Portage is closer to getting a major department store with the City Council holding the first reading last week on rezoning an 84.29-acre parcel that would be half commercial and have multifamily residential.
Dave Westland, a Hammond attorney representing Simon CRE, told the council May 6 that the north 40 acres along U.S. 6 at Airport Road would be anchored by a large department store.
Westland said he couldn’t name the anchor but the name has been discussed by others. “It’s a major national retailer that I think is an asset to the community.”
At last month’s Plan Commission meeting, member Sam Laboy said he had heard Target was in negotiations for the site.
The south 40 acres would be multifamily, part of a natural flow from commercial to single-family residential further south, he said. Simon CRE is in talks with potential developers for that parcel, including some with experience building in Portage, he said.
“We certainly want a high-value, high-quality investment to the south,” Westland said.
The Landing at Portage, the new commercial development, would have 330,000 square feet of commercial development, an investment of $75 million to $100 million, he said.
The developer, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, has plenty of experience. “They’ve done almost 300 projects, over $1 billion in value,” Westland said.
“We haven’t had a major retail development in quite a while,” Councilman Collin Czilli, D-5, noted. The developer will want to decide whether to store stormwater on-site or use a permeable surface for its parking lot, he said. That’s in keeping with the city’s ordinance on stormwater fees, which discourages large parking lots that send stormwater away from the parcel being developed.
Rezoning requests need two council meetings to be approved.
The council approved rezoning for Ladybug Laundry on second reading. “We kind of love what we do. We’re laundry nerds,” owner Logan Wuethrich said.
The company has 12 locations in seven counties in Northwest Indiana.
The laundromat is to be built on the west side of Willowcreek just north of Biggby Coffee. The coffee shop is eager to see the laundry be built, Wuethrich said.
“We are not a dry cleaner. Actually, we ceased our final dry cleaning operation last Thursday. We’ve been slowly phasing out of it,” he said.
The full-service laundry will offer drop-off service as well as self-service and will work with commercial clients.
“We’ve got TVs, WiFi, the whole nine yards for you while you sit and wait for an hour and a half or so,” he said.
The council also approved creating a part-time position for the fire department so it can rehire a recently retired firefighter to resume working on the fleet. The work was previously done using overtime funds, so the department will shift money from the overtime fund to cover his salary.
“We have a fleet that needs a lot of work, and that taxes our department quite a bit,” Fire Chief Chris Crail said.
The position will pay no more than $35 an hour.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.