Benefits of South Shore expansion, improvements touted by NWI realtors

"This is a project that should have been done 20 to 25 years ago. It probably would have cost one-third of the cost now and would get more people to Northwest Indiana and to see this is a great place to live," GNIAR's CEO Peter Novak told a packed room at Teibel's in Schererville.

"You know better than anyone how this might entice someone to make an investment here," Novak said.

GNIAR was a sponsor of the panel discussion and luncheon. The event featured Realtors from Indiana and Illinois, a local builder, Michael Noland, CEO and general manager of Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, and Bill Hanna, president and CEO of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

Noland said the South Shore currently has only one line extending from South Bend to downtown Chicago where Metra in Illinois has 14 lines. By adding another track, he said the goal is to reduce the time it takes to travel from South Bend to Chicago to 90 minutes from the current one hour and 40 minutes. He said it would take 38 minutes to get from the Miller station in Gary to Chicago and 25 minutes from Hammond to Chicago.

"We could go from 12,000 to 20,000 riders a day. We want to become a destination, but we need to drive the travel times down," Noland said.

"We need to add more trains, but with a single track we're limited in what we an do," he said.

Noland said the double tracking project would cost about $210 million, half of which would be paid through federal government funds. He would like to see this project completed by 2020.

The West Lake addition, he said, would cost $571 million, half of which would be from federal funds. He said there is already enough local funding to do the project, which he hopes will be in operation no later than 2023. This extension would include stations in Dyer, Munster and Hammond.

Novak said there are myriad positive points to both projects, including increased job opportunities, opportunity for higher wages and increased property values. He provided statistics that showed Cook County also has 20 times more jobs in professional services than Lake County.

Novak also pointed out that Lake County is losing its residents, not to Porter County, but to other areas that they consider more attractive.

The millennials are now the biggest segment of home buyers. "They're looking for different things than we did, including public transportation. They want easy access to jobs," Novak said.

"Our goal is to rebuild the middle class in Northwest Indiana," Hanna said.

Dale Taylor, an Illinois Realtor, said mass transit has helped make their communities more marketable, and Jeff Bennett, an Illinois commercial Realtor, pointed to nearby Orland Park, which he said attracted both the University of Chicago and a luxury apartment complex near its Metra station.

Ken Williams, a commercial Realtor in Indiana, called the double tracks a critical component for future development.

"If you can get someone from Michigan City to Chicago in less than an hour it would do nothing but help development all the way down the line," Williams said.

Joe Lenehan, an Indiana residential builder, said as economic development goes up, property values in the town will increase.

"It's GNIAR's position that the good outweighs the bad," Novak said.