Nearly a year after an Illinois-based food company purchased the disused Dunbar-Pulaski Middle School in Gary, new construction is still a ways away. After facing pushback from nearby residents, the property’s owners hope to proceed with a revised mixed-use plan for the site.

Dunbar-Pulaski, located on East 19th Avenue in the city’s 4th District, has laid vacant since 2015, when the Indiana State Board of Education voted to shutter it. Amazing American Food Inc., bought the vacant school from the Gary Community School Corporation for $35,000 in August of 2022 with plans to turn the building into a plant that cooks and packages food for distributors and supermarkets. The company announced plans to hire up to 200 workers at the facility.

News of the plan, which would require the property to be rezoned, prompted a strong backlash from some of the project’s neighbors that fall, some of whom erected lawn signs proclaiming “NO commercial zoning 4th District.”

Gary City Councilwoman Tai Adkins, D-4th, held a series of public meetings to gather public input about the issue. At a June 12 special meeting of the Gary Common Council during which the body heard testimony from prospective appointees to the newly reconstituted school board, Adkins pointed to the sale of Dunbar-Pulaski and subsequent public outcry as evidence of a need for better communication between the council and the school district.

“Unfortunately, the council was blamed — specifically me — for supporting or knowing of that particular transfer or purchase of property,” she said. “That is not the case.”

Community pushback prompted Amazing American Foods to revise its plans for the site, company vice president of operations Dwayne Carter told the Post-Tribune. The building’s owners now plan to remodel the school building to include a minimum of six apartment units alongside a smaller commercial kitchen.

“They didn’t want a full-fledged manufacturing plant there,” he said. “So what we did was we changed the business model up, to some affordable housing, a community resource center, and we downscale the manufacturing by 50%.”

A smaller facility means fewer jobs, Carter said. The company now plans to hire only around 50 employees.

“We didn’t want to get into no ... match with the neighborhood,” he said.

Carter estimated that Amazing American Food has spent an additional $40,000 on securing and upkeep for the 37.5-acre plot since acquiring the property, and said he is eager to move ahead with development. The company submitted an application for a rezone to the city shortly after purchasing the property, but the document “didn’t have all of the necessary components,” according to Wendy Vachet, Gary’s Executive Director of Redevelopment and Community Investment.

Gaps in the application prevented the city from moving ahead with the rezone at the time, Vachet said, and the matter never went before the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Because the new plan involves a residential complex, Amazing American Food will need to go through the city’s planned unit development process and be considered by the city Plan Commission before a final vote by the Gary Common Council. Carter met with Vachet on Thursday to discuss requirements for the process, which include submitting a detailed site plan.

“He has everything he needs now process-wise to understand how to move forward,” Vachet told the Post-Tribune.

adalton@chicagotribune.com