Portage's vision for commercial park moves forward

PORTAGE | Spurred by recent commercial and residential development on its north side, city officials are ready to take the leap into developing its own piece of the pie.

Preliminary planning will soon be under way for a city-owned 150-acre business/commercial park along Ind. 249 and the Burns Waterway. The yet unnamed park, is across the state highway from AmeriPlex at the Port business/commercial park.

The city purchased the land, which is predominantly open space but is the home to the Portage Yacht Club, several years ago with the idea to build a golf course, said Mayor Doug Olson.

However, that idea failed to come to fruition when potential developers couldn't strike a deal with adjacent landowners to purchase additional property.

"It would have been a nice quality of life addition to the city. But we always knew that the highest and best use of the property was never a golf course. At the time, that's what people wanted," Olson said.

A strategic part of the city's recently completed Northside Redevelopment Plan, officials envisioned the property to be developed as an environmentally-friendly, "green" office campus-style park. The question remained when.

Then came the Marina Shores at Dunes Harbor residential/marina development and the announcement of Bass Pro Shops locating at AmeriPlex with its anticipated spin-off development in the near future.

It was time to seriously consider development of the city's business park. The park's future was assisted by a $2.5 million grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. The grant came in association with the city's approval of a $17.5 million economic incentive package for Bass Pro Shops.

Olson said that funding will allow the city to construct a majority of the infrastructure for the new park. While utilities are already available at the park, the funding will allow the realignment of the entrance with the entrance to AmeriPlex and the construction of what is now being called Burns Parkway -- a circular roadway that will cut through, in a meandering fashion, the park to eventually cross the Burns Waterway.

Eventually, said Olson, Southport Road will be removed and access to those businesses, including the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission office and Advanced Construction, will be from Burns Parkway. A wetlands area will be north of these two buildings, but south of the Burns Parkway.

The park, itself, will be different in keeping not only with the city's Northside Redevelopment Plan, but also with the larger Marquette Plan vision for the region.

"It becomes a gateway to the marina/residential area north of the river," said John Shepherd, the city's economic development consultant.

It will be more "subtle" than AmeriPlex, he said, adding that in addition to green space on the edges of the park, there will be green spaces throughout the park.

"It will be more comfortable to people to live nearby, drive through," he said.

Olson said the eastern edge of the park will be designated for commercial development, to take the anticipated overflow from AmeriPlex.

The vision for the area, said Director of Community Planning and Development A.J. Monroe, is to provide a place for people to live, work and play. The office campus development would be intertwined with a pleasing environmental environment by providing a system of open greenspace and trails to link the areas within the northside plan.

Infrastructure for the park is estimated at $3.5 million. After initial infrastructure is constructed with the state funding, Olson and Shepherd said the idea would be to sell or lease property to potential developers and use those proceeds to complete infrastructure within the park.

Revenue beyond the cost to build the park would eventually go to redevelop the U.S. 20 corridor, said Shepherd.