INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee is opening Barstool Heartland at Buckingham Companies’ creative loft space, 935 North Meridian St., in Buckingham’s Library Square neighborhood. Barstool Heartland – the Indianapolis branch of Barstool Sports – is a satirical sports and men’s lifestyle blog with a mix of pop culture. McAfee will join Todd McComas, a retired Indiana State Trooper, in the business and operations side of the endeavor.
After joining Barstool Heartland, one of McAfee’s priorities was to open studio space in his home city of Indianapolis. The new space will include a multimedia television and radio studio, basketball court, golf simulator, entertainment area, and private editing rooms. The 10,000-square-foot, industrial design loft office will feature 30-foot ceilings, exposed steel and wood beams, and newly installed skylights. McAfee was sold on the original exposed brick walls and open concept, together forming the perfect setting for this next generation office space.
“We definitely wanted to do this in Indianapolis,” said McAfee. “Bringing together cutting-edge technology, studio space and an interactive office environment will be something that’s not all that common (in) downtown Indianapolis. Our goal is to attract the best talent not just in Indianapolis, but from across the country to come and work with us. We needed to create a space that encouraged the highest level of creativity. I think we nailed it.”
McAfee and McComas utilized the space in April to interview more than 500 intern applicants, which were narrowed down to 69 and then 30. Barstool Heartland ended up hiring all 30, who will begin work with the company in June. The space will be complete and ready for move-in early this summer.
McAfee worked with Buckingham Construction Company on securing this opportunity and worked to promote it in the Indianapolis area.
For an inside look of what the space looked like before the Barstool Heartland build out, click here.
About Buckingham Companies: Founded in 1984, Buckingham is a full-service, fully integrated real estate company that includes the development, acquisition, management and construction of a wide range of property types including multifamily, student housing and mixed-use communities. Buckingham manages nearly $1 billion of real estate assets for its own account, clients and institutional partners. Buckingham has managed more than 90 properties consisting of nearly 20 million square feet of property and approximately 15,000 rental units nationwide. Additionally, the affiliated Buckingham Foundation annually supports more than 50 nonprofit and civic organizations through philanthropic outreach in the areas of affordable housing, community and economic development, and arts and culture. For more information, visit www.buckingham.com.
About Barstool Heartland (Stated by Pat McAfee): Barstool Heartland is a startup media company within the hottest platform on the internet, Barstool Sports. With Barstool Sports investing a ton of money in the Heartland office, there will be a fully operating TV studio as well as a fully loaded radio studio. The office will be a constant content creation Heaven, all the while shining a positive light on the fantastic city that is Indianapolis. Video series, blogs, podcasts, movies, sitcoms, and any other form of entertainment you can think of will be created in our beautiful space on North Meridian. We promise to help our community as much as possible and help continue the tradition of Indianapolis being the greatest city on earth. Cheers.