The pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park is scheduled for a May 7 ribbon cutting and a public opening the following day, according to an amended lease agreement between Pavilion Partners and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources signed by state officials earlier this month.

The amendment, the fourth since the controversial partnership between Pavilion Partners and the state agency became public in February 2015, makes no mention of an adjacent banquet center originally announced in the proposal. A state official was coy about the future of the banquet center and declined to say who the vendors for the Pavilion’s restaurants and other amenities would be.

The lease amendment appeared on the project website around mid-December.

“I was disappointed. I was hoping there would be more information there, including a status update on the banquet center,” said Jim Sweeney, co-founder of Dunes Action, a grassroots organization that supports restoration of the pavilion but neither the plans as proposed by Pavilion Partners nor plans for the banquet center.

The lease was last amended in April 2019 with completion of the pavilion scheduled for May of this year and penalty fees in place if Pavilion Partners could not meet that deadline. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, appears to have pushed that deadline into next year.

Sweeney, who along with other Dunes Action members has been monitoring progress at the state park, said there’s still a lot of work to do at the pavilion “but it’s nice to see an updated timeline.”

Despite concerns the group has about the work, Sweeney said the exterior work, which is mostly complete, “looks nice.”

He, too, is curious about the fate of the banquet center and noted it would require a land conversion under the tenets of the federal Land and Water Conservation Act. That’s the acquisition of land of equal use and value to the land for the banquet center.

“That’s going to take a long time and there’s nothing there” in the amended lease about it, Sweeney said.

The recent amendment outlined a construction schedule that included an Oct. 15 deadline to complete construction and restoration of the roof, HVAC system, carpentry and kitchen installation work, and a Nov. 13 date for “substantial completion of construction,” along with a walk-through inspection by officials involved with the project.

Going forward, the schedule calls for a Feb. 1 punch list of remaining construction for completion; an April 1 deadline for Pavilion Partners to obtain final occupancy; and the ribbon cutting and full opening in May.

If Pavilion Partners “fails to complete construction and obtain final occupancy on, or before April 1, 2021,” they will be subject to a penalty for each day the construction remains incomplete, according to the amended lease. The penalty starts at $1,000 a day for up to 30 days and hits $3,000 a day for 60 to 90 days.

If Pavilion Partners fails to complete the construction and obtain final occupancy by May 15, DNR may terminate the lease.

“Having recently had an opportunity to see the progress of the restoration and refurbishment, we are excited for the opening of the pavilion this spring. We know that it will enhance the experience for Hoosiers and guests visiting Indiana Dunes State Park,” Terry Coleman, the DNR’s director of state parks, said in an email.

“Plans for banquet center remain under development,” he continued, adding that Pavilion Partners is considering many of the questions and concerns submitted through a DNR website on the project, and at a public open house and meeting held about it. Those were held more than five years ago, in the months after the plans were first announced.

Coleman deferred to Pavilion Partners on who the vendors might be for the pavilion when it opens in the spring. Chuck Williams, a Valparaiso business owner and principle in Pavilion Partners, did not return multiple requests for comment on that or plans for the banquet center.

Luke Oil Construction is undertaking the work at the pavilion, according to documents on the project’s DNR website. The company’s umbrella includes County Line Orchard, which hosts catered events at its Hobart location.

Work on the pavilion was originally slated for partial completion by Memorial Day weekend 2015, with the rest to be done at the start of the 2016 season. The pavilion was expected to be finished in 2016 as well.

Criticism of the project from Dunes Action and others in the community focused on a perceived lack of transparency regarding the public/private partnership between DNR and Pavilion Partners, as well as alcohol sales at the pavilion and the banquet center when alcohol consumption has long been banned at the park. A change in state law allowed for its sale at the pavilion and proposed banquet center.

The 35-year lease calls for Pavilion Partners to pay the DNR $18,000 a year for use of the facility, in addition to a percentage of the proceeds.

Updated plans for work at the pavilion released more than two years ago included a rooftop bar with sliding glass doors and balconies on the north side of the building, neither of which was part of the first proposal for the renovation, Sweeney has said.

He recently was at the site at night and said there is an issue with light pollution, an early concern about the project, but he will contact the DNR about that.

“Early on they said it was something they would consider,” he said.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.