The back story that prevented Indiana Sugars from leaving Gary – Chicago Tribune

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton’s administration made its first major economic move this week when Gary-based Indiana Sugars announced plans to move its operations to Buffington Harbor by purchasing 77 acres of land, including property that once housed the Majestic Star Casino and Hotel. got the victory.

It almost didn’t happen.

Melton revealed this week that the Indiana Sugars have almost moved on from Gary after the announcement was made on Monday. Through a business channel, he learned that the company, headquartered in Gary since 1923, was considering moving out of town.

“We were hearing talk that they were looking at other locations,” said Melton, who was concerned about losing a business that has been a Gary home for 101 years and has a significant number of employees.

Soon after, Melton and redevelopment manager Christopher Harris began negotiations to reach a deal with company officials and landowner Transport Properties. They sold Indiana Sugars because of the benefits provided by the Port of Buffington, its deep-water port and proximity to intermodal transportation.

“They are impressed by the opportunity and see the potential and how it benefits their industry,” Melton said.

Indiana Sugars’ move reinforces Melton’s belief that Buffington Harbor is best suited for industry, not tourism.

Indiana Sugars purchased the Buffington Harbor land from Transport Properties for an undisclosed purchase price. Melton’s office said no local or state incentives were used. Indiana Sugars officials declined to be interviewed for this story.

Indiana Sugars president and chief operating officer John Yonover credited Melton and his team for the decision to stay in Gary via a press release.

“It was the engaging and thoughtful efforts of Mayor Eddie Melton and his team that ensured Indiana Sugars remained a Gary, Indiana-based firm,” Yonover said.

“Mayor Melton and his team were passionate about our project and made it clear they did not want us to leave. “They worked tirelessly with us to create a long-term agreement that would work for both us and the City of Gary.”

The company’s Gary roots date back more than a century

Company patriarch Maurice Yonover founded the company in 1923 after first opening a grocery store in Gary. The company quickly became the sugar distributor of sugar companies.

In 1960, it expanded at 911 Virginia St., adding candy processing. The company currently produces blended sugar products, salt, flake salt, starch, grain and protein products. After John Yonover joined the company in 1987, it expanded its operations to Illinois and Missouri.

Buffington Harbor opened in 1927, around the same time Maurice Yonover opened his grocery store, as a 55-acre harbor basin built to transport raw materials, including the cement that built Gary. Universal Portland Cement started construction of a pier next to the cement factory two years ago.

Officials named the port after Eugene J. Buffington, a U.S. Steel official who founded the Gary Land Co. in 1906 and oversaw a street grid for the young city.

Vice President Charles G. Dawes was the guest of honor along with 3,000 attendees at the grand opening of the port, the deepest port in the Great Lakes. The $3 million port featured state-of-the-art technology, including electric conveyor belts that moved raw materials from the port to storage facilities.

The Great Depression weakened the cement industry as demand fell. In 1980, Lehigh Cement Co. acquired U.S. Steel’s cement division in a deal that included the Buffington plant.

Buffington’s move into casinos

In the 1990s, Indiana legalized gambling and two casino boats, one of which belonged to former President Donald Trump, docked in sleepy, gritty Buffington Harbor. Then-mayor Scott King saw the boats as a lever to boost tourism and revive the city’s flagging economy, plagued by steel mill downsizing and crime.

Trump and businessman Donald Barden purchased a third of the Buffington property for $13.5 million. Lehigh sold the remaining portion to the city in 2000 for $25 million. King envisioned a housing, retail and recreational development on the site of the cement plant, but that dream never came to fruition.

Trump promised to revitalize the city by opening a 300-room hotel in 1998. It didn’t happen.

In 2004, Trump Hotel & Casino filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Trump sold his shares in the Gary casino to Barden’s Majestic Star for $253 million in 2005.

Gary boats were making money, but often lagged behind other area casinos in terms of revenue. It was noteworthy that the occupancy rates in hotels were low.

In 2019, Indiana lawmakers introduced a bill allowing Gary to open a land-based casino at 29th Avenue and Burr Street, just off the Borman Expressway. Hard Rock Casino opened in 2021.

Gary MPs and then-mayor Karen Freeman Wilson supported the move to redevelop Buffington Harbor based on its industrial roots.

Gary’s two boats no longer exist, and the casino pavilion, hotel and other ruins have been demolished.

Elements of a 2019 Senate bill authored by Melton were added to the onshore casino bill to create a transportation, storage intermodal compact to manage operations at the Port of Buffington. The contract never emerged, but lawmakers backed a study committee that confirmed Buffington Harbor’s potential to transform the region.

Indiana Sugars is seen as an important move by Melton towards establishing an intermodal transportation hub.

“We must be committed to diversifying business and industry with Buffington Harbor,” Melton said. “I’ve had many conversations with the Biden administration as we look to be more creative and innovative with our proximity to Chicago.

“We’re really positioned to be in the lake for more opportunities than just steel, but it will always be part of our economy and part of our DNA,” he said.

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.