A Crown Point commercial development is taking a step forward.
The city council gave preliminary planned unit development approval Monday for the Grove at Hickory Farms. It would add 11 buildings to 26 acres on the northeast corner of I-65 and 109th Avenue.
Developer Eric Kaehr with Warhorse Venture Partners said that'll include two "quick serve" restaurants. "We're in talks with Buona Beef out of Chicago," Kaehr told council members. "They have one in Valparaiso right now. So it's more of an actual, kind of, fast casual, is what you would consider it to be, not really fast food. So that would be the anchor corner, and then we're in talks with another coffee shop for the adjacent site."
He said a hotel has also signed on, but he wasn't ready to publicly share which brand. Other parts of the development would include retail space, four climate-controlled storage buildings, an early learning center and office buildings.
Kaehr said the goal is to make it more upscale. "You look at the level of architecture that we're putting forward, we're really intending for this to be a Class A development," Kaehr added.
Final PUD approval could come in January, with construction starting in 2024 or 2025.
