The coffee creek saga

In what has become the longest running slow motion car crash in Northwest Indiana developments, once again coffee creek in Chesterton is in the news. The Times reports that a bank is Illinois is owed $12 million by the developers and is suing for default.

I have some personal experience with this development, and a whole lot of dismay that a terrific idea has been so thoroughly destroyed by small minded and petty leaders. Some highlights, and feel free to add your own recollections:

• Sand Creek was originally the private course for one of the steel mills, I think US Steel
• Sand Creek was at some point developed for housing, and things went bad back in the 80's
  
• Sand Creek was sold off to NIPSCO under a for profit non regulated unit called Lake Eerie Land Company. The realtors who were marketing the site were essentially pulled in house and Lake Eerie Land began purchasing more land adjacent.
• In the mid-90's a movement which is alternately called neo-urbanism or new urbanism rose up, and Lake Eerie Land designed a substantial project adjacent to Sand Creek Country Club which would feature a downtown, lifestyle mall, hundreds of homes, and live work style community. Coffee Creek would eventually win numerous national awards for planning and design, but the market in NW Indiana wasn't quite ready.
• Local home builders were always thought to be too small and too normal, so they were overlooked and under-utilized, the Coffee Creek marketers kept thinking that it was going to have to be a big builder or group from Chicago. One entire section of Coffee Creek was sold to the Carpenters Union as a fully developed neighborhood investment, for roughly 5 times its actual value and it was actually never fully developed.
  
• Ultimately it became whispered knowledge that the realtors, now in house, for Coffee Creek paid some incentives to get the Carpenters Union to buy this bad investment, and some of these guys ultimately went to jail. Still the project sat with roughly a dozen homes on 1,000 acres. No retail, no lifestyle center, no neo-urbanism.
• Some apartments, more traditional, were developed. Some retail along the main non-urban road was developed, with a big lease from Lake Eerie Land Company to help the financing. The park was finished, and is used by thousands of people for free every week ... I've always been curious who pays the freight on taking care of that park.
• When NIPSCO decided it was time to get rid of Coffee Creek in 2003 they decided to "sell" the whole thing to an Illinois developer who agreed to buy it over 10 years on contract payments, and then that developer went out and tried to re-sell the land in blocks. I was part of these conversations, and was offered 700 lots for roughly 3 times what they were actually worth. Obviously I walked away, sadly because I actually like the project and wish they would have worked with someone, anyone who knew what they were doing.

Fast forward, some townhomes have been developed by an Illinois builder and the far south end features a couple medical facilities and Bob Evans and a hotel. But there is still 1,000 acres undeveloped with some terrific "planning" going back 15 years, and a world class park. Who actually owns the site? Who will own the site when this bank is forced to foreclose?

More later, would love to have some readers add details in comments, I'll update this post as I get more details.