Gary ready for downtown development, city official says
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The executive director of redevelopment for the city of Gary says the city’s recently unveiled Vision and Action Plan comes at a critical time for tracking downtown mixed-use development and investment.
The plan, developed in partnership with the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, is designed to serve as a roadmap for city leadership to further downtown development in a way that is true to the city’s culture, according to Christopher Harris.
“We didn’t want to build a downtown that was cookie cutter, and we want to be able to be true to our identity,” Harris told Inside INdiana Business. “So the mayor is very passionate about the historic nature and the esthetic of how we redevelop our core, considering all of these catalytic opportunities.”
In 2023, the city established a transit development district with the goal of incentivizing and encouraging mixed-use development in the city’s downtown core.
One of the major projects outlined in the Vision and Action Plan is a proposed multimodal transit station, which would connect to I-90 for motorists, the South Shore Line for visitors coming by train, and a new system of local buses.
The project would include construction of the center itself just north of the “twin dome” buildings that house the city’s courthouse and city hall, as well as new public plaza space and several new structures.
Harris said developing the gateway to the city and promoting connectivity is key for Gary.
“We have connectivity through the South Shore Line. We have connectivity through the Gary Public Transportation Corp. We have inner city bus service through Greyhound,” he said. “No other city in northwest Indiana has all of those components together, along with the walkability and the infrastructure we have to be able to help create a walkable environment.”
Harris added that the city is already taking steps toward incremental development by changing certain zoning laws that had previously made the standard type of commercial or mixed-use development difficult.
“We’re going to be able to allow that type of construction to happen again, and that’s been illegal for over 50 years to build,” he said. “This makes our downtown more accessible to our local entrepreneurs to help make our downtown more resilient.”
The city is also continuing to look for opportunities for historic preservation to avoid demolishing certain structures where possible.
Now that the Vision and Action Plan has been unveiled, Harris said he is hoping that local developers in northwest Indiana want to become a part of the effort.
“It’s a mixture of having all,” he said. “We don’t want to absorb our demand into one structure. We want to be able to have varying skills of development.”
Harris said the city’s primary focus area will be on the Fifth Avenue and Broadway corridor, which encompasses the Multimodal Transit Center project. Plans call for a Request for Proposals to be issued in the coming months.
“We’re very excited about the opportunity to be able to showcase Gary to the world and also share exactly what we’re looking for as a community, because it’s community led as well,” he said. “That feedback was very in tune with what the community wanted, and I believe overall, the community is extremely pleased with what they see. So there’s no guessing with what city of Gary wants.”