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Chicago

Factory, hotel and water park proposed for Calumet Country Club

Residents raise concerns about any industrial development

Calumet Country Club (Facebook/Calumet Country Club)
Calumet Country Club (Facebook/Calumet Country Club)

Ambitious plans have been pitched that would transform the Calumet Country Club in Homewood into a mixed-use development with a factory, hotel, restaurant and indoor water park.

Vince Bass and Jerry Lewis with Catalyst Consulting outlined the firm’s redevelopment concept for the 130-acre property at 2136 175th Street, the Daily Southtown reported. The plans call for a factory that builds components for manufactured homes.

Lewis and Bass discussed the project on a Zoom forum, which is hosted by Glenwood trustee Adam Winston. Residents were able to call and ask questions or voice their concerns.

Previously, the village had considered a development with 800,000 square feet of warehouse space. But Homewood officials rejected the plan by property owner Walt Brown Jr. before the country club separated from the village in April 2021.

Many residents, including a group called South Suburbs for Greenspace, spoke out against the original plans.

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“Our goal has always been to prevent an industrial development from being there,” Liz Varmecky, the group’s founder, said at the forum. “We do not want warehousing, we do not want industrial development there.”

Lewis said the project could create up to 3,000 jobs, including 400 factory roles that would earn $55,000 a year. In addition, he said constructing the project would create about 4,000 construction jobs for locals.

For now, however, Catalyst’s project is still only in the planning stages as the property would need a municipal partner to connect the property in unincorporated Cook County to essential utilities like sewer and water.

Some residents, like Gary Dingle, the president of the Chicago far south suburban branch of the NAACP, have asked if the development could move forward with the hotel and retail space, but without the warehouses. In response, Lewis said warehousing is the “largest and greater need” of the area.

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— Victoria Pruitt

Tags
Chicago SuburbsRedevelopment