Thursday, March 6, 2014

Times Reports Mystery Company Withdraws Abatement Petition in Portage

From the Northwest Indiana Times:

A company that has shown interest in purchasing as many as 43 acres in the city's Northside Business Park remains a mystery.

Noserus, a code name given to the company by the Indiana Economic Development Corp., had been on Tuesday night's City Council agenda seeking tax abatements for both equipment and real estate.
The company withdrew its request to be on Tuesday's agenda the day before.

Director of Community Development A.J. Monroe confirmed the company withdrew the petition, but said he didn't know why.

It could be Noserus is no longer interested, or simply wasn't ready to make its presentation to the City Council.

City officials continue to be mum on who the company is.

At last week's Redevelopment Commission, members approved the sale of up to 43 acres of land in the business park for $60,000 an acre contingent on the company making a decision to locate in Portage and completing the approval process. The RDC also hired a consultant to represent the city in the process.

The paperwork filed by the company requesting the abatements gave a Merrillville address in a large, multi-tenant office building. Calls by The Times to the representative listed on the application were not returned.

According to the application, the company is proposing to build a new facility of approximately 87,000 square feet initially and 300,000 square feet when completed.

The estimated cost of the construction would be $25 million and the company would hire an additional 150 employees with salaries averaging $23.31 per hour.

The application also indicates the company would purchase $40 million in new manufacturing equipment. The target start date for installing the equipment would be Dec. 15 with a completion date of Aug. 15, 2015.
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/portage/mystery-company-withdraws-petition-for-tax-abatements/article_16ea5595-58c4-5704-8b13-c54838b0759b.html