Developers pitch PUD for Beckman School site; residents raise health and notice concerns

Developers seeking a planned-unit development (PUD) rezoning for the vacant Beckman School site told the Gary City Council at a public meeting that they need zoning approval to attract tenants, but several nearby residents said they were not properly notified and warned the project could bring pollution and safety problems.

The PUD proposers—represented by developer Christina Primvas and Kyle Glascott of Indiana Investment Properties—said the plan would create an office-warehouse building to support light industrial and business users and that the parcel’s zoning must change before prospective operators will commit. Primvas said the team does not yet have an operator: “We do not at this point. What we have to do is to get the zoning, allowing our PUD in order to attract those, uses that will come.”

Why it matters: The Beckman School parcel is a large, long-vacant site in Gary. Rezoning it to allow light industrial and mixed uses could substantially raise the property’s market value and enable new construction, but residents and some council members pressed developers for concrete tenant commitments and for assurances about health, traffic and neighborhood impact.

Residents at the meeting gave mixed reactions. Brianna Standifer said she supports development if it returns revenue and jobs: “I’m actually all for it. If it creates job revenue and actually, you know, at least gives back to the community decent enough, I’m all for it.” By contrast, a nearby resident who said she recently had an asthma attack raised air-quality and safety concerns and said she received meeting notice only three hours before the session.

Jerry Hayman, who said he visited the comparable facility in East Chicago, described that facility as attractive and argued Gary needs jobs to support rising housing prices: “If you look at the prices of houses right now in Gary, I mean, houses are selling in hundreds of thousands of dollars. So you need people that’s gonna have jobs that could afford these houses.”

Developers described prior market interest on the site and losses of earlier partners. Christina Primvas said Dayton Street Properties had contracted to relocate about 200 jobs to the site and to build what she described as a $50,000,000 facility, but that Dayton Street instead went to Portage. Primvas said the team has completed environmental assessments (phase I and II) and called the property “clean.”

Kyle Glascott estimated current market value “maybe 500,000 to a million dollars” in the site’s present condition and said rezoning could raise market value to roughly $3 million to $4 million. Commercial-banking participant Kenneth Westington, speaking from a finance perspective, said owning the real estate changes financing dynamics and noted the parcel’s roughly 19 acres would gain value immediately if zoning changes are approved.

Council members questioned the lack of signed lease agreements and sought clarity on permitted uses. One council member summarized the developers’ approach as a “build it and they will come” strategy and said the council needs evidence of tenant commitments before altering zoning. Developers and counsel said the PUD document is based on an earlier commercial PUD template and was tailored to match M-1-type zoning for this parcel.

No formal zoning vote occurred at the meeting. Council leadership said the presentation will be scheduled for the council meeting on Tuesday so members can review printed and digital materials in advance; a vote was announced as planned for that Tuesday meeting. Several council members asked staff and developers for narrower permitted-use language and for lease or operator commitments to be provided before a final vote.

Next steps: The council will receive the developers’ full presentation at the Tuesday meeting, at which a vote is scheduled. Developers said they will be available for that session and that they intend to pursue tenants after zoning is approved.