business trying to still run the farm and and everything. Yeah I was probably not the not the best help at that time. You looked at the deep end and you said, "Let's do it." And you just fully like diving board cannon balled in and here you are.

Yeah. But I mean that's me and my wife, you know, when we started, we wanted this to be a ministry, too. So whenever you do something like that, you want everything, you know, and do everything with excellence. Do your best you can. Yeah. I did have to put a lot of time in. I mean, we would come home from church, you know, we moved probably seven or eight times the first seven or eight years of marriage. Um, you know, so we come home from church. Hey Marcia, take the kids and go to your mom's or my mom's. The house is open. So

for like a an open show,

we're going to sell that house. So we had to do that. Get jobs. So I mean we just had to had to hustle. We had to do

like living in the houses.

It's like a model home that they you know would live in.

Yeah.

No way.

So yeah. So I mean you just have to have to do that. But we're just, you know, we're we're very very devoted and all that stuff to each other. So yeah, I mean I can see how that can go

ary for a lot of people. But but you know, we're we're you know, we're focused on

on, you know, the ministry side of it and God. So that keeps you together.

Yeah. It's like young Isaac's like got crayons on the wall and dad's like, "Oh my god,

no. We have people coming in to see."

That only happened twice.

Yeah. Right. Okay. So, how long into it, right, did you get to a sense of like stability? So, you said you moved seven or eight times within the first cuz you needed the model home and you were moving through there. When did it like all kind of shape up of like, okay, this is this is we're we're doing well here. Things are going right.

Yeah. You get glimpses of that and then all of a sudden there's like a you know the Gulf War or 911, you know, so you can almost plan on at least once every 10 years there's going to be some downturn.

Yeah.

So doing that and then we came into the 2006 time we started noticing things and I think just

What do you mean you started noticing things? Well, it's just basically there were so many production homes being built and and uh what was happening was

take us through that actually like custom homes uh semicustom homes, production homes, what's the difference there and and what do you guys specialize in?

Yeah. Well, we're we're a total custom design home builder and we have our architects on staff. So, rarely do we ever build the same house twice, which that's really cool. So I mean we might do a flank Lloyd Wright type style some sort of baj house total you know very modern type home or you know farm I mean so that that's what's really cool everything we do

so like if I came in to build a home with you guys it's like you start from zero

correct

like okay what do you want

yeah we go through your wish list your you know we want to look at your site make sure we're designing based off of that. Now, the difference with a production builder or semi-production, they already have plans already pre-priced. You're not going to change much. You might get to make it some selections, but you're not going to say, "Hey, I want to add on here." They don't really let you do that. Sort of frowned upon.

So, you know, that's just a little bit more cookie cutter. Boom, boom, boom. Well, what was happening there in the mid 2000s? I mean, that it was so easy to get a loan, how it was sort of set up and and so many young people were just buying. This is my theory anyway, we're just going and buying the production homes, they're not going to appreciate quite as much because they're, you know, still selling all of them to. So, they're sort of there.

They're sort of stuck a little bit. You know, then the rates started going up some, too. And then a lot of them couldn't make mortgage payments. But what was happening, you know, people were were just going and buying those homes and they weren't going and buying like the older nicer existing homes and then but and those people the people in those existing homes were probably more of our clientele.

So they weren't able to sell their home sell their homes. So they were having a hard time building ours and then you had the crash and all that type of stuff.

So you know take us through that. Well, one I think in you think of like life cycle of when someone builds a home. It's like you probably have your starter home, maybe like an early family home, and then you know, you get I don't know what's like that like into your 30s or 40s when you think about building a home. Like I feel like there's not many, you know, 28-year-olds that are like, "Yeah,

second house. Let's let's build one, you know, but I mean

cool like would be awesome if you build something for for longevity there." So you talk about they get kind of stuck in those in those like medium, you know, homes because of that whole thing and then the crash comes and you are a custom home builder

through 2008, 2009.

Yeah. All through then.

I mean, we're developing, we actually develop subdivisions too on top of that. So you might not ever miss a payment, but your bank starts struggling because of a lot of the other situations they're in. And then they get sold and then, you know, then if you're a builder or developer, you're a bad guy to the new banks because they've sold all that portfolio at a reduced rate. Then they start keep coming at you and you're having to try to move things or pay things off. So it was a pretty miserable time. But yeah, thank the Lord we made it through.

What uh what age were you at uh during this 2008? Let's dive into there for a little bit.

15 16. you're like old enough to understand the like what's going on.

Yeah.

You're in the real estate business.

2008 comes

and a nice thing about that was that was all the time where his older brothers just started college cuz they graduated high school in ' 07. So somewhere another through all that we're able to get them all through college and do everything too. So that that was huge.

Talk to me about when you realized that like things weren't like this was going to be a challenging couple years. Well, his older brothers, we were going to do like a, you know, the high school is going to be able to do like an intern type ship thing. And I was wanting to build a spec so they could be involved doing that. And we had several of them up at that time and was like, hey, we better not do this. We better start trying to sell everything we already have, you know? So, we're able to do that. Sell the specs we had. And

when you say spec, what does that mean?

Building a home without a buyer.

It's a speculative build. Yeah. Yeah. You you build it and you put it like you're like, "Okay, we now own this house." Like, "Now, let's find a buyer."

Yeah. Cuz some some people don't want to go through the process or they're just moving into town, so they'll look at some already built homes or partially built.

Okay. Some people are Yeah. They'll they'll want to buy a home now, right? They can't go through the process, but it's still a custom home. It's It's higher quality. It's It has all these things.

We just make the selections versus they did.

Yeah. Which honestly, dude, sometimes I don't want that many choices, you know? like I want something that's really nice and quality, but it's like if someone asked me like, "Yeah, what size do you want your countertop?" I'm like, "Bro, I don't know." Um, okay. So, you're going through this and you know, kind of like the bottom falls out of real estate, I feel like, and you're sitting there, you're moving trying to move specs,

but and so two questions here. One is like take us through that timeline of

the hardest times of it to where you saw light at the end of the tunnel. And two, talk to us about the difference between being a developer or you're like the development arm of a neighborhood versus the obviously the the custom home builder is like you are constructing the homes like we know that part but what is being the developer entire?

Well, I mean we're not you know you're young enough and you're not just doing it all by cash. So you have so you have loans you know if interest rates go up or have to make payments on

on the land like where you're going to put this neighborhood.

Yeah. So you get you you know you get stuck with monthly monthly interest payments and so on too. Then we do do large principal payments as we would sell lots but

but yeah no it it came one of our neighborhoods right across from the Center Grove High School. I mean we were closing

almost five lots a month

you know it's going super well and it's like boom it just stopped and you don't you know then maybe you're selling

one or two or three lots a year.

A year.

Yeah. I mean, that's how it stop. I mean, it just abruptly stopped. I mean, you're used to having, you know, right now with Isaac in all the stuff we do, counting leads, all that stuff. It means it's like your phone ringing someone every day. It's like, well, I mean, if you get someone calling once a month, it was like exciting.

Yeah. It was just it just went it went it was the spend your time doing like what what was taking up the majority of your time back then? working on business, trying to see things we can get better at and just try and survival because we also had, you know, we also have commercial sides and everything else too. So just trying to get rid of properties and do whatever you can to to survive. So that's pretty much pretty much it. Doing a lot of praying. I know that. So

Amen. Where did you see the light at the end of the tunnel from that?

I think it started more in a I mean it went through in my opinion close to 2012 14 range. I mean, it was that long of a struggle time.

Wow.

And uh we did start another little development. I've always thought if you can have lots, you're going to probably have jobs if you have some really good good lots. So, we were able to work a deal with another, you know, since being in our area where we're at, we either know the land, you know, land owners pretty well. So, but yeah, we had someone was wanting to sell their property, so we're able to work a deal with out on them, paying it off as we sold lots and and that kept us going right there. So, that was good. Is it hard to balance? Like you come from the agriculture side and a lot of times farmers do not like developers, builders. Uh we talked about on the north side. Oh my gosh. Okay, this is a true story. I was talking with uh Clint Mitchell of Estridge and

Sheridan Baker's Corner up there like way north used our podcast like we put clips up. They used it at one of their town meetings talking about like his like he's talked about in 10 years he assumed like it's just going to keep creeping north and they uh they used it in a town meeting and he had text me about I was like oh my god I never envisioned that our podcast would be used in town meeting but like a lot of times yeah farmers like don't

that's a really good question.

It's a very good question. It's it's difficult

especially with a farm background.

Yeah. I mean, cuz we're we're, you know, I'm riding a fence on both sides, but the way we've looked at it, the way I've always looked at it is our community is growing. We love our community. I'd much rather try to help shape and design it with with as many nice things and and and and in areas, which I in a thoughtful way, right?

Yeah. In a thoughtful way that's that's going to be beneficial to our area. So, it's it's coming. I'd rather be the one doing it versus someone from out of town coming in that doesn't really care about the community and just trying to come in and make the quick buck and get out. We're trying to do it in a way that enhances

like it's going to happen.

It's going to happen.

And I don't even think that's like that's not a good enough reason either, right? Like just but doing it in a thoughtful way where you know we talk about the farm background. Our newest neighborhood Aberdine has an aggra component to it because we want to keep that feel to the area. every subdivision that he's developed has been thoughtful in the way of trying to work it into the current landscape around the nature, the ponds, the trees, whatever, rather than just coming in and,

you know, wiping everything out.

Aberdine is super unique in the fact you talked about Agrahood, you talked about the healthy wellness community. Uh, talk to me through like cuz this is kind of a unique concept. So, take us through like the how how this project came to life. Well, this this might really tie what we were talking about together, too. So, in the ' 0706 range, you were going to develop this large master planned community named The Abbey.

Uh, it was going to be a golf golf community.

Um,

like, was there a course there yet?

No, we we had it planned. So, we were working with a really well-known designer that loved the site and cut his price up front. Didn't even and didn't even want a down payment. We didn't even ask him that. He just loved the property so much. So, so thankfully you didn't start that.

Yes.

Before before the recession came and then um you know 10 10 years later when he's gone through this survival mode and kind of coming back into this what's next mode. Um looking at where Aberdine is today. We were talking about how do we make this special? How can we bring this back to the drawing board and and how can we be thoughtful about this? How can we one make it different and unique, but two, how do we make it a place that benefits the community and is uh helps the community thrive, the people who live there thrive?

And when we were we were looking at different ideas that exist around the country, one that came to mind was a wellness lifestyle community. And then there were also these aggrauds that existed. So an aggra is a neighborhood that is centered around a working farm within the neighborhood, which is really cool. You can have, you know, the the farm-to-table living. And you can have animals there that the kids go out and kind of, you know, they can pet, they can feed, whatever. Um, uh, get out of their house, get out into nature.

Does one of the like, uh, does one of the residents have to be like the steward of the farm?

There's a farm manager, um, that works uh, at the farm. So,

no way. That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

So, you just get like So, instead of having like a botchi ball or whatever in the center, you guys have a farm,

right? Yep.

Okay. So you had seen these healthy wellness

wellness lifestyle communities

wellness lifestyle communities and aggrauds and you said let's take some pieces of that

and bring this to what was almost a golf course.

Yep. Yep. And just beautiful property.

Right. And what wellness lifestyle community means is we're trying to help connect people to their their neighbors and to nature in some way and and have an active lifestyle. Yeah.

So if you look at we could approach this from two different angles. could talk uh scientifically how that's beneficial, right? All the studies, we could talk from a faith perspective why we think that is helpful. But

research shows if you're you're out in green space or in the woods or near water at least uh I think it's like 15 minutes a day or like 120 minutes a week. Um it shows you can get better sleep, you have less stress, um it's better for you physically, mentally, psychologically, it's just it's better for you. And so kind of trying to tie this into the community was important to us. And then same thing with social, right? Uh getting people connected to their neighbors so they're not just driving in to their house, closing the garage door, and not talking to the people around them. That's not healthy.

Yeah. And sometimes with like the neighborhood stuff too, it's kind of like that, you know? It's you're close, but you're like, "Oh, like you can maybe give them a wave or whatever, but you're not." versus like I grew up in a small town 15,600 people and it was like everyone like you had like you would ride your bike around the neighborhood and you know stop at so and so's house and then those people's grandparents would give you some candy and blah blah blah blah like it was

I don't know I loved growing up like that it was very very cool and it does seem I love Indianapolis it's great but it's like I don't know like there's this whole thing of like how often are you going to let like a 10-year-old like just like walk around and like

there's not a lot of that going on

no I I think this feels like Barkersville where it's located is a very safe place. The neighborhood is in a safe place and then at night it's a gated community as well which I think helps people feel

okay. So what does it mean to be part of this Aberdeen community?

I think we say it's it's not just a place to live, it's a community to join.

And so I think what we would mean by that is we're trying to help it become a place we're trying to foster, you know, an environment where residents are encouraged to love their neighbors as themselves. And we do that in many different ways and provide different avenues for people to have spontaneous interactions, right? So we have monthly programmed activities. Uh we have the neighborhood farm, we have a park with pickle ball courts and tennis court. We have a a dog park and then two miles of nature trails.

So it's almost like building a neighborhood that's also got like a little bit of small town like Mayberry component to it.

Yep.

Which which isn't easy to manufacture, right? It's, you know,

it's almost impossible to manufact like especially coming from the top down like you're like, "Oh, you're all going to love each other." And like that's kind of hard to do unless you get the like the foundation.

You hope you attract people who want to be a part of that. Right.

And like so is there like this might be a silly question, but it's like usually when you think about joining a neighborhood, does your credit score align? Do you have a down payment? Like la do you have a job? But like is there like a an application process or how does that work? No, it's just I mean anyone can move in there, right? It's we're not gatekeeping in any way who can be a part of the neighborhood, but we hope by casting the vision that the people who associate themselves with with that same vision will will end up there.

Yeah. Like if you're a recluse, like you probably won't be attracted to live in the healthy living.

We'll get we'll get several of those, but hopefully, you know, not a majority.

Yeah. And it's like well one because it's just like a beautiful property obviously like that part is is something but I do think it's like you know just yeah you're casting this out like this is a place for people that want to know their neighbors that want to love their neighbors as themselves like that is very very cool there are there other are there any other places like that in Indiana?

This is Indiana's first wellness lifestyle and neighborhood.

We launched it in 2019 and at that point uh we we couldn't find any others that existed out there. Was it uh the first domino? Like getting the first person like how how was that?

Any neighborhood just getting started uh you know usually a little difficult in our neighborhood is is out of the way. So it's not like you're u you know you're just not driving past it to go to Morgantown or Brown County. It's out of the out of the way the south the southern end of the school district of Center Grove just west of Barberville. So you know sort of arranged and sort of worked some things out. We have Walnut Grove Elementary across the road and and we hosted the 2021 Homearama. Yeah.

You know, so you get a lot of people out there. So we do a lot of different events throughout the year too at the at the farm there. We'll have we actually have a big Christmas u lights thing. We'll have like a competition. All the residents have the opportunity to light their home up, decorate, and

kind of like that movie, you know, where it's like I want my home to be seen. That's sick. But we have harvest festivals, you know, corn roast, uh, all sorts of things. We do have an active market at the at the farm that we have like an event barn there. We actually have little gardens we're growing things. We have our, you know, so our sort of our nice cow calf herd is just right there off to have a couple retired rodeo horses. We have chickens being ra, you know, raising eggs right there. So the neighbors and we actually have it open to the public can come in and buy things at the little market now, too. So that hopefully helps bring people in. We have a lot of farmers markets.

It's a little farm store.

Yes, it's a little farm market. We had a you know, we have little monthly farm markets to uh you know, little farmers markets. Farmers markets. So, last night there's a lot of tents and different things set up for that.

Wow.

You know, food trucks. So, it it's it's a it's a cool place to go visit.

That's so unique, right? Cuz it's like sometimes, you know, uh a neighborhood or anything like that will be like it's, you know, once a month they bring in food trucks, which is cool. Like it's that's part of it and you're taking steps toward it, but like building out this unique community where it's rooted in this and like you know it's like okay you you're down you said west of

just right just right out west of Bersville South Center

and it's like I don't know where's the like you can just like run over and get some eggs at the farm store. That's pretty cool.

And we have other little treats too. I mean we have an orchard growing. We have bees out there so we're starting to grow our own honey. We grew a lot of popcorn last year. Our own popcorn. So,

I feel like today too it's like the idea of having a green thumb is cool. Like I the idea of gardening very very cool

by practice I'm horrible at it. I can't keep a house plant alive. Like so the idea of being able to like go over and pick something and got like a little bit of fruit somebody else's labor, you know,

and and we sell beef in there, too. So you can come in there and buy a ribe eyes or whatever to go grill that night. So I mean that's beef that we're actually raising right there. I want to take a minute to tell you about my friends at JC Hart and the opportunity that they are giving to get in listeners. They are offering summer savings of up to two months off of rent at these brand new communities, East Bank and Noblesville, The Edge on the north side of Indie, and Wheelhouse in Westfield. If you're looking for an awesome place to live, you need to hit up my friends at JC Hart.

Go to homeisjart. com/nate and check out all their cool properties. Or if you know someone that's looking for an apartment here in central Indiana, send that link to them and JC Art can take them on a personalized tour. You know me, I'm all about Indiana and JC Art is as hooer as it gets and they do some amazing things in our community. They also wanted me to let you know that they are always looking for awesome people to join their team. They just made the list of best places to work in Indiana for the 13th time.

Check out their open positions at homejart. com. Now, let's get back into the episode. Incredible. So, this launched 2019.

Mhm. you're I mean now six years into it. How have things been going?

Been been very blessed. So yeah, it's it's just important just to you know keep letting people know about it as we're trying to grow it and

yeah we we've tried to develop about a section a year of the neighborhood, right? It's not all done at one time. It's we develop a section

and then develop the next section and and I think we've beat that pace so far. So that's been nice. And there's still quite a bit to go.

Um so it's a long project. Um

it's 500 acres. Holies.

But there's probably close to 100 families uh in the neighborhood now

of about 400 that can be

like there's a total of four.

That's the thing. These are long-term projects, you know, like you don't get into development with like a short if you're shortsighted. It's like this is a a decade long thing

and they're a little larger lot. So we're not like just squeezing you right on top of each other. So they probably average about an acre. We do have an area where there's like halfacre lots, which that's our small lots, which those are huge in some subdivisions. Yeah. And we have some lots, you know, two or three acres. So, it it's it's a really good mix for, you know, one spouse that wants a a neighborhood living and the other spouse sort of wants to live in the country. We've seen a lot of people settle here because it sort of covers both.

Yeah. you get a good hybrid like you're not just totally out in the in the boonies as uh my grandma would say, but uh but you also have that like you're not right on top of each other. Uh you have the farms you and like I don't know being able to send your kids out to just like hey like

let's go pet the horse today or whatever, you know, that's kind of cool.

It's been nice for multi-generational living as well, right? So there's like he was talking about there's a variety of lots sizes but also you know some flat lots, some wooded hilly lots. Um so to be able to get different different things for different people. So there's I mean there's retirees, there's young families, there's uh professionals, right? So I think there's even people who you know their parents live in the neighborhood uh and then they their

family we have several of those. We've already had several where they're already building their second house in the neighborhood where they're moving on back to another larger lot or something. And we

That's pretty cool.

Uh and that's another part of special about like small towns is like, oh, we'll just drop the kids over at grandma's today,

right? And I think that's important if we isolate ourselves too much to just the people who are just like us, right? That could be bad for community. But if you have, you know, younger, you know, families, you have, you know, middle-aged families, you have, you know, some elderly people all together in one place, we we get to learn from each other and

and, you know, be encouraged by one another in different ways.

Very cool. I mean, Isaac, one interesting piece of your background is, you talked about not wanting to join the family business. You kind of went out, you worked in tech, you did all these crazy things. You ended up coming back and joining the family business. what got you excited and why did you end up coming back to join the family business?

My dad and I had spoken several times uh over the years and he had mentioned uh you know multiple times. I can remember a specific time when we were in Dallas where he said something to me along the lines of I think you would be good at at this. I you have this creative mind um but you also you know see things in a logical way as well. I don't remember the exact word you said, but I remember him kind of like,

you know, telling me that he would like me to to think about working in the business. Um, as you were saying, I I I was in the OR fellowship right out of college. Um, shout out. Yeah. And uh so I got to hear from all these different business leaders in the community. I learned a lot. Um I was working as a Salesforce consultant and some other SAS uh companies as well as as like a consultant or project implementation manager,

which is directly correlated to building homes,

right? But but I was able to take everything I learned from from those experiences and and I felt like as my dad and I were talking, I felt like I could bring stuff and help him. Um, so I wanted to help him create create a business that could sustain past past him um and could scale past past him as well, right? So, um, back in the day it was I feel like all roads led back to him, which was great and it led the business to where it was, but to to continue and to be able to grow, there had to be some changes and I felt like I could bring what I learned in to to help him. And so even when I when I came to join it, it wasn't my thought process of this is going to be my long-term home. It was more so uh I can take what I learned, come to the family business, and help my dad out. And uh that's how it started. And and and uh it's kind of grown from there.

How how long into this are we?

Uh that was back in 2017.

So here we are. Uh I had a hiatus within that time, but uh yeah.

So I would say it seems as though things are going well. They are. Yeah. Very blessed. Yeah. Isaac was able to come in and take a basically a cowboy ran company, but it was always my desire to be an ongoing entity for all of our all of our employees, for our customers, and every everybody else. So, I think that makes us a little bit unique because most home builders, if something happens to them, it's like, you know, they're like shut down. And we've got an ongoing entity. It's very important that can continue to operate if something happened to me. So, so that was very important. and he's brought in a lot of technical, you know, we're all on Salesforce and, you know, all the different uh things. We got processes, we've got, you know, so so that was important to try to do that so we could continue to grow and scale the business.

You might be the only customer

developer that's in sales. I think we are.

That's that's pretty impressive.

Um well, let's talk about what the future looks like. So obviously you have Aberdine, you know, you're rock and rolling in and I guess to get talk about the future, we got to talk about the past. You guys have built over 500 homes over the last 39 years.

Yeah. Not exactly sure, but yeah, probably.

Yeah. Well, we did the math. It's over 500 as you see

Indiana Indianapolis population growing. I mean, what over the last decade, Johnson County has grown 16%. How do you feel? Like what's your prediction for your guys's business, for central Indiana, for Indiana at large? Where do you see home building going? Is is it more popular to continue to build homes? Like what does that look like for you guys?

I'd love you to add some input here because I think you can see kind of how things have developed and where things are moving. I think things continue to move away from, you know, Indianapolis specifically out towards the suburbs and they grow that way. And I think both of us would agree that we don't want to see overdevelopment, right? So I I think um

that's interesting to say as the developers. That's interesting for you guys to say.

Um especially you know in small communities where I think he alluded it to it earlier where you know people can come in and in a way exploit you know the area. It's good that there's new homes right because there's new new family creation always happening. So people need a place to live. There's that reality. You know I think we both just desire it to be done in a in a way that's thoughtful and um considers people and and the the landscape. Yeah. I think I think there's plenty of opportunity for the business to continue to grow and, you know, we've talked about different places that we can grow to, right? Because

again, we don't want to oversaturate our area. We we want to be able to serve, you know, around our area and grow to new markets as well. So, within Indiana. Um, but I think there are growing, you know, growing places throughout Indiana that are exciting to look at and hopefully be a part of in in a thoughtful and helpful way. We want to try to buy and maintain all of our ground. You know, we're we're not planning on developing our

keep farmland as well.

Yeah. That that's that's our desire, but it's not fair to tell some farmer or their family, hey, you can't sell and it just has to be that. That's not right either. So, so you know, these are some people are going to sell and you know, we can't really help that. We can't can't shame them saying, "Well, hey, you shouldn't do that." That's why, you know, the ones that do choose to do that, that's why we're trying to be involved in and, you know, do as much as we can for our community that way. We've also,

you know, being entrepreneurial, we also have like a commercial side, we have a renovation side. So, we're just trying to grow our brand the best we can in our area, too. So

it is interesting because I feel like the more the further along we go, the more reputation matters specifically to municipalities,

you know, like as you guys talked about like, you know, serving other neighborhoods and serving other places around Burgersville. It's like if you get known as the cookie cutter production home, blah blah blah, it's like they're going to be less likely to want that and the residents are going to be less receptive to that. I feel like versus if you're like, "Hey, we create something that's beautiful, something that is going to be a staple, a pillar within your community."

Uh I think that that starts to matter even versus just the utility of we build houses. And I don't want to, you know, talk down upon production building anyway because there's a place for that and people need that, right? We talk about there's a housing affordability issue across America, right? And if we could build at that price point for those people, we would. That's we don't have that ability. We don't have that skill set. That's not what we're skilled at. Um, but there's a place for people who can do that at an affordable level. We would hope maybe we can challenge them a little bit to think a little bit more about design. Yeah.

Right. But

well, that is a huge thing across the nation. One of the biggest like everyone talks about like the there's a housing a housing shortage.

Uh and it's so interesting. We just had um Jamal on from Indie Health District. So like down where they're putting the new there's like a whole district that's being built up there and he talks about affordability, but also like very like you don't want all affordable housing. You don't want all luxury housing. You have to like mix and match. There are people way smarter than me that have to figure out how much of each and the numbers behind it all. And it's really interesting that a lot of people are just like housing housing housing housing is the issue.

Yeah. Just costs have just gotten so so huge just it's just hard for a lot of people to afford.

Yeah. Well, as you think about the hundreds of homes that you've built and the projects and the communities, what has been one of the most challenging pieces of the last 39 years uh that you've had to like look in the eyes and get through?

I'd say probably the depression time there. Yeah.

060, you know, the 212, but that was that was one. But it's just constantly we never can be satisfied. So, we've always got to be challenging challenging ourselves. I'm very competitive. So, you know, you get that growing up in Indiana. I think with some sports and different things.

So this is a way to compete and you know growing up listen learning from Bobby Knight it's like well sometimes you have to compete against yourself. So you should never not just necessarily comparing but you always want to try to be the best you can and then and you know and again I think that's biblical too. So so that's that's one of our biggest challenges and just to not ever be satisfied. always trying to to be, you know, we're trying, you know, Isaac's come in, he's trying to help us a little bit more, you know, the technology side and just just trying to be a little more cutting edge. We want to be the best and we want our clients to have a great experience. It's not always easy all the time to do that, but we really that's really our goal.

We strive to do that.

Generally speaking, if you've been in business 39 years, you'll have one or two projects that that don't go as well as you you want it to, right? And so taking time when things don't go as you hope they would to learn from those those difficulties is you know I think very important and something that we lean into right you success is the worst teacher I think uh a quote goes right um you need to learn from your losses you need to learn from the challenges and I think that's something that's helped us over over time as well.

Yeah.

If you look back at the last 39 years is there a specific project that you were the most proud of? There's several really cool homes, you know, we've built and I mean, shoot. I mean, thinking back, I remember the first house we built that was over $130,000. I couldn't believe that. You know, now you're in multi-million dollar homes.

130,000. You're like, oh.

But one thing, you know, being in Indiana, I mean, we built a lot of basketball courts in the homes. So, that's really cool. And just a lot of the details like that where you have, you know, tons of play areas. I mean, a lot of people I'm probably one of those I'm not one of those that likes to travel real well, you know, which not good for my wife. She does, but uh you know, I I like just being home, but it seems like we're building a lot of homes where people just like to be home. The partial basketball courts are full court, bowling alleys, uh

the outdoor living space. Yeah. Wow.

So, there's all there's a lot of opportunities to

What do you think? So, that first house that you built that was over 130,000, what do you think that house is selling for today? Five, six, something. So, yeah.

Isn't that great?

Yeah. I wish I wish I could have had something in my contracts when people resale that I got a at least a percentage out of there. You go. A little bit of residuals.

Yeah. We've always tried to put our name block since I started on each home in the year it was built. I was always hoping that that would help bring value to people's homes when they did resell. So, so hopefully we've helped we've helped a lot of families that way over the years.

Well, that is the thing about having a reliable brand for almost 40 years and like like being familyowned. I think people really appreciate that. And you talk about like, you know, failure being the ultimate t-shirt when you have hard times.

Like one thing I love about familyowned businesses is yeah, you don't if you're the type that make excuses or the type that like blah blah someone else's bl and you don't just own it and learn from it and get better and make it right. Like that's how you last almost 40 years.

I always tell everybody, you know, customers always try to tell them this is I'm not going to promise you everything's going to be perfect,

but we're going to take care of you.

Yeah. I mean, if I promise you everything's going to be perfect, you know that we're going to be a liar because that's not you can't.

But if they and then they truly believe you and you have a track record record of making it right and like taking care of your people,

that is

that's that's the ticket there. All right, we've come to uh the part of the show where we talk just all things Indiana home building. Uh we're going to go it's it's not necessarily rapid rapid fire, but we're going to we're going to kind of clip through these. So, uh, the first question, this is I had actual multiple people ask me to to ask this question in regards once we had some Southsiders on. The question is, what is your prediction for Center Grove in the next 10 years?

Well, I I see us winning state football championship a few more times.

Hey, there we go.

But no, it's going to continue. Center Grove has done a really nice job of of continuing as bond issues go off. Uh, which I learned a lot of this. My dad was on the school board when I was in high school. So, but I mean as bond issues go off, they're being, you know, being uh proactive and and adding things so your tax rates aren't going up.

Can you explain that?

Just as you're grow as your school's growing, I mean, you have to get like bond issues for, you know, for borrowing and all that stuff to continue. Yeah. So, they've done a job good great job of always keeping everything updated well and adding things, you know, as they go and when they can without having to raise our taxes. And you know our you know a lot of people you know complain about or taxes are anyway but some school systems if you don't do that then you have to come and build a whole new high school later it just skyrockets your property taxes. So they've done a great job of doing that which has really helped I think appreciation just in our school district you know for homes and so on too. You still yeah our property taxes aren't you know it's just because it's a little more valuable.

They're at a little higher places like other places, but uh but they've done a nice job and and we have good facilities and good people. And

Isaac, your prediction for Center Grove in 10 years.

When we say Center Grove, Bgersville and Greenwood make up the area that Center Grove is in. And so Bgersville is growing growing a lot. It's cool to see see that growth. Again, I don't want to see the overdevelopment like I've said, but to see, you know, those new new places, whether it's restaurants uh or different amenities coming, that's that's cool. the school system itself. My kids have just entered into elementary school. So, it's great to see, you know, the innovation happening within the within the school system and uh I would see, you know, it's it's probably going to grow quite a bit over the next 10 years. Hopefully, not too much, but

um but I I would continue to see or look out for them to be, you know, up there and and competing in sports, you know, at the highest level. that 69 corridor between Martinsville and Center Grove area. Like I don't know what do you I think that could have some some interesting

Yeah, I still personally think it's going to be a little while for the Martinsville side, but you know I think it's going to definitely definitely help right there. It's it's just drawn it's just drawn us all closer together. People can go to some different schools sometimes too if it's allowed or accepted. So So that's that's a a thing. But uh but yeah, no, we're just in a really good location. That's why why it's been a fast growing area because just our approximate location just right south I mean we're you know you have 135 Meridian Street you know goes straight up to the circle you know runs through our school district you know we're so close to the airport uh you know downtown I mean we can be at the airport quickly we can be you know Harry and Izzy's and eat quickly or to the Pacer games you can still be down in Bloomington 35 minutes so it's just a great location and people see that it's a great area to raise your family I think you see a lot of families out eating at the restaurants here that I don't know if we necessarily see as much on the north side.

One of my questions was going to be to like pitch me the southside versus the north side. Like there you go. You just you gave me the pitch.

I'm I'm a true southsider. So yeah, I've got my

One thing I enjoyed though is I would say I feel like there's a down to earth. Everything's not flashy. Um there there are people who you know have generational businesses and you know or work professionally who are on the southside and it's just it's a very downto-earth type of atmosphere and that's what I enjoy about it.

A lot of giving. I mean we have some you know pretty major people like car dealers and stuff. Well they live in the centerove area and they're very very giving to you know to schools to churches and different things. So it's just a it's just a yeah it's just a great great area to live. Uh you did mention in 2021 I believe you guys are part of Homeramama. Can you talk to me about what that looks like with the processes and what what that means for your business?

Yeah, it it was a very beneficial to our neighborhood to get it get it uh known about. So unfortunately it was just coming out of the co you know the COVID time. So that didn't help a lot but

so what are because there's like dream home and homeama and all these different Can you explain what the like for those that might not know what that is?

Yeah. builder the builder association puts this on every year and and seems like it's on the north side most of the time but but uh trying to keep it down here some but but yeah 21 I mean we actually there was like six

where there's you know typically six to 13 builders who build a you know show home

decorated

typically on the same street so that people can come through you know for a couple hours walk through all of these homes get ideas or just be inspired in some way

not a contest though

it's there sometimes Sometimes there's contests in it for the builders too or the Yeah. the people's choice awards or this and that.

Best to show, best kitchen. I don't know if they do that anymore.

Yeah, we used to Yeah, we used to always try to win all those things when we did them in the past. But but yeah, I mean we we, you know, being the builder and developer, we had to host preparing for, you know, 15,000 people to come through with parking. We have people movers and all that type of stuff involved. Plus, we built a couple homes in it ourselves. So, it it's quite quite a bit of a an activity. And you usually have to sleep a few times before you decide to do it again.

Sleep a few. That's fun. Uh speaking of that, you're right of like what's popular people are going through. What's the biggest trend in home building right now in Indiana?

I'd say outdoor living is huge. Um you know, just having things for, you know, a lot of people have work spaces at home, activity things for kids because everybody wants, you know, all the kids to come to their house, things like that. We see a lot of different uh styles. A lot of them get mixed, but uh you know, you got your moderns, your farm houses, there's so many different different styles out there.

There's a little bit of a move to, you know, timelessness and design, right? People desire to not build something that's going to be trendy for five five years and then have to renovate their whole home to change. And so I think maybe sometimes that's moving away from the modern farmhouse and more towards, you know, something that is a little bit more more timeless. Uh I think we see a lot of mixing of different types of materials a lot a lot of times as well. So whether that's stone or um you know different types of the materials you know wood in the house in different ways um you just see a lot of different materials being combined to kind of create depth um inside the home too.

Some techn a lot more technology you know involved

like what are some of the craziest features you've put into a house?

Totally control every light switch from your phone doors and so on like that. You know, the automatic screens, people love those on their porches, you know, just fire pit areas, just pools. I mean, you know, do a lot of

lots of elevators.

Yeah. Elevators. That's great. Lots of B indoor basketball court simulators. Just Yeah. Yeah. A lot of different things. So, it's sort of fun. Everybody comes in with their their thing that they like and and we try to help question them to make sure they're getting, you know, we we tell people, "We're going to do what you want, but we really want you to think through things. We want to make sure it's something that you're going to live well in. A lot of people come wanting it to be their last home. So, we're doing like, you know, a lot of curbless showers and things like that. So, just makes it where you can, you know, live there for a long time. You know, larger hallways, doors, you know, just trying to do everything very, you know, upscale inside the home. So,

around the southside, when you're in Greenwood or down around Burgersville,

where's the go-to spot to grab lunch?

Shoot. I will go to a Mexican restaurant a lot myself if I'm going to. But, yeah. So, I know I know the place that we we like to go to supper though is our O our Table down there.

Our Table. What's Our Table?

It's sort of an upscale little restaurant in off off 135 in Whitland Road in Barersville. It's been named top 100 in the country a few a couple times in one.

Wow. This is a

It's actually one of our one of our properties, one of our retail centers. And so, I'll plug it to and we we built it out. So,

wow. Our table, American Beastro. It's this is a this is a dinner spot. 5 to 9:00 p.m.

Yeah. Uh what do you get there?

Uh I've tried about everything. I you know I get the fillet a lot or I'll uh you know I like their flatbread. They have great walleye. You know there there's I've tried about everything on there.

Wild Argentinian shrimp.

It's a great it's a great place. So that's just your evening. But right right on the other side of it down down a bit there's like the knuckle which is a really cool if you want like a 50s diner and has like an old car in the middle and

the knuckle

do the challenges. So,

I'd say uh for lunch uh downtown Bartersville uh Sellers Market has, you know, it's a hidden gym hidden gym. Um

Coffee House Five.

Wow. Wait,

three Mexican restaurants in Burgersville.

We got to have those. Wait, this place is called the Knuckle Sandwich.

Yes,

that place rocks. Oh,

cool interior.

50s and 60s diner.

A lot of people like that.

Okay, gentlemen, we're rounding out the show. Uh we end every show asking the same three questions to every guest that come on. The first one being uh we'll go start with Isaac. Boom boom boom boom. Go back and forth fourth. Uh Isaac, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana?

It's a great balanced place is is my best summary. Um I I love Indiana because of my deep heritage here. I love it because all the people I care about are here, but I also think it's a great place to raise a family. Uh, I have four kids and I'd say that because of that there's there's a lot of balance. You have you have great cities. Uh, but then you have these great suburbs and rural areas.

It has a a great balance of being laid-back and driven, right? You you can go escape to these places or live in areas where you have this laid-back atmosphere, but then there's there's lots of people um creating businesses. There's lots of great businesses already established here that you can be a part of. Um, so you have that balance there. And then, um, I think there's this openness of discussion and collaboration also mixed with rooted tradition. You have all these things that I think there's just a good balance, uh, between lots of different things here in Indiana.

Yeah, I think we're one day's drive from like 60% of the population in the United States here in Indiana. I've always heard on the logistics side. So, sort of put you that's why, you know, sort of crossroads, all that type of stuff. You see a lot of things. But it is I I'll echo what Isaac said. It's just it's where you know it's where we're from. I love it. I feel like God put us here. You know, we go to all these different places and see oceans and waters and other things, but I come home. I love seeing my flowing, you know, corn fields.

Yeah.

I like seeing my cows, you know. So, yeah. And our neighbors. So, I mean,

I always say

hospitality is real here. It's real. So, and I and people that come in and visit, you know, notice that.

This is the question. There's a spot somewhere here in the state of Indiana that more people need to know about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?

Well, besides Berserville and Aberdine, I mean, me and my wife love going down like the French Slick and just seeing like the West Ben Hotel and playing some golf there whenever I die.

Yes, I've played it a couple times. It's awesome.

That's a good one.

Yeah. Yeah.

Never played, but

Yeah, it's it's nice. So, you know that I mean, and if I have people come in from out of town, I don't go through the 500. I'm not like a big crowd guy or whatever as much. I've been several times, but but I love taking them to the Brickyard Golf Course. which is one of my favorite ones, you know, and you walk in on I think it was number seven, I think it is, the par three, and you're inside the course and their eyes are just like, I cannot believe how big that is. So, I think that's really cool.

Both of those, the first time you go in the speedway and the first time you see West Ben.

Mhm.

You're It's like astonishing. It's very

they're very very like when you walk in because the dome uh at Westben is kind of like

not creepy but it's very just like it makes you just like stop and reflect a little

Oh yeah. And when it was built and it was the largest dome until the who's your astronaut.

Yeah. Uh down in Houston, right? Yeah.

Which is nuts. Like that's just crazy to me. And it was just here the uh Carl'sbad of America. And like if you look back the whole thing, it's like this very relaxing spa somewhere over in Europe or whatever and they wanted to build that here. It's nuts.

I I love that it takes Yeah. takes those things that take your breath away here in Indiana. Same thing when you get to the top of the Pete Die course and you look out, you're like, how the heck is this Indiana? Isaac, what is a hidden gem in Indiana?

You stole my French lick answer, but I will say Cataract Falls um near Spencer, Indiana. Um, I took my family there this past year and we had a really great time just I don't know if you're allowed to get in the water and I think you are in certain areas, but my kids loved kind of just playing, you know, by the by the water's edge and uh um looking at the waterfalls and um

these are real waterfalls.

They Yeah, you you don't you don't really expect to see that that view in Indiana and it's really cool.

Amen. I love that. Final question, gentlemen. This is where we get new guests or people that that are just need to be on on our radar. So, who's a hooer that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things.

My good my good buddy, Coach Moore at Center Grove Football. He would he would be an awesome guest here and uh just a great great guy. He's he's really shaped a lot of lot of kids and helped in our community really well.

How long has he been the coach?

2000 almost 25 years now, I think. So, so I I would highly recommend him. He's he's from Indiana, you know, played at IU.

I would say Johnny Marlin down on the south side. Uh he created or started Marlin Academy back in the day training kids in basketball and has kind of grown uh over the past 10 years and they're actually building uh this very large facility down on the on the south side uh called the Ark. you might be able to tell some more details on on that, but it's it's a really cool.

We're going to be involved help helping them with that. And it's a you know, seven courts, one featured court, which we really need that on the south.

What does a fe What do you mean by featured court?

Basketball courts.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. But featured court mean it has like the stands.

Oh yeah. Yeah. So where you could have games or you know, small schools could have games.

Yeah. Cuz you know, you think about the north side, they have like Grand Park, they have this, they have that, they have the other thing. You know,

we're in a great need of that on the south side. You know, it's also set up. We're going to have volleyball courts and games and things too and other training, baseball training. So, so we're excited about that, getting that in the neighborhood. It's neat. Him and Isaac grew up together. Me and his dad coached AU basketball together, you know, with them and just seeing him take that. He played at IU for a while and and uh so we're excited to see that. That's awesome.

Well, gentlemen, I appreciate you coming on and telling the story of Duke Holmes. 39 years. Next year's a big 40

means I'm old.

Well, you started young though, right? Over 500 homes.

Uh, you have Aberdeene wellness lifestyle community. There we go. It only took the entire show for me to get it right. Um, if people want to learn more about Aberdine, if they want to learn more about the project they're interested in or and things like that, how can they find you guys? Where can they connect?

Yeah, go to dukehomes.com or aberdineliving.com. Uh you can find us on social media as well at Duke Homes handle or Aberdine Living handle.

If people want to learn more, I think that Aberdine is a very interesting piece that it might resonate with some people. Uh if they want to learn more about what that entails, like how would you recommend like getting plugged in to learn more about the wellness lifestyle community?

Yeah, we we have information on the website. So that's the number one resource. Uh we're recording a lot of videos out there so we can kind of help explain what's going on there as well, which we'll be putting on on our social medias. Uh and we we have tours that people can schedule just to come down and see what's going on there. So,

and maybe just go like check out the the farm market, you know, get a little treat, buy some eggs.

Absolutely.

Come on.

Some beef.

And some beef. I'm

Don't forget the beef.

Yeah. Uh gentlemen, I appreciate you coming on today. I appreciate you sharing the story. It was awesome to learn more about this. I mean now second generation family business but you guys have been here for a minute. You've been in the hoosier state for eight proud hers eight generations generations. The kids are the ninth gener like

almost 10 generations here in Indiana. I love it. We appreciate it and we'll talk to you soon.

Thanks Nate.

Thanks Nate.

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