HMD looking to leave Chicago Ridge for Gary
The Gary Common Council is considering an incentive agreement aimed at enticing a Chicago Ridge-based trucking company to relocate to Gary, officials said.
HMD Trucking, Inc., is interested in building a new facility and administrative offices at a site in the 1300 block of Texas Street in Gary, a city and a company official said.
Gary city officials say that the company’s relocation would result in about 500 new jobs — half for truck drivers and the other half for administrative support staff.
Those jobs would be created during a five-year time period following the 19-year-old company’s move to Indiana, which could occur later this year, Redevelopment Commission Executive Director Joseph Van Dyk and HMD’s president and founder Henry Malukas said. The city’s Redevelopment and Plan commissions already have approved the plan, and it’s now pending before the city’s Common Council.
The council has the issue on its agenda for its next regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, and final approval could come then.
The company has asked the city for a tax break to offset the cost of building a new facility, which would be located in an existing tax increment finance district, Van Dyk said.
Under the proposal beforethe Common Council, HMD would be able to use the money it would otherwise pay in property taxes on its facility.
Also under the plan, the city would use monies generated by the rest of the Midwest Center for Industry TIF district to resurface 15th Avenue to provide adequate access to the site, which Van Dyk said would cost about $5 million to build.
Some 17,000 square feet of space would be used for trucking interests, while another 9,000 square feet would be for office space.
City and company officials say they plan to staff the new facility largely with Gary residents.
The jobs would be full time, Malukas said, although he declined to say how much they would pay.
Van Dyk said he has been told HMD plans to bring four administrative staffers from its current location in Chicago Ridge with it to the new site in Gary.
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