The Hobart Plan Commission gave its approval to the creation of a new economic development area Thursday, which the city hopes to use to attract a convention center and other developments.
The city’s redevelopment commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed U.S. 30 and 69th Avenue economic development area at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 26, after which it’s expected to approve the district.
“Without the district, the city is limited in the types of incentives it can offer to tax abatement. With the economic development area, we can offer more,” Denarie Kane, director of Development.
She said another component of the proposal is a long list of potential capital improvement projects that could be done in the designated area, including building a pedestrian bridge on U.S. 30.
“If there’s a willing seller, we could use the TIF funds to buy property for future development,” Kane added.
City engineer Phil Gralik said the first tier of the proposal would include Mississippi and Colorado and some of the frontage roads along U.S. 30, places where he said he sees development happening sooner than some of the other areas in the proposed new district.
A site in the Silverstone property off Mississippi has been named one of the five top locations for a possible convention center in an independent study completed last year.
One of the top competitors for the convention center — the Century Mall site in Merrillville — is already in a tax increment financing district and the mall’s owner has said he is interested in converting the former Burlington Coat Factory building there into a convention center.
In other matters, Merrillville Metal Recycling LLC received site plan approval to build a metal recycling station at 83rd Place and Minnesota Street, Luke Land LLC received several approvals to build a gas station with a car wash and convenience store at the southeast corner of Indiana 130 and Cleveland Avenue and Richard Boyd was given final plat OK to subdivide his property on the northeast corner of 5th and Indiana streets with the intention of selling the properties.
Petitioner Jacob Bronstein said there would be no outdoor storage at his recycling facility; all the materials would be stored in buildings.
Bronstein said his facility would take end of life metal and repurpose it for consumers and manufacturers. He said all processing would take place indoors, there would be minimal truck traffic and sound decibel levels would be below the threshold.
Brandon Dickinson, representing Luke Land, said the company plans to begin construction on a new prototype Luke building this year.
Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
