LaPorte looks to redevelop 150 acres in residential and recreational area

LaPORTE - Officials here plan to turn two old dumps into a residential and recreational area.

It's part of a project that would bring dramatic change to a brownfield site, capitalizing on its location around Clear Lake just north of downtown.

The plan, known as NewPorte Landing, would redevelop a 150-acre site containing land either undeveloped or underdeveloped.

NewPorte Landing includes the site of the former Allis-Chalmers factory. It also features 50 acres that once was a city landfill, abandoned in 1974, and another 40-acre parcel that once was an industrial dump.

The property is between Pine Lake Avenue and Hoelocker Drive along Truesdell Avenue, wrapping around Clear Lake, a 106-acre “kettle lake.” Water that drained from the properties for years flowed into Clear Lake.

Nearly 100 acres of the site is undeveloped while the developed portions include industrial and commercial properties still in operation.

Mayor Leigh Morris said goals for NewPorte Landing include redeveloping the former city landfill and former LaPorte Foundry and Industrial Dump into an residential and recreational area. The former Bastian Morley and Allis-Chalmers factories would be turned into a commercial and retail area. The former LaPorte Gas and Electric Plant would be redeveloped for residential and commercial use, and Clear Lake would become a recreational area.

In August 2005, Morris said that although LaPorte owns a little more than 100 of the 150 acres, included in NewPorte Landing, little of the area proposed for initial development is owned by the city.

The initial phase of the NewPorte Landing project is expected to be concentrated on new retail space, with three large anchor stores and several smaller structures planned.

Future phases will include up to 100 new owner-occupied homes in areas north of Truesdell Avenue, and future retail and commercial development along the proposed Lake Street extension from Pine Lake Avenue and Madison Street to Hoelocker Drive.

Morris said developers are expected to make an initial capital investment of more than $25 million, increasing the property tax generated by that property from $9,420 a year to $104,783. The total capital investment by private investors is estimated at $55 million by the time NewPorte Landing is completed.