The goal of the business growth team is to develop and support innovative projects that not only make the city of Gary more economically prosperous but create opportunities for ownership and wealth building for residents. These projects span across sectors including: construction, real estate development, tourism and hospitality and film. By empowering Gary residents to claim ownership through entrepreneurship and community development corporations, we can ensure that residents have an opportunity to voice their concerns and ideas while sustaining the community for years to come.

Construction is a rapidly growing industry with bountiful opportunities for career development and growth, high earning potential and building valuable trade skills. The city of Gary can serve as an excellent area to gain and grow these skills to help build the community up here and beyond. With the need for new homes, community centers and redevelopment of business storefronts, there is no shortage of demand for local workforce who can have a hand in changing the face of Gary.

Plans for constructing affordable, high quality housing are in the works along with business spaces and mixed use community spaces. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a part of the revitalization please sign up for more information below.

Innovative new programs, building new sites and hosting new people in the City of Gary will require restaurants and accommodations. This means restaurants to feed visitors, guests, casts and crew. This means accommodations via hotels and AirBnBs. Opening up new restaurants will require Gary residents to brush up on their entrepreneurial skills and be ready to open their own businesses. If you have ideas for restaurants or cafes please sign up for more information. Home cooks of today can be the new restaurant owners of tomorrow.

The film industry is a multi billion dollar industry with no plans to slow down any time soon. Hollywood may be best known for producing movies, but why not bring a piece of the action to Gary, IN. Between its convenient location outside of Chicago, natural landscape and the number of buildings that can be repurposed- Gary has potential to be the film capital of Indiana and the go to filming site in the midwest US.

There are currently 3 phases under development for Gary Film:

Gary Film = major component of business growth

Phase 1 focuses on retrofitting abandoned schools to be used as sound stages and film studios. Phase 2 focuses on building a full 30 acre film lot. Phase 3 is taking advantage of the film media fund tax credit to incentivize independent filmmakers and studios to come to Gary.

Eco-tourism: Eco-tourism is defined as “tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments, intended to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife.”Gary’s natural landscape and location along Lake Michigan along with its proximity to Indiana Dunes National Park makes it an excellent location for tourism. The goal for our ecotourism industry is to make Gary a place people want to be and to break the stigma that currently surrounds the city.

Real estate development: Safe, affordable, quality housing that is accessible to the residents of a community is crucial to building the wealth and security of a community. We intend to make homeownership and access to housing attainable for the residents of Gary through redevelopment of existing homes and construction of new housing.

Are there any other industries or opportunities being developed that we may not be aware of? Leave us an email with comments, questions and suggestions! We’re looking forward to hearing from members of the community who want to see Gary grow.