Hobart: Brickies forever

Table of Contents

Downtown Hobart is becoming more popular as one of the city’s walkable areas with a variety of shops and attractions that include the Art Theater, a concert venue. (Photo by Doug Ross)

Hobart’s leaders plan city’s future — celebrate victories of today

Hobart has a rock-solid foundation for civic pride. Brickies, as the residents are known, are loyal to their hometown.

Valentine Torres, a parent as well as a business department chair at Hobart High School, is a transplant to the city. She loves Hobart.

“There’s a lot of pride in this town. Someone from the outside in might look at us and say we’re a little vain,” she said.

School City of Hobart Superintendent Peggy Buffington sees that pride often.

On a trip into a McDonald’s in Lebanon, Indiana, out walked a man wearing a Brickies shirt. He was an athletic trainer in Florida, heading home to Hobart to visit his mother.

“I’ve had people on Mount Rushmore, and they sent me a picture. They ran into a Brickie out there,” she said.

Mayor Josh Huddlestun understands that pride and friendliness. He’s glad to see newcomers embrace life in Hobart.

“What we do today — it isn’t for us. You’re planning for the future.”

At age 35, his kids are still young, but he anticipates grandkids someday and wonders what the world — and Hobart — will look like then.

“I say we’re 20 minutes from everything,” Huddlestun said.

The city has a lot to celebrate, and not just Festival Park in which to do so.

Understanding Hobart begins with knowing its downtown, while vibrant, isn’t its only commercial district. It’s a city with four of them, as Huddlestun explained.

Southlake Mall might seem like Merrillville to a lot of people. It even has a Merrillville mailing address. But it’s actually in Hobart, part of the city’s U.S. 30 commercial corridor. Hobart Chamber of Commerce Director Susan Thompson carries a map of the city with her to show potential members where their business truly sits.

There’s also the U.S. 6 corridor, 37th Avenue in Hobart but Ridge Road to the west.

The medical district is along the 61st Avenue corridor, along a route that follows improvements made during previous Mayor Brian Snedecor’s tenure.

Snedecor is pleased with Huddlestun as his successor.

Like Huddlestun, Snedecor is a lifelong resident. Both were city employees before being elected mayor. Snedecor, who served as mayor from 2008 to 2023, was with the police department for 27 years, including more than four years as police chief.

Clear vision

Economic development is an area where Snedecor saw room for growth.

“We saw the growth with the light industrial, a lot of jobs created, good-paying jobs,” he said, along the 61st Avenue corridor, where the Northwinds Crossing complex is bustling.

The city put roundabouts on 61st heading east from I-65 to St. Mary Medical Center, which has greatly expanded. “We look at that as being the gateway to our medical district,” Snedecor said. “Our redevelopment commission played a major, major role in that. Without the RDC’s funding, we would not have been able to finish that.”

Along U.S. 30, Huddlestun’s vision is clear. Like his predecessor, he is looking to address a need.

Hobart was one of the potential locations for a new Lake County convention center before the Hard Rock Casino site in Gary was chosen. But that doesn’t bother Huddlestun. He had another plan for the 280-acre site where White Lodging’s Star Plaza once stood.

The site was once eyed for industrial warehousing. Huddlestun wanted something different. “Can we pause? What kind of development can we create here?” he asked the developer.

The developer donated 80 acres to the city for a youth sports complex.

“Youth sports is a huge tourism industry. You won’t pay your mortgage, but you’ll get your kid to the baseball game,” Huddlestun said.

The remainder of the site would be for mixed-use development, Huddlestun explained while pointing out details on the large concept plan sprawled across the conference table in his office at City Hall. Buildings would have commercial space on the ground floor and residential space above.

There would be pathways winding around for pedestrians and bike riders, meeting a popular demand for transportation nearby. A golf course, concert venue, hotels and more could be added. Some parcels have been left open for future use.

The sports complex’s location just off U.S. 30 would be ideal for tourists, Huddlestun said. The kids could play games there, then seek recreation at other venues, including nearby Deep River Waterpark; satisfy their sweet tooth at Albanese, where gummi bears and other confections are made; spend the night at a hotel; and enjoy meals at the many restaurants in town.

The Olive Garden on a Southlake Mall out lot is one of the chain’s busiest, Huddlestun said. “That place is always packed.”

Big box retailers, hotels and other businesses are attracted to the U.S. 30 corridor off the I-65 interchange. It would be a boon to the sports complex, too.

“We’re super bullish on this,” Huddlestun said.

Approvals have already been granted. “The developer just has to get shovels in the ground,” he said.

“I’m not very patient. That’s been my kryptonite,” Huddlestun said.

The city applied for an Indiana Regional Acceleration and Development Initiative grant to help with funding for the city’s 80-acre parcel. Gov. Eric Holcomb launched READI in 2021, which is in its second phase. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. received $250 million through Lilly Endowment Inc. to allocate toward redevelopment and arts initiatives.

Huddlestun expects the attention and additional residents filling the high-end apartments at that site will benefit some big box stores that now sit empty.

Southlake Mall is on the other side of U.S. 30. In the mall’s heyday, the average was 2.6 visits per purchase. Now it’s one visit per purchase, he said. Shoppers do their homework online instead of at the mall and know what they want before they get there. That reduces the number of visits, but don’t let the increased availability of parking spaces fool you. “A sea of concrete parking isn’t a thing anymore,” he said.

“The mall is stable. They’ve got constant investments,” Huddlestun said.

Downtown, Lake George is a big attraction. Snedecor wanted the city to capitalize on the lakefront more, so the city replaced the Third Street bridge.

The city went below the surface to make other improvements downtown.

“We had an aging, failing sanitary delivery system downtown. We had to do some major, major investment in our downtown,” he said.

“The utilities are there, the infrastructure that they need. I think that was a big turning point,” Snedecor said.

Valuable attraction

Shane Evans, co-owner and operator of Brick House Entertainment Group and the Art Theater downtown, knows the value of the lakefront to his business.

Evans was a store manager for Lowe’s when he had a bad week at the end of 2018. He was at an Alice in Chains concert with a friend who is a real estate agent. That friend mentioned the theater was up for sale and suggested Evans turn it into a concert venue. With his business partner, he purchased the building in January 2019.

“We ran for six months, and then COVID hit,” Evans said. “Venues like ours were the first ones to close and the last ones to reopen.”

Indiana allowed venues like his to reopen several months before Illinois did, so the Art Theater successfully reached out to the border state market to attract new fans who have continued to attend concerts in Hobart.

The Illinoisans were blown away by $6 drinks, free parking and other low-cost features they wouldn’t see in Chicago. “It’s really a unique experience and giving the big-city vibe without big-city costs,” Evans said.

Other downtown businesses appreciate that the theater brings 300 to 500 people a night when concerts are scheduled. “It really brings a lot of that extra income to the town,” he said.

Over the past year, Evans and his partner have developed designs and plan to expand the theater, including a balcony to accommodate 100 additional people, and update facilities. “It’s a huge undertaking, but we’ve really crossed some of those big hurdles already.”

Evans, a Hobart resident for 45 of his 47 years, is proud of his city.

“Hobart has always been a blue-collar town. We’ve been really embraced by the people in the town,” he said. “We try to give back by hiring local people, local youth, doing some free events.”

“The city has been great as far as supporting us,” he said.

Huddlestun, Snedecor and Thompson singled out the Art Theater as instrumental in helping build cohesion among downtown businesses.

“Hobart has invested a lot into its lakefront, into the downtown area,” Evans said.

Plans to build an outdoor concert area have made him eager to help bring even bigger crowds for those concerts.

Hometown pride

Torres grew up in south Hobart. She enjoys outdoor recreation. When she moved, she quickly began taking her kids to the parks, the pool, the YMCA, library and other areas.

“It’s beautiful. What you put into it is what you get out of it,” she said. “If you give 100%, this town is going to give you back 200%.”

Longtime residents have a lot of pride about the city’s past. “The residents here all have roots in this town,” she said.

People will talk about their ancestors and other details about their family’s history in Hobart. When you meet others who move to Hobart later in life, “they’re culture-shocked by the community,” Torres said.

“When you’re on the inside, it feels good that you have a whole community behind you,” she said.

“I was not born a Brickie, I chose to be a Brickie.”

To be welcomed, just be ready for someone to give you your first purple and gold shirt and say you’re now a Brickie, she said. Thompson got one of those soon after becoming executive director at the chamber of commerce.

Buffington has been a Brickie for decades, including her tenure as school superintendent.

She’s focused on giving students a strong head starts in life.

“We have to teach kids to continue to be responsible, kind and pursuing some sort of career that makes them happy,” she said.

Her podcast, “The Brickie Experience,” explores the core values and character traits that define the Brickie spirit, such as hard work, resilience, kindness and ambition.

On the podcast, graduates talk about the sense of community, where the community is out to support them, whether it be in a sport or performance or in times of sadness.

“Brickies are for Brickies,” Buffington said. “There’s just lesson after lesson.”

Lifelong learners

The Brickies from the Start program helps parents from the time they give birth to when the children start kindergarten, guiding parents in such things as literacy and other skills.

“Children, they all come in different sizes, they all come in different abilities. I hope in the future everyone just understands that,” Buffington said.

That’s all part of the school district’s “cradle to career” concept.

Buffington, going into her 19th year as superintendent, embraced technology and innovation early on.

In the 1999-2000 academic year, the U.S. Department of Education was asking what the high school experience should look like. Buffington, who went from teacher to director of technology and assistant superintendent to superintendent, and her team have been building career pathways ever since.

“We have mentored other schools to accomplish that,” she said. Hobart has drawn national attention for its achievements.

Over 44% of Hobart students graduated with either an associate degree, one year of college or an industry certification, Buffington said.

Students are put into various academies to prepare for careers. One of the first was the Cisco Academy to learn computer networking, then came engineering, then biomedical and others. “It just offered kids so many opportunities,” she said.

The dual credit model with Ivy Tech Community College has been helpful. It has resulted in $9.5 million in savings to families, she said.

“We call it Hobart University,” that early college experience in the high school, Buffington said. “We don’t want kids to not be eligible for it,” so it’s marketed heavily. “You can do early college, or you do a career.”

Hobart schools also embraced artificial intelligence early on while other districts discouraged it.

“We’ve never been a district that’s shied away from technology. We’ve always been heavy users of technology as a tool,” Buffington said. “We have to learn how to use AI appropriately.”

The TV show “60 Minutes” featured Hobart after Sal Kahn, of Kahn Academy, asked the district in 2022 to use a version of ChatGPT for students.

Kahn worked with ChatGPT’s creators, putting guardrails on it for student use.

“The researchers and developers were at our high school,” adapting the bot based on experience there, Buffington said.

The program helped kids get tutoring help, asking how to make their papers better. A writing coach bot walks them through the process. “It’s prompting you to make the paper better. It’s giving you lessons,” not giving answers, Buffington said.

When “60 Minutes” wanted to learn about it, Anderson Cooper visited Hobart High School.

“We have school districts all over contacting us about it because they see value in it (AI) now,” Buffington said. “All of our students have to use AI and use it ethically and with integrity. We’re better for it. We just are.”

“We’ve learned how to question. We’ve learned how to be critical thinkers. We’ve learned how to get help when our teacher is unavailable,” Buffington said.

Young people aren’t the only priority in Hobart.

“I tried to make our community attractive to all ages,” Snedecor said.

When the Maria Reiner Center, which serves senior citizens, first opened, a recently widowed woman said the center gave her a reason to be joyful again.

“Our senior center almost doesn’t need to be called a senior center. It almost needs to be called an activity center because they’re so active,” Snedecor said, offering fitness classes, Zumba, pickleball and more. “They have a workout area, they have art classes, they have all kinds of stuff.”

Along with that building, the police department’s CAPS after-school program allows kids to do homework or exercise in a safe environment. “We have policemen interacting with them,” a really nice program, Snedecor said. “There’s a lot you can do with two gyms.”

Room for improvement

The city has its challenges. Huddlestun and Snedecor cite fiscal constraints brought about by the Indiana General Assembly and Gov. Mike Braun this year that shrink property tax revenue for local government.

But Hobart’s future looks bright.

Marcos Rodriguez, the city’s new economic development director, is tasked with helping make sure the city is on the right track. “The mayor’s been working hard to make sure there’s responsible growth here,” Rodriguez said.

Year after year, assessed value is up. Median household value and income are up, too, he said.

Rodriguez has watched what has happened across the county line, where proposed data centers have been rejected in Chesterton, Burns Harbor and Valparaiso, and residents have been vocal against one proposed for Union Township.

“I’m all in for data centers,” Huddlestun said, provided they’re in the right location.

“They don’t have truck traffic. They have none,” he said. “I don’t really see the problem in these things. They’re building them because there’s a demand.”

Like Buffington, Huddlestun is bullish about technology, used appropriately, and about Hobart’s future.

“I think it’s strong. Our mayor is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever met a mayor with more vision than Mayor Josh,” Thompson said. “He’s gung-ho, and I love every second of it.” •

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.
View all posts

Future of