The new Land Development Entity created by the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority hopes to have a director hired by fall.
The LDE board met for the second time Thursday, approving a job description for a new director of brownfield redevelopment and mapping out next steps for the fledgling agency.
“It’s going to be a highly collaborative role,” CEO Sherri Ziller said, working with the RDA, the LDE board, property owners and others to get properties assembled and ready for redevelopment.
The director is expected to work with a variety of partners to establish the LDE as a trusted regional leader in brownfield redevelopment. Someone with strong environmental experience is expected to be hired.
The LDE director will provide strategic leadership as well as day-to-day oversight of its operations, Ziller said.
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The RDA formed the LDE this year as part of its 20-year strategic plan adopted last year.
The LDE is set up to have as many as seven board members, but for right now it’s just three. Chairman Rick Calinski is NIPSCO’s director of public affairs and economic development. Pete Novak is CEO of the Northwest Indiana Realtors Association. Matt Wells is president and CEO of One Region and Purdue University Northwest’s chief engagement officer.
Other board members can be added as the need for additional skill sets on the board is determined.
The LDE’s vision statement says redevelopment is accelerated by assistance in acquiring and stabilizing challenging properties, providing expertise without being constrained by municipal borders. In theory, a site could be within multiple jurisdictions.
Consultant Brian Hurd, founder and managing principal of CDTA Partners, walked the board through several examples of redevelopment elsewhere and how the LDE could work to bring similar results to Northwest Indiana.
Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. and Park Central Redevelopment Corp. have worked together to transform the area near the famous St. Louis teaching hospital.
Just south of the campus is a residential neighborhood with lots of vacant businesses.
“Zoning wasn’t a business regulation tool like it is today,” Hurd said.
It’s difficult to see Washington University as a world-class institution with a neighborhood just to the south with all these issues, he said, so the two groups are doing what the LDE is expected to do in Northwest Indiana: assembling properties, addressing environmental cleanups and getting the properties ready for redevelopment by private companies.
“They’re not a developer,” Hurd said, just assembling properties to be reused for betterment of the community. “They work with developers. They help make it attractive for the area.”
Hurd, who lives in St. Louis, is very familiar with the efforts there.
Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates showed St. Louis lost an estimated 21,700 residents between 2020 and 2024. In 2020, the city had 301,371 residents.
St. Louis overtook San Francisco for the most severe population loss, the St. Louis NPR station reported last year.
The St. Louis Land Reutilization Authority dates to 1951. “Unfortunately, LRA is the largest land owner in the city,” Hurd said, because of the city’s population loss.
But that creates opportunities for redevelopment, he said.
Hurd also cited progress by the Genesee County Authority in the Flint, Michigan, area. Since 2004, the organization has demolished nearly 10,000 structures. In 2025, it sold 584 parcels and demolished 584 structures. That organization has 52 staff members.
“They do a lot of great work together in collaboration for bringing that area back.”
That organization deals with lead issues, including lead paint, that must be addressed to get properties ready for redevelopment at the neighborhood scale.
“I think it’s important for all of us to reflect on the opportunity here,” consultant Aaron Kowalski, associate principal at MKSK, said.
“A lot of those short-term sites will have potentially some interaction with the transit development districts,” he said.
Longer term, the LDE can focus on regionally significant environmentally damaged sites. “You get those dollars in, and then you can focus on bigger and bigger and bigger projects,” Kowalski said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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