Volkswagen dealership could be coming to Highland

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Updated: January 16, 2012 9:32PM

HIGHLAND — The Team Toyota dealership that’s moving south on U.S. 41 could become home to a different import as early as this summer.

The Economic Development Commission on Monday voted 3-0 to give the land at 9545, 9553 and 9601 Indianapolis Blvd. — where Team Toyota now sits and has for more than 15 years — target-area status. The designation is the first step of three a new Volkswagen dealership will undergo before it can move in.

Joe Hoobyar, president of Volkswagen of Orland Park, Ill., said the new dealership would bring at least $1.5 million in improvements to the property and at least 30 well-paying jobs to town. As well, Volkswagen would pay prevailing wage for construction and would stick to hiring locally its staff and construction workers.

The project, presented to the commission in a $1.5 million tier and $2 million tier for a 25,000 square-foot concept dealership, would also bring the town $129,906 in revenues through a 10-year tax abatement while saving the Volkswagen dealership $127,334 over those same 10 years, Economic Development Director Cecile Petro said.

“The current taxes on the property would stand and (Volkswagen) would be responsible for them, but then a percentage of taxes on the improvement would be phased in each year for 10 years,” she said.

An additional $15,601 would be payable toward the town’s redevelopment upon the abatement’s approval, Petro said.

The property, while well-known because of Team Toyota’s longtime presence there, hasn’t been seriously pursued, Petro said.

Several things will have to happen before Volkswagen can move in, however. Volkswagen’s corporate office will have to approve the location and plan. When that happens, it can’t move in until Team Toyota moves out; Hoobyar said he’s been in contact with people at Team Toyota, and they’ve already pulled permits in Schererville for its approximately $7 million, 36,000-square-foot building on the old Krispy Kreme site.

“They’re hoping to be out by July 31, and we would love to be in by Sept. 1, but I know that can’t happen,” Hoobyar said. “But once we get (the property), it takes between three and four months.”

Now that it has the commission’s recommendation for target-area status, the Volkswagen dealership will go before the Town Council for that approval as well as approval for the tax abatement, Petro said. The the parcels, meanwhile, are part of the wide expanse the council is expected this month to approve turning into an Economic Redevelopment Area.

That proposed area encompasses all of Indianapolis Boulevard between the Hammond and Schererville borders; all of 45th Avenue between the Munster and Griffith borders; and the commercial areas on Ridge Road and Cline Avenue, she said.