Merrillville's next industrial park took another step forward this week. The town council moved ahead with a tax abatement for Crow Holdings' Sanders Farm development, stretching along Mississippi Street from 93rd to 101st avenues.
Matt Kurucz leads Crow Holdings Industrial's Midwest office. He told council members Tuesday the park will include five buildings, including the region's first million-square-foot spec building.
"The labor is phenomenal here. They can pull everybody from executives down to fork truck drivers. You've just got such a wide expanse of labor resources here, and we'd hate to see that go to other communities along I-65," Kurucz added.
As part of the abatement, taxes will be phased in over the next 10 years, with no real property taxes at all for the first three years. But Kurucz said that will still bring in 30 times more tax revenue than it currently does as farmland.
Crow will also help with the cost of extending water, sewer and power lines to the area. And Council Member Shawn Pettit said it's also expected to buy equipment for a new police and fire station Merrillville plans to build.
"That'll be hammered out during the economic development agreement. We've kicked around fire apparatus, possible ambulance. We need to get some costs from both Chief [Wiley Luther] Cuttino and from [Fire] Chief [Ed] Yerga , and we'll finalize that, "Pettit explained.
Council Member Jeff Minchuk said the town's public safety committee has narrowed down some potential locations and put together a list of what it would like to see at the new station.
