State offers 2 proposals to build inn at Potato Creek park

NORTH LIBERTY, Ind. (AP) - Gov. Mike Pence's proposal to build Indiana's first new inn at a state park in more than seven decades would bring lodging to one of the state's most popular and moneymaking parks.

State officials are determined to bring an inn to northern Indiana's Potato Creek State Park, which ranked third as a moneymaker among Indiana's 24 state parks last year, following Brown County and Indiana Dunes state parks.

Naturalist Tim Cordell told the South Bend Tribune (http://bit.ly/1z9Eqa2 ) that Potato Creek brought in 10 percent of revenue of all state parks last year.

The Bicentennial Inn is a $24 million project tucked into Pence's proposed budget. It would be the first new lodge at a state park since 1939 and the only one besides the Pokagon State Park inn near Angola to serve northern Indiana's large population base.

State budget director Brian Bailey said Indiana has two options for the inn.

One calls for the state to design and build the inn to generate revenue for the state, with the possibility that a private business would operate the inn.

The other, which the state prefers, would have a developer build and operate the inn with private funding. The state would get a percentage of the revenue, but the developer would still make a profit, Bailey said.

If the first option is chosen, money would come from at least $50 million that the state expects to raise if it leases unused capacity among the 150 cellphone towers that the Department of Natural Resources uses to support public safety and emergency communications. Those leases require legislative approval.

The state has requested proposals from developers interested in designing and building the inn with their own financing. These are due by the end of March.

The inn would likely have about 100 rooms.

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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com