Gary Common Council President Ronald Brewer said he thinks it is an exciting prospect that an outside company will come to the city to help bring in developers. Frequent critic Jim Nowacki disagrees so much that he’s filed a lawsuit to stop it.
On July 29, the Gary Redevelopment Commission approved a deal with Maia Co., a Chicago company that will work with the city to acquire parcels of land large enough for commercial development and provide cash or other financial considerations up front for land acquisition.
The incentive for Maia Co. is that it will receive up to 65 percent of the proceeds when acquired land is resold to developers for specific projects. Nowacki says he thinks that’s too much.
“You are just waifs. You can do very little. You are all helpless without any ability to stop the process,” Nowacki said at last week’s Common Council meeting. “I will make sure the (Redevelopment Commission) deal for the city does not go forward.”
Nowacki’s lawsuit filed Wednesday argues the secretive nature of negotiations between the Redevelopment Commission and Maia Co. amounts to collusion, and he also questions whether Maia Co. is licensed to do business in Indiana.
“They may be legal in Delaware, but that doesn’t mean they can come here,” he said.
Redevelopment Commission deputy director Jack Eskin declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Nowacki is the owner of nearly 300 plots of land across Gary, Redevelopment officials have said publicly. Nowacki did not dispute the figures.
Michael Reinhold, Maia Co.’s president, said in an email to the Post-Tribune that he had not seen the lawsuit, but was “not surprised” that Nowacki, “would have issues with what the GRC is doing to reject the status quo and eliminate blight in the city, support long-time residents and transform Gary.”
Nowacki countered that his lawsuit is, “not about my self interest. It’s just a bad deal.”
Brewer isn’t bothered by the criticism and said he approves of the Maia Co. deal, even though the Gary Common Council has no oversight because the Redevelopment Commission is a separate government entity.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” Brewer said, explaining there is so much of Gary, particularly in the downtown area, that is desolate and in need of demolition.
Maia Co. is a new company, incorporated in Delaware on Jan. 22, 2016, according to the DelawareLookup.com website. Reinhold was a principal partner with Tur Partners LLC in Chicago, of which former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is executive chairman.
Gary officials have said Daley could help in terms of raising the money used for land acquisition but that Daley will not be directly involved with Maia Co. operations, which may open an office in Gary in coming months.
Brewer said he’d like to see officials start their work with the business strip along Broadway, saying any improvement there would be a visible boost for the city’s image.
If he had his way, his revamping would start with the Palace Theatre, which opened in 1925 at 765 Broadway, closed in 1972 and has sat largely vacant since then.
“That’s real bad,” Brewer said. “Something new needs to go there.”
Still trying to reach an opinion is Councilwoman Ragen Hatcher, D-at large, who said she is still reading through the agreement. “It seems to be a land acquisition service. I still have some questions I have to ask,” she said.
Hatcher also said she is willing to take questions from Gary residents about the project. “As I find out details of the agreement, I will send them out to the public,” she said.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
