Northwest Indiana Discussion

What's the status of the new location for Flossmoor Station at Oxbow Landing? Have they broken ground?

Articles said construction would begin by September, and it would be open by Spring. I drove by last in Mid-October and it didn't look like anything had happened yet.

Just like Cabela's, Hammond officials called it a "destination" development and called it "one of the top developments in the City". Remember the water park?

However the Craft Brewery market is getting a bit bubbly ...... with a number of recently opened breweries in NW Indiana (plus one in Lansing) competing with some established ones.

There have been a number of recent articles about the Craft Beer Bubble forming at a time when beer consumption is down 20% since 2001 and down 2% in 2012 alone.

Speaking of catching bubbles just as they burst, Hammond did a superlative job of building an expensive, unprofitable golf course just as the Tiger Woods-induced "golf boom" was well on the wane.

How do you all do it?

Several other projects are progressing. Munster Steel's new plant in the West Point Industrial Park is has started erecting walls now that it's foundation is finished.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/munster-steel-breaks-ground-on-new-facility-in-hammond/article_f42e4ad5-fb7e-5b17-9320-4a17a8ee21f7.html
Charter Fitness is renovating the Old Stardust bowling alley and will open in the spring. Two Family Dollar stores will open in the spring and the new Wal-Mart will break ground south of Cabela's shortly. On the residential end, 2013 has been a record year for permits as buyers are snapping up foreclosures and renovating them. Real estate prices are rising as the number of available homes has fallen. The Purdue Calumet will be breaking ground on it's athletic complex at Dowling Park shortly. There are quite a few bright spots in Hammond and I believe that trend will continue.

Two Dollar Stores!! That's terribly exciting news for the 60 child development, communications, African-American history, and feminist theory majors that got their degrees through the College Bound Vote Buying Program! You're going to have to build a fence from Hammond to keep out the flood of professionals looking to better themselves via a career at a Dollar Store!

So, a steel company is moving a few miles north--bringing with it the same workers it has now. A Walmart is closing and re-opening in a new location. A fitness center--the last refuge for any commercial building that has remained vacant for too long--is opening in an area already saturated with them? And a "sports complex"--the last refuge for large, vacant areas of land that no one can jam down a private business's throat? That's economic development?

Well, I guess that compared to Gary, Hammond is the Land of Milk and Honey.

Be careful, you will be accused of being anti-Hammond with talk like that. I read where the Potash corporation was experiencing some difficulties, I hope this won't impact the 5 new jobs they are supposed to bring to Hammond.

They may be bringing five, but like the overly optimistic article stated about Munster Steel, that number could rise by 5-10 if the red-hot economic climate in Hammond continues to explode.

It would indeed be foolish to bet against Hammond when masterminds like The Oracle are running the show. I must be stuck in a rut.

Sparks,

I remember you spouting your vitriol about Walmart, and how you shop on the internet for cheap crap instead of giving a dime to Walmart.

Yet now you are praising them building (errr moving) in Hammond. A move that will leave a gaping big box hole (next to the hole that the mayor promised would be filled almost 6 years ago) on what the Mayor called the new shopping district. Exactly how is Hammond going to fill 100,000 sf of space when we can't even fill a 50,000 sf space at "the most valuable retail space" in NW Indiana?

Now you talk of 2 Family Dollars (really 1 because the Sohl store is supposed to close) as the sign that Hammond has finally arrived. In reality, the sign of the failing demographics of Hammond because it's marketing strategy is selling to those that have had to downsize from Walmart due to the economy.

So what happens to the retail spaces in Hammond when Dollar General and Family Dollar merge? It's been brought up 2 times recently (September and October) by Dollar General as a way of almost doubling their store locations. Hammond has 2 or 3 Dollar Generals in very close proximity to Family Dollar locations.

So what happened to your criticism of these evil retailers pushing cheap Chinese crap built by slave labor onto the poor?

Is this what happens when you get a city job and become the "New Fowler" and read from the Mayor's little red book?

Speaking of Walmart and cheap Chinese crap Sparky, do you think Crazy Kaplan pays a living wage to all of his employees? Can any given Crazy Kaplan employee raise a family of four on their earnings? What about benefits? Are they equivalent to union packages?

Sounds like Mr. Crazy has done pretty well selling union suckers and other assorted NWIdiots ephemeral pieces of cheap Chinese crap, or does he by his stock from some American fireworks manufacturer of which I am unaware?

Have you, the Mayor, or local unions ever gotten up in his grill about his achieving his success on underpaid help and Asian slave labor?

And the answer is yes ...........

Craft brewery fizzes out in Hammond

http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/craft-brewery-fizzes-out-in-hammond/article_b7c80890-b71f-5d93-aaf1-3f0e9611bbe2.html

So now the site will have a chain restaurant ...a hotel ....and some law offices. That is a far cry from "one of the most valuable pieces of land in the city"

Missed opportunities

1-Woodmar mall
2-Walmart outlots
3-Kennedy Avenue apt. site
4-Cabelas property
5-Indy. Blvd. Aldi's site

Leading the pack

1-dollar stores
2-pawn shops
3-high expectations followed by excuses

Bert ... don't forget the failed promises for outlots at the Robertsdale Walmart ....

What happened? Is there any doubt that this brewery/restaurant would have had the same long-lasting cultural and economic impact on south Hammond that Aquavor did on the downtown area?

Maybe parking space was a concern. Have Hammond officials considered building a few baseball diamonds on the property?

I'm a little confused. How are they going to add 2 more and maybe 3 more stories to the new Dollar Store in the downtownarea? I remember the big sign that sat on that property for years with a picture of the future building to be erected at that site. While checking the downtown area last week I noticed that a truck was parked in the city parking lot at 2am. Didn't they close that lot at night to force the Aquivor to close?

I think you forgot two other big Hammond businesses that bring in tourists

Cheap Smokes
Fireworks

We should be greatful people want to visit Hammond and our booming business