Chesterton: Big downtown plans

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Downtown Chesterton — A clock at the corner of Thomas Centennial Park marks time at the corner of Calumet and Broadway, the heart of downtown Chesterton.

YMCA, skate and dog parks, new master plan fuel town’s growth

Downtown is the heart of any town. And Chesterton’s downtown is getting a heart transplant.

The new Duneland YMCA Healthy Living Campus, where the former 300,000-square-foot Chesterton Middle School once stood, already is serving some community members.

“This is a transformational project for the town,” said Mark Chamberlain, principal at CAPTRUST in Chesterton, and a YMCA board member.

The campus should be fully operational in winter 2026. Until then, the YMCA at 215 Roosevelt St. still is operating programs and facilities.

“(The Healthy Living Campus is) going to attract somewhere around 2,000 visitors a day, four blocks from downtown,” he said.

But that’s not the only project putting Chesterton on a growth trajectory.

A comprehensive town plan is underway. The park district just approved its five-year plan in April. It includes a dog park and a skate park. The town also has a new police station, with a fire station in the works. The library is making upgrades to several facilities. And town officials are working to bring more business development, which will lead to more jobs and residents.

But the Y project still is the biggest.

Duneland Chamber of Commerce President Maura Mundell said the project has become much more than an upgraded YMCA.

“What began as a much-needed investment in a building and services for those seeking health and social services support has evolved into something much bigger: a catalyst for connectivity, community and a stronger Duneland for all,” she said.

YMCA for everyone

So far, more than $8 million has been raised for the $40 million YMCA. Chamberlain, campaign chair for the Healthy Living Campus, said this is one of the biggest nonprofit projects in the county’s history, if not No. 1.

“If the YMCA and Duneland School Corp. hadn’t come to an agreement here, this would have been a vacant building and an eyesore in the middle of downtown,” Chamberlain said.

Part of the old school has been razed, including Goldsborough Gym, where Chamberlain remembers many high school games played when the former middle school was still the high school.

The bricks from the razed portion were ground up for reuse during construction. That’s not only environmentally friendly, it’s also saving the YMCA a bundle on construction costs. It’s also a nod to the Duneland area’s history as a brickmaking center.

Chamberlain’s family made a large financial gift to turn the old school auditorium into a performing arts space. He’s hoping the Northwest Indiana Symphony will perform there. Chamberlain sang with the symphony chorus and had plenty of experience playing brass instruments and acting on that stage when he was in high school there.

“It’s 50% bigger than Munster High School,” he said, offering 620 seats on the sloped floor. A grant from Indiana Dunes Tourism will fund ADA-compliant seating.

Chamberlain hopes a concession area will be included as well.

In about a year, a wellness center addition should be complete on the west side of the building, where Goldsborough Gym was removed, said Jenna Hunter, YMCA senior director of marketing and communications.

What was once considered the girls’ gym, back in the 1970s, remains.

The YMCA is already using the school’s pool, as is Jacob’s Ladder, one of the initial tenants in the complex. Jacob’s Ladder provides therapy for children with disabilities.

Jeff Berglund is intimately connected to the YMCA construction project — not just because his company is the general contractor but also because he’s a YMCA board member and Chesterton resident.

“The idea is that it will be a one stop for people to get healthy on a variety of levels,” said Berglund Construction’s building division president and chief growth officer.

Offering theater, arts, health care and more, “it’s really meant to be a central hub for the community to get healthier in a lot of different ways,” Berglund said.

Cleveland-Cliffs made a large contribution, Chamberlain said, to turn the old football field into a park on the campus.

Mundell is excited about the project.

“A thriving downtown is the heartbeat of a community. It reflects its history, drives its economy, and brings people together,” she said. “The new Duneland YMCA is more than a facility upgrade; it’s an upgrade to the whole downtown experience.”

She expects the new facility to drive economic growth.

“With plans to serve thousands of families on a single, centrally located campus, the Y is poised to bring a steady flow of new energy and opportunity within walking distance of our downtown.”

Outdoor amenities

The downtown has three major parks — Thomas Centennial Park, the flagship, along with Coffee Creek Preserve hidden behind the commercial buildings along Calumet Avenue at Broadway. Chesterton Park is adjacent to the Healthy Living Campus.

“I think parks play a major role in the quality of life in Chesterton,” Park Superintendent Tyler McLead said.

When people decide whether to move to a community, they look at the downtown, schools and parks.

“If you’re strong in those three areas, you will likely have a vibrant community,” he said.

The park system’s 2021 master plan called for redeveloping Coffee Creek Park, which is separate from the Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve east of Indiana 49. Already, a boardwalk and some shelters have been built through the portion closest to Calumet Avenue. More will be added on the eastern portion of the park.

A new five-year plan, approved April 1, includes skate and dog parks as a priority. McLead said a dog park will be developed on 27 acres near Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve.

A skate park off Prairie Duneland Trail was removed.

“It didn’t prove to be a good location for it,” he said. Among the options now are the 60-acre Dogwood Park on the town’s south side or Chesterton Park adjacent to the Healthy Living Campus.

Financing park construction projects is a challenge for Chesterton, as it is for many municipalities. The town plans to issue a $10 million bond for parks, replacing the existing $10 million bond, later this year. But as costs go up, spending power goes down.

“There’s an appetite in the community for newer amenities and additional amenities,” but those cost money, McLead said. “We have a lot of infrastructure that’s right around that 25 to 30 years old” life expectancy.

Earlier this year, a parks foundation was formed to raise funds for the town’s parks.

“There’s a lot of successful park foundations. We’re surrounded by quite a few of them,” he said.

Volunteers like the Duneland Garden Club help, too.

“They’re out there a couple times a week during the growing season, tending to all the landscaping at the park,” McLead said.

Growing pains

That small-town feel makes Chesterton so attractive to newcomers.

“Chesterton has its own identity, which in some ways revolves around being a smaller town,” Berglund said.

His families goes to the farmers market every Saturday and the Coffee Creek market, including on cold nights. The town is a gateway to Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes National Park.

Berglund Construction is based on the south side of Chicago, but the company has a strong presence in Chesterton for functions like accounting and similar operations.

As Chesterton grows, there’s a struggle to find the balance between long-time residents’ resistance to change and newer residents’ aspirations for growth, he said.

From his perspective, growth is inevitable. “If you don’t grow, you die.”

“I think that is one of the challenges is figuring out that growth as well as maintaining that small-town feel,” said Rebecca Parker, Chesterton’s director of economic development and operations.

The town’s growth is undeniable.

Urschel Laboratories relocated to the Coffee Creek development, now using 525,000 square feet to develop equipment that slices and dices food around the world. Chances are good that at least one food product you eat during a typical day has been prepared using one of Urschel’s machines.

Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute has a large presence in the same development. CAPTRUST is there, as well as a hotel and a host of restaurants and other commercial development.

Residential growth has been strong, too, and not just at Coffee Creek.

Easton Park, a residential development in recent years, is on a list Parker ticked off.

Lessons learned

Now the town is taking a proactive approach to development instead of just waiting for the developers, Parker said.

“We’re taking a front seat in the car,” she said. “We’re not just growing to grow.”

Town Council President Sharon Darnell said she hopes the new comprehensive plan due out next year will extend the definition of downtown to stretch west to 15th Street along Broadway, as far north on Calumet Avenue as Indian Boundary Road just south of Interstate 94 and as far south as County Road 1100 North, where the Calumet Avenue commercial district begins.

She’s only one of five members on the Town Council and one of seven on the Plan Commission, so the decision is not entirely hers, she pointed out.

“We have purposely enjoyed a 2% to 3% growth” annually, she said.

The chamber leader is excited about the comprehensive planning.

“This is more than just a planning process, it’s an opportunity to shape a shared vision for the future of our town,” Mundell said. “Over the next 10 years, this plan will serve as a roadmap for thoughtful growth, vibrant downtown development, and a strong sense of place we can all be proud of.”

One economic development project shot down last year was a huge one, worth about $1.3 billion.

Provident Realty Advisors planned to develop a data center on the Brassie, a former golf course gone to seed.

“What was not followed was procedure,” Darnell said, which would have provided a thorough vetting of the project. The Plan Commission wanted something better than a sketch to make its decision.

After the data center firestorm, the town has become better prepared to invite economic development.

“It’s been kind of word of mouth,” Parker said, so far, but she has been meeting with landowners and business owners. “It’s reopened conversations that have happened in the past.”

“Things are happening in the background,” Darnell said. “Any smart community has to do its homework.”

That includes the comprehensive plan, which American Structurepoint is helping the town develop. The plan will identify different “character districts,” like the downtown, and figure the best use of properties, Parker said.

Residents, business groups and others will be invited to share their input, she said.

After the data center project met with such strong opposition, the town is using that situation to guide future development of the Brassie parcel, Parker said.

“One of our pillars in this new economic development infrastructure is being inclusive and transparent,” she said.

Work continues

Chesterton also has great tourism potential. Parker said the town needs to think about how to help tourists navigate the town, including finding their way downtown, guiding them to places to eat and drink.

“The chamber does a great job locally with the local businesses,” Parker said, and Indiana Dunes Tourism’s videos help tourists as well.

“This is a new chapter for Chesterton that we’re embarking on,” she said. “It’s going to take time to see the fruits of the seeds we’re planting.”

Westchester Public Library is planting more than seeds. It is all about new chapters.

Executive Director Heather Chaddock has been investing in the library’s buildings, including HVAC, roof and lighting at the Thomas Branch in Chesterton and a new roof at the Baugher Center nearby. Next up is the Westchester Township History Museum in the Brown Mansion, which is owned by the library. That’s near the Healthy Living Campus.

“We’re using any old photos we can find” to guide the work at the museum. A new roof, tuckpointing and an addition are needed.

What used to be a carriage house is where there will be a temperature-controlled facility convenient for researchers.

“We have researchers come through all the time,” Chaddock said, to access archives that include Duneland Prairie Club records.

Staff offices are being moved from the main part of the museum, too.

“This project at the Brown Mansion has been saved for and dreamed of for years,” Chaddock said.

The mansion, built in 1885, will require $5 million in renovations, part of which is for an elevator, “which is expensive but sorely needed,” she said. The Queen Anne mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places.

At the library, Chaddock’s team has focused on meeting patrons’ needs with a variety of programming. “We offer multiple programs for all ages every month,” she said.

A “Snacking Around the World” series exposes teen and tweens to different cultures. Arts and crafts programs are typically filled up the day they’re posted, Chaddock said.

An adult learning program is housed at Thomas Library. Students tour the library and get a library card as part of their enrollment. “It’s been a win-win to help the students and the library,” Chaddock said.

Among recent upgrades is four individual private study rooms for one or two people. Each soundproofed room offers USB outlets, and the air circulates every 60 seconds.

Nearby is a desk with an attached playpen for a young child, purchased by First Things First Porter County. “Not everyone has the luxury of child care to come and get things done at the library,” Chaddock said.

Town Hall is getting an upgrade, too, so all town meetings will be at the library’s Baugher Center while work is underway, Darnell said.

The town last year opened a police station on Broadway, so it’s the fire department’s turn for a station upgrade. “They’ve patiently waited,” she said, as the new police station was being built across the street.

A top floor will be added to the fire station. “It’s not a short-term fix,” Darnell said. “This has been a ping-pong ball in my head for a long time.”

Town Hall has railroad tracks right behind it, so soundproofing is a high priority. Those tracks send noisy trains past town hall, interrupting meetings, and past Thomas Centennial Park, interrupting concerts in the gazebo and on the lawn.

But the tracks show the importance of transportation to Chesterton. The town is sandwiched between I-94 and the Indiana Toll Road, with railroads in between.

“If anyone is the Crossroads of America, we are,” Darnell said.

A fiber optic system runs through town, and a utility corridor was extended south to accommodate Northwest Health’s hospital along U.S. 6 and Indiana 49.

“They certainly are on a lot of people’s radar,” she said. “We must plan for infinity, not a drop in the bucket.”

Meantime, she plans to take advantage of the new YMCA pool.

“I was an otter in another life,” Darnell said. •

Read more stories from the current issue of Northwest Indiana Business Magazine.

Doug Ross
Doug Ross is an award-winning journalist with 40 years of experience in Northwest Indiana. Ross is a native Hoosier and a graduate of Valparaiso University.
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