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Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Gary officials celebrate progress of Aetna home construction
As he stood outside a newly constructed home on 10th Avenue, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said the structure represented much more. 'This is proof that Gary's plan and strategy in revitalizing neighborhoods is in the works,' Melton said Friday. 'This is more than just a city initiative — this is a collaborative effort with stakeholders and organizations that are extremely important.' Melton and other officials allowed the public to see progress on the first single-family home to be built in the Aetna neighborhood in decades. The home, located at 5544 E. 10th Ave., will be complete near the end of July. The development was spearheaded by Frederick Long and Laneé Nicole, local real estate professionals, and developer David Sutor. The Gary Redevelopment Commission opened a Requests for Proposals process in 2024, with the proposal selected during a June 5, 2024, commission meeting, according to a news release. 'Today is a celebration, not just of building homes, but of people, of partnerships, of promise and progress,' Nicole said. 'This isn't just a house — it's somebody's home. This isn't just a community — it's our community.' The single-family structure is part of 15 planned homes that will feature ranch-style and two-story options, modern amenities and new construction. All homes will be built on a slab without basements. Ranch properties will be about 1,400 square feet, starting at about $220,000, and two-story homes will be about 2,000 square feet and start at about $260,000, according to a news release. The remaining 14 homes are planned to be completed throughout the next couple of years. Christopher Harris, executive director of redevelopment for the city of Gary, said his goal is to see more than demolition in the city, and seeing the new home Friday gave him hope for the future. 'Think about it: 15 new construction homes in this neighborhood,' Harris said. 'It hasn't happened (in Aetna) in decades. That speaks to the demand, right?' The construction is part of the city's initiative to remove blighted structures throughout Gary. In March, the city began its second phase of the Aetna demolition, according to Post-Tribune archives. Blight elimination is one of Melton's focuses as mayor. As state senator, Melton created the Senate Bill 434, which established the blighted property demolition fund and allows the city to receive $6 million from the state of Indiana for blight elimination. The city had to match those funds, with half coming from American Rescue Plan Act funds and $3 million from the Hard Rock casino. On Friday, Melton said his goal was to start demolishing blighted homes in Aetna before moving to the rest of the city. Last year, Gary demolished about 40 blighted structures in the Aetna neighborhood, Melton said. 'We piloted this targeted approach to make a noticeable, meaningful and impactful difference, so residents can see (the change),' he said. 'Is it complete? Absolutely not. There's still a lot of work left to do.' Melton believes the Aetna neighborhood offers many opportunities to residents and future homeowners. He highlighted its proximity to the South Shore Line's Miller train station, a Gary Public Transportation Corporation route and major highways, including Interstates 65, 94, 90 and 80. He also highlighted the proximity to Miller's Lake Street offerings, the beachfront and Indiana Dunes National Park. Councilman Myles Tolliver, D-at large, spoke at Friday's press conference, saying he's excited about what the development means for Aetna's future. Tolliver shared Melton's sentiments about why Aetna is a prime location for new development. 'Here is the greatest city in Northwest Indiana,' Tolliver said. 'It's time for us to show it. We do that by building infrastructure and what will be homes.'
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From Eyesore to Opportunity: Gary's Side Lot Program Gives Hope to Homeowners
Gaynette Ford remembers the day she danced in the street. After years of living next to a crumbling drug house, where strangers loitered, and needles littered the ground, she had all but given up on getting it torn down. Then, one afternoon, she came home to a sight she never expected: a demolition crew leveling the eyesore to the ground. 'I danced in the streets, just to have the comfort of knowing it was gone,' she recalled. Ford, 81, has lived in her Gary home since the early 1980s, when she bought it at auction for $25,000. For decades, she maintained the vacant lot next door, taking care of the grass and upkeep, even though it wasn't officially hers. All she wanted was to keep her block looking decent. The Gary Side Lot Program, housed in the office of the Gary Redevelopment Commission, allows citizens who live next door or adjacent to an empty lot or parcel owned by the city to acquire the lot. Categorized as 'side lots,' the program aims to reduce blighted conditions within neighborhoods and return properties to the tax rolls. 'Our goal is to make sure that as the city grows, that the people who stuck it in with the city have the opportunity to grow wealth,' said Chris Harris, executive director of redevelopment. He said the Gary Redevelopment Commission owns more than 4,000 properties throughout the city, over 80% of which are vacant lots. Gary homeowners interested in the program must visit the redevelopment office, where staff will help determine eligibility. If the city or another entity owns the lot, the office will work to secure the land rights for the homeowner. Applicants must be current on their city and state taxes for at least two years and have lived in the city for an extended period while maintaining sole ownership of their existing property. They must also attend a meeting with the commission to explain why they want the lot and what they plan to do with it. Once approved, program participants can use the lot to build a garage, create off-street parking, expand their yard for gardening, or add other structures that enhance the property. 'The vision was always to make sure that the homeowner's current parcel was contiguous with the parcel we just acquired, and it would not just be separate but still in their name,' Harris said, emphasizing that people record their new deeds when going through the program to make everything official. With over 30 citizens completing the program, the office hopes to ramp up information dissemination to encourage citizens to continue the process. 'It just helps with the aesthetics of the city,' said Harris about the program. A big push for this program has been giving these lots to homeowners who have taken care of them, even before the program awarded ownership of the plot. One of the program's successes, Shirley Griffin, moved to Gary from Mississippi shortly after graduating from high school in the late '80s. While working in finance and accounting, her family invested in the home for about $5,000, which they bought and fixed up. The house next door was once a sanctuary for drug users, she said. But eventually, the house was torn down, and she and her family took it upon themselves to keep the vacant lot tidy. 'I want it to look nice where I am staying,' Griffin said. At some point, someone asked why she didn't just buy the side lot. She didn't even know that was an option. Hearing about the program from a neighbor, she decided to steamroll the process of getting her side lot. The most stressful part of the process was the waiting game to see if she got approved. 'I think it's really good for homeowners because they have more property,' Griffin said. 'These houses are so close together, so now you have more room off to the side of it, you won't hear loud music or other things going on.' Many of the vacant lots owned by the city are in the Midtown neighborhood and can be traced back to the socioeconomic divide in the city. Surveys from the Gary Commercial Club in the 1930s showed these areas were heavily concentrated in poverty, with redlining following slowly behind it as the city rapidly grew with development but fell shortly afterward thanks to overcrowding and weak building regulations. Attempts to tackle these challenges have long been part of the city's agenda. In the 1960s, former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher sought to combat the city's poverty through his Model Cities program, which rehabbed areas where crime and poverty existed. Senior homes, low-income housing, and other retail locations were built along Broadway to aid in the high unemployment rate for black people while fixing the poverty rate. For Ford and Griffin, reclaiming the neglected land isn't just about expanding their property; it's about building something lasting and leaving behind a piece of themselves. When it's warmer, Ford plans to plant a garden with benches and chairs for others in the community to enjoy. She hopes a program like this will encourage more people to come to Gary and stay for a long time. As the walls of her home were filled with pictures and information for the last several generations, a favorite pastime is to study her family's history; she looks forward to what the future could be for those other recipients as well. Meanwhile, Griffin is planning her own transformation. Now that the lot is officially hers, she plans to have it cleaned back into her backyard to remove any shrubbery. She has ideas for what to do with her project, from a garden with a firepit to a small office space to a recreation area for her family. As a full-time caretaker of her disabled daughter, she hopes this program will encourage other community members to join and continue to make changes throughout the city. 'I'm benefiting, and the city is benefiting too; plus, the neighbors are gonna appreciate that it's looking nice over here because it makes their property look nice, too,' she said. The post From Eyesore to Opportunity: Gary's Side Lot Program Gives Hope to Homeowners appeared first on Capital B Gary.
