Three new structures are set to join the gargantuan Amazon complex along I-65 as Merrillville continues to build its warehouse empire.
The Town Council at its January 14 meeting voted unanimously to approve four resolutions that allow Crow Holdings to build two 250,000 square-foot and one 400,000 square-foot warehouses at the southwest corner of East 73rd Avenue and Mississippi Street at I-65. The Dallas-based developer is set to purchase the 67 acres over two parcels from a Merrillville couple for $120,000 per acre, Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6, said.
“I donn’t have to tell you how I feel about it — it’s in my ward,” Pettit said. “The track records between Crow Holdings and the Town of Merrillville are 100% impeccable.”
Pettit pointed out that Crow Holdings has a project-labor agreement with the Northwest Indiana Building Trades as well, ensuring that the warehouses will be built with either union builders or non-union builders paid prevailing union wage. Building trades members filling the Council chamber bore out their support.
Matt Kurucz, a managing director in Crow Holdings’ industrial group, explained that the developer builds most of its projects before securing tenant commitment. As such, abatements are critical in pursuing tenants who would likely have never considered property outside Chicago proper, he said.
“Tenants pay the tax bill, not us, so they get all the benefit the incentive has to offer,” Kurucz said. “The way Merrillville has its incentive program set up is Merrillville has an agreement where the town gets a payment of 15% of the abated part of (the agreement).
“This property is currently giving you $553 per year right now. If we get these buildings built by 2026 for tax year 2027, our tenants will pay $200,000 in real estate taxes to the town; over the next 15 years, it would be $3.5 million compared with $7,500 if it stays undeveloped. And the total tax bill these three warehouses would pay is $11.1 million.”
Crow Holdings was founded by billionaire Harlan Crow, who has given U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas more than $1 million in gifts over the years, including luxury vacations, renovations for his mother’s home and tuition for his grandnephew, according to a ProPublica investigation.
The tax abatement agreement is a straight 10-year phase-in, with the first three years abated at 100% and increased each year after that until the full amount is paid at year 10. Clerk-Treasurer Eric January, who’s vehemently against tax abatements of any kind normally, called this deal “one of the best abatements deals” he’s ever seen and thanked Kurucz for answering every question he had about it.
Randy Palmateer, business manager for the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council, added that any loss of money people think abatements bring is largely offset by workers spending their money in communities.
“That dollar flips over 10 times — going out to eat, filling your gas tanks,” he said. “(The workers on these projects) all live in the town, so whatever you think you’re losing on this or that, you’re not. It’s going back to the community.”
Phillip Schneider, a research librarian enlisted by a group of Merrillville residents against abatements that calls themselves the Merrillville Change Agency, said three studies he looked into — one national, one from Michigan and one from Ohio — don’t indicate that abatements provide everything they promise. If the town is to use them, it should lower the abatement’s amount and add a clause allowing the town to withdraw from the deal if the developer and its tenants do not deliver promised benefits.
Construction on the new warehouses will start this year and be completed in 2026.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
