A four-story Springhill Suites Hotel will soon rise up on the former Munster Steel property at Calumet Avenue and 45th Street.
In addition to the all-suite hotel, the Centennial Village development will offer a mixed use “walkable lifestyle” mall featuring retail outlets and multi-unit housing.
“By the summer, you will see a hotel,” said Munster Town Council President John Reed, R-1st.
Plans for Centennial Village show condominium units occupying the upper floors of 3-4 out-buildings, accompanied by retail outlets on the first floor. The residential/retail buildings would surround a centralized big box retailer. Residential tenants will be accommodated with underground parking.
However, the entire development hinges on variety of future economic and market factors, according to Reed. Ultimately, growth decisions are in the hands of developer Matthew Kimmel of Schererville.
“I want to see what really comes,” Reed said. “We can always stop progress if we don’t like what is being proposed for the area, but right now it’s certainly better than before.”
Centennial Village will sport a neo-traditional architecture, characterized by brick, natural masonry and architectural cast stone materials.
The development complements plans to address longtime traffic congestion at Calumet and 45th. As part of the development, 45th is being extended 900 feet east through the property and reconnecting to the section of 45th east of Calumet and over the railroad tracks running parallel to the roadway.
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Further intersection enhancements feature an overpass/underpass configuration that would eliminate the railroad crossing, although that project is yet to be funded.
Centennial Village is located immediately north of Centennial Park, which was built on the former site of the Munster landfill. To accommodate the development, the park lost the land where three soccer fields were located. However, three new soccer fields have been built at Westlakes Park, and Reed said five more are on the way.
The Pennsy Greenway Trial will be extended from the development’s southern boundary and along the western shoreline of Clay Hole Lake. The trail extension will run south to the new 45th Street right of way.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.