SUSAN ERLER, Times of Northwest Indiana
serler@nwitimes.com
Once planned as a model of new urbanism, Coffee Creek Center is poised to head in a new direction.
Much of the 640-acre development was sold earlier this year to developer James Gierczyk, who said last week he plans a mix of housing types, including some targeting older adults, and not necessarily cast in the new-urban mold.
"I love the (new urbanism) concept, but I'm not so sure it will work here, and it certainly didn't work in the past," Gierczyk said. " I want to move forward with exciting projects that make sense."
Gierczyk said he's working with as many as 20 developers with interest in not only Coffee Creek but the adjoining, and more upscale, Sand Creek residential development.
Major parcels of Coffee Creek and neighboring Sand Creek, along with the Sand Creek Country Club, were sold to Gierczyk's Chesterton Development Partners LLC in a June agreement with previous owner Lake Erie Land Co., a subsidiary of energy provider NiSource Inc.
"Teaming with Gierczyk will expedite development of these prime properties in Porter County, which will benefit economic development in Northwest Indiana," Tom Godfrey, then a lawyer for Lake Erie Land Co. and now the company's vice president, said at the time.
The swank country club was valued at $11.9 million at the time of sale, according to financial documents filed by NiSource.
Neither Kris Falzone, NiSource vice president of corporate communications, nor Gierczyk would say what Gierczyk paid Lake Erie Land Co. for the Coffee Creek and Sand Creek residential land.
Gierczyk, who has developed residential and commercial projects in other states, including in nearby New Buffalo, Mich., will be the lead developer of Coffee Creek and Sand Creek, although Lake Erie Land continues to own some parcels of land there, Falzone said.
Lake Erie Land Co. also is under contract with Gierczyk to manage the Sand Creek County Club, where Gierczyk said he hopes to build membership by as many as 125 new members, with incentives offered to attract homebuyers in Coffee Creek and Sand Creek.
Coffee Creek, established a decade ago on a stretch of rolling grassland cut through by a creek just east of the Ind. 49 bypass in Chesterton, has sat nearly empty of development since then.
The community was planned around the new-urban concept of pedestrian friendly developments of homes built closer to sidewalks and on smaller lots than in subdivision developments.
Outside of an 88-unit apartment building and about a dozen homes, the development failed to attract homebuyers, even on parcels already laid out with roads and streetlights.
Gierczyk said he will work on an overall development plan for Coffee Creek with Chesterton town officials, who had approved it as a planned unit development governed by certain restrictive covenants.
Gierczyk said he plans to seek the use of a special taxing district that overlaps onto the Coffee Creek property, where property taxes generated by improvements to the land are used to build infrastructure.
The tax increment financing money "would be necessary to offset the infrastructure cots that are needed in order for us to solicit and bring on new development," Gierczyk said.
A number of types of housing are planned, including some for older adults whose interests might center on the golf course and other amenities at the Sand Creek Country Club, Gierczyk said.
Steger-based Phillipe Builders has arrived first on the scene at Coffee Creek, with plans for the Village Green Townhomes, off of Sidewalk Road at the north end of the development.
The company hopes to start construction before the end of the year on the first of 65 townhome units, in three-unit and four-unit buildings, Rachael Phillipe said.
Coffee Creek's setting, surrounding a 167-acre nature preserve at the center, is expected to appeal to buyers, Phillippe said.
"The way the land has been preserved is the most significant feature," Phillipe said. "It's a great location for people commuting."
Giercyzk is also working with the developer of a commercial center along Ind. 49, with the hope of bringing in retailers that will cater to the location, he said.
"It's a Catch-22," Gierczyk said. "If you don't have the rooftops, you can't expect to entertain retail development. We're getting the rooftops and slowly bringing the developers on board."
George Stone, president of the Chesterton Plan Commission, said Gierczyk's plans seem as if they're on the right track.
"It sounds good," Stone said, "so long as the developers are going to be developing in accordance with the (planned unit development)."
Coffee Creek "has been sitting there for many moons waiting for somebody to pick it up and build on it," Stone said. "We will do everything we can to cooperate with any of these developers."