Business View Civil Municipal - Sept 2023

69 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 9 hopefully soon, on the south side of Logansport by the Ivy Tech Community College campus. We’ve also got new housing that’s proposed beside Riverside Park and the Eel River on the west side of Logansport.” “The 52 homes on the east end are going to be single-family homes,” Pomasl adds. “We have some different levels of single-family homes in the works for different price ranges in various stages of development. We also have new apartments that we’re hopeful will serve as workforce housing over the next couple of years, as well as the potential for downtown apartment- style housing and condo-style or more townhome development. What our housing studies have shown is that we have a significant market for each of these different avenues of housing. So, we’re trying to meet several needs at once as we catch the momentum we have going in our region.” An iconic park and private development Every city wishing to entice new businesses and residents needs to offer inviting and accessible outdoor venues and green spaces rich with recreational activities. And so, Logansport is justly proud of its dozen community parks, of which Riverside Park is central to the city’s heart and one of the oldest in the parks system, dating back to 1887. The 13-acre site is home to the historic Dentzel Carousel, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a national landmark; a miniature train and track; the McHale Complex, an event facility; ball fields; and basketball, pickleball, and cornhole courts. And soon it will have a new neighbor -- the Vibrant Event Center, which plans to open for business in spring 2024. Cuppy recounts how various stakeholders came together to get the $4.2 million Event Center project up and running: “On the west side of Riverside Park, there used to be an old water plant that the utilities owned. They demolished that. It was good to see it demolished but it left this big open bare space. So, we started talking with a group of five local investors and the first thing they wanted to do was build a 500-person- capacity Event Center. But the glaring need for that number of people is parking and we did not have parking. So, the public sector stepped up to fund a parking lot for both the park and the Event Center and that was the momentum that this private group needed to move forward.” The new facility will include a main gathering room capable of holding 400 guests and a smaller room with a capacity of 60 people, plus a roof patio that will also hold 60. It will be focused on hosting weddings, corporate meetings, class reunions, quinceañeras, proms, and galas. “It will bring people here to use the parks and hotels and restaurants,” Cuppy adds. “At the same time, it’s private, so it will add about $40-50,000 a year in property tax. It’s a great partnership. We’re looking to LOGANSPORT, INDIANA