Gary site selected for Lake County Convention Center
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(Rendering Provided/City of Gary)
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A conceptual rendering of the Lake County Convention Center (Rendering Provided/City of Gary)
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Rendering of Gary’s pitch for a Lake County Convention Center. (Graphic provided, city of Gary)
After months of deliberation, Lake County Commissioners have finally settled on a site for a new Lake County Convention Center.
On Wednesday, the commissioners unanimously selected Gary and its proposal to build the 145,000-square-foot center next to the current Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana. Hard Rock would manage the convention center.
The commissioners went with Gary as the site of the convention center over Hobart, which pitched a facility near the intersection of Interstate-65 and U.S. Highway 30—just a few miles down the road. As cheers from Gary city officials rang out in the meeting venue, commissioner Kyle Allen Jr. said Gary demonstrated the best ability to execute on its plans.
“I will use one word—execution,” Allen said. “This is the first time in my lifetime that I have sever seen the state the of Indiana set aside $100 million in this manner. This project will be transformational. It will make the location definitely competitive.”
The at times contentious selection process for a Lake County Convention Center started a few years ago with the passage of legislation that allocated $5 million a year for the next 20 years in matching funds for the project. The bill—authored by current Gary Mayor Eddie Melton Jr. when he was a state senator—stipulated the Lake County Commissioners were in charge of picking which bid to go with.
Commissioner Jerry Tippy said being able to raise money to match the state funding is key to the project and he thinks Gary is best able to do that.
“A primary concern in the process for me making this decisions was the financing,” Tippy said. “Gary Hard Rock provided two letters from major financial institutions stating that they would provide that financing on the assumption that the matching funds were proven to be available.”
Tippy said the city of Gary could put its local taxes towards the $5 million a year match, but no other city or Lake County will put in local or property taxes for the project. However, the law does give the county the option to raise its innkeeper’s tax from 5% to 10%.
In making their decision, the county commissioners emphasized they contracted with an outside consulting firm to weight the two pitches. One of the firms, Johnson Consulting, felt Gary was the stronger option and in a previous study found the convention center could generate approximately $74 million in total economic impact, and $4 million in local tax revenues by year 10.
Gary will now move forward and hammer out a development agreement with the county commissioners.
Gary’s pitch
In Gary’s proposal, the convention center itself would go just southwest of the Hard Rock Casino on what is now a parking lot. A 300-room hotel would be connected to the casino, and a walkway would connect the convention center with that hotel.
Directly across 29th street to the south, the Hard Rock owns land that could see two additional 200-room hotels and other commercial space. Around the convention center are parking lots, but Melton said those provide the opportunity for future build outs to the convention center if needed.
A little to the east is a 90-acre county park, which Melton said the city is in discussions to improve in some capacity.
Central to Gary’s pitch is Hard Rock’s involvement. The entertainment conglomerate would operate the convention center, and city officials believe Hard Rock has already proven to be a good corporate citizen and brings a recognizable brand.
“We have all the built in infrastructure. the built-in assets to make this successful. It’s a bonus that the Hard Rock has already proven, because of its success financially, that the market is there. We don’t have to recreate the wheel,” said Mayor Eddie Melton in an interview with Inside INdiana Business last year.