Indiana Gov. Mike Braun says Hammond stadium for Chicago Bears is ‘in the red zone’

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun discussed his Chicago Bears playbook Wednesday, saying the bid for a Hammond stadium is in the red zone.

“Until you ink it, it’s not done, but it’s moved a long distance in a short time because it had moved hardly at all in 5.5 years,” he said at the Innovate Northwest Indiana event at Valparaiso University.

“The Bears is a function of due diligence to get where we need to be to close it,” he said.

Like his predecessors, Braun didn’t hesitate to compare and contrast Indiana and Illinois.

“The Bears is a classic story, kind of a tale of two different states,” he said.

From the time Braun first spoke with Bears CEO Kevin Warren to the enabling legislation for the Hamond stadium, Indiana moved at the speed of business, not government, he said.

The Bears announcement that Hammond is the preferred site for the new stadium came after the Illinois Legislature ended its session May 31 without putting together a deal better than the one Indiana offered, Braun said.

“They started that journey six years ago, got 5.5 years into it, and there was no response” from Illinois, he said.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said the Bears’ interest in Hammond is just another instance of an Illinois business showing interest in Indiana’s low-tax, business-friendly environment.

“I’m there on the border, so I’ve seen companies literally move across the street” to save tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes, he said.

“We’re cutting a ribbon for a crane company moving to Hammond tomorrow” from the south suburbs to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, McDermott said.

“I think we all need to recognize that gap exists and close these deals,” he said.

“I see the Bears story as symbolic of what we’ve been experiencing for a very long time, the exodus of Illinois businesses” to Northwest Indiana, Family Express President and CEO Gus Olympidis said.

“One of the things that struck the Bears the most about this whole ordeal is that a Republican governor and a Democratic mayor can work hand in hand,” McDermott said.

Mayors alone can’t swing deals this big, he said, thanking Braun for his efforts.

“I’m excited by the Bears. I think we’re almost there, but we’re not there yet,” Olympidis said.

“It is always a little risky to overplay something before it happens because if it doesn’t happen, you have some explaining to do,” he said.

But even the attention the Bears’ flirtation with Hammond has brought to the city is paying off, McDermott said.

“Hammond has become cool,” he said. Different types of economic development opportunities are presenting themselves because of the Bears publicity, he said.

Northwest Indiana Forum President and CEO Heather Ennis said the attention brings “pride and swagger” that come with just being considered.

“We get to be choosy now. We’re going to probably say no to some investment now because we can,” she said, as economic development folks here find higher and better uses for properties.

McDermott said the Bears stadium would generate development around it.

“I call it Bearsville, but that’s what I see coming around the stadium,” like Rosemont has seen, McDermott said.

Not everyone is bullish on the Bears. McDermott is starting to see pushback in Porter County, for example, regarding the food and beverage tax that would help fund the stadium.

Keep in mind that Portage kids could be driving work at the Hammond stadium and surrounding businesses 20 years from now, McDermott said.

Attracting the Bears to Indiana isn’t the only move in Braun’s playbook. He also wants to stem the brain drain and attract young people to move back to their hometowns.

When Braun was in business school, he said, he was expected to get a Wall Street job. That’s where the big money was at the time.

But he married his high school sweetheart, who wanted to start her own business, and they wanted to raise a family. Wall Street wasn’t the place for that, so he returned to Indiana.

Others are following suit. “In the northern half of our country, Indiana was the only state that had people voting with their feet, moving into it,” he said, citing census data.

Indiana has more than family ties to attract people. “At least in Indiana, we’ve got some shores up here, and there’s four seasons,” Braun said.

Increasing wages, he said, is his north star. It’s a challenge that Indiana governors have faced for decades. That’s one reason they have pushed for high-tech, high-wage jobs.

Braun is all in on artificial intelligence and data centers.

He acknowledged the sentiment among many Hoosiers who feel threatened by AI and data centers. “It has scared people more than anything else that has come along.”

But some were afraid of the internet when it was being created, Braun said. “The internet created many more jobs than it displaced.” He expects the same with AI.

“If we play our cards right, it will be a win-win,” Braun said.

They’ll bring more power generation than they need, he believes, which will be a boon to Hoosiers struggling to afford electricity with large rate increases.

Loudon County, Virginia, has a high concentration of data centers. “Of course, the admin there has changed and they now have a moratorium,” Braun said.

Among the concerns about data centers has been the heavy use of water for cooling the servers. “That scared the hell out of a lot of people,” Braun said. Northwest Indiana has plenty of water with Lake Michigan, but downstate, there’s no water to spare.

“Thank God, technology has already fixed it,” Braun said, with the creation of recirculation to limit data centers’ thirst for water.

Data centers often cost billions of dollars, generating a lot of revenue for local governments. “They were asking for tax benefits. Don’t give them abatements,” Braun said.

“You’ve got to be careful that you don’t have reflexive rejection of growth, but you’ve got to make sure it fits your community,” he advised.

• Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.