Burns Harbor receives a lone bid for land it owns and hopes to be developed

Chicago Tribune

7 hours ago

Burns Harbor hopes to sell land it owns off Ind. 149 so it can be developed, two years after a developer withdrew from a $32 million project in partnership with the town.
The Redevelopment Commission on Wednesday opened a bid from one company to buy 25 acres the town owns at Haglund Road and Ind. 149. The property is located across the road from the current Town Hall.
Sloane Avenue Group and Redstone Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan, proposed to pay $25,000 for the land and to assume all costs of infrastructure, engineering, soil analysis and potential wetland mitigation. It was the only company that responded to the town's Request for Offer (RFO).
Commission members didn't discuss the proposal because they wanted time to review and evaluate it.
The proposal will also be reviewed by the town's consultant, Tina Rongers, and Town Attorney Clay Patton. A decision may be announced at the Redevelopment Commission's July 11 meeting.
Councilwoman Roseann Bozak, who is the commission president, wouldn't release a copy of the proposal, citing that it hasn't been reviewed yet by the legal counsel.
Bozak said they are looking for a mix of residential and commercial on the land, like the town intended to develop with its prior partner, Holladay Properties.
'We intend on sticking with that,' Bozak said. She wouldn't share what the Sloane Avenue Group and Redstone Group are proposing, beyond taking care of infrastructure, engineering, soil analysis and potential wetland mitigation. A BP pipeline does go through the property.
The relationship between Burns Harbor and any party that buys the property will be different than the last time.
'The project will be developer-driven as opposed to a public-private partnership,' Rongers said.
Burns Harbor and Holladay Properties had originally reached their agreement in 2019, but plans were then delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Holladay Properties announced in June 2023 that they couldn't go forward because of economic conditions.
As a result, the town had to decline a $960,000 state grant from the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI), which would have been used to install underground utilities. The town also spent money on a property master plan, Rongers said.
The plan's goal was to create a new town center, which would have been anchored by a 22,800-square-foot town hall and community center.
Another key amenity was that a section of the Marquette Greenway trail would be built on the property. The development also would have had 40 single-family townhouses, five multi-family luxury apartment buildings with 138 units, along with 5,800 square feet of commercial space in the ground floors of three of the apartment units.
During the past two years, a 0.8-mile section of the trail has been built on the property. The Marquette Greenway, when finished by multiple communities, will eventually stretch 60 miles from Chicago to New Buffalo, Michigan.
Rongers said that the property is currently zoned residential.
Burns Harbor will still retain a 4-acre parcel off of Ind. 149 neighboring the 25 acres to be sold. The vacant lot, which once was the location of a community center, could be the future location for a new town hall.
The town in 2018 purchased 28 acres at Haglund Road and Ind. 149 for $250,000 from the Duneland School Corporation.