Lake County Commissioners are ready to give potential developers of a county convention and event center up to five months to put their best proposals together to submit for consideration.
The Board of Commissioners Wednesday approved going out for proposals from developers based on a completed specification package for the project.
Proposals are due back to the board of commissioners by Oct. 16, according to commissioners’ attorney Matt Fech. The timeline also includes a period for questions from developers compiling submissions. The commissioners then will have until the middle of December to decide if they want to award it at that time.
“Given the size and scope of the project, we want to make sure that Lake County partners with the right entity,” Fech said.
Commission President Michael Repay, D-Hammond, said the specification is sufficiently open to give developers the flexibility to look at what the county wants and utilize the RDA report as well to help inform their proposal.
“We are looking for creative proposals from qualified groups that can get the job done,” Repay said. “I’m optimistic. I’m not even cautiously optimistic. I’m robustly optimistic.”
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Once a proposal is accepted by commissioners, negotiations will begin based on the legislation and funding.
“I think it’s been established by consultants that some form of convention center is in need and desirable for our county. That’s a basic jumping off point. The who, what and where — those things are up in the air,” Repay said.
Fech said the specifications for the bid were developed by MCR Partners LLC.
“The way the RFP is drafted really allows anybody who is interested in this project a blank canvas to present to the board of commissioners for their consideration,” Fech said.
“It should really give a developer a lot of excitement for the opportunity to partner with the Lake County Board of Commissions in their creation of a one-of-a-kind venue to draw people to the county. It should be a state-of-the-art facility that would rival any secondary market in the country,” Fech said.
“I know they are dedicated to providing the very best product to be able to present to the constituents,” Fech said.
Matt Reardon with MCR Partners said he believes the schedule will provide the industry with enough time to put together thoughtful proposals that can include all of the items that are not only important to the taxpayers of Lake County, but also as prescribed by the Indiana General Assembly.
“We are looking forward to innovation in not only structure and programming, but private financing,” Reardon said.
Unlike some projects that are government-driven, the convention center development would be a private-sector project with a public partner. The way the legislation and specifications are written it leverages the private sector to partner with Lake County to build the development, Reardon said.
As a private sector project, it helps confirm the feasibility and future sustainability of whatever is developed.
The convention center became a possibility under the legislation approved by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb last year. Commissioners will be responsible for selecting the entity or entities that partner to build and operate a convention center. The center will be overseen by a six-member board, and the commissioners will appoint three members of the board.
The legislation also gives the Lake County Council the ability to raise the state innkeeper’s tax — currently 5% — by as much as an additional 5% without having to go before the state legislature for approval in order to provide a revenue stream for the project.
The legislation tasks the Regional Development Authority with financial oversight of the revenues collected for the center and requires it to update its prior study that looked at potential locations. In March, Johnson Consulting released an updated market study on 14 potential sites — Hobart’s Patriot Park at 7800 Mississippi Street ranked first, followed by the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana site in Gary, the old Century Mall on the south side of U.S. 30 in Merrillville, the former Radisson Star Plaza site in Merrillville, and Kennedy Avenue at Interstate 94 in Hammond.