State looking for partner to rehab Dunes Park pavilion
By Carole Carlson 648-3154 or ccarlson@post-trib.com January 3, 2012 2:36PM
Lorelei Weimer, executive director of Indiana Dunes Tourism, supports the idea of revitalizing the pavilion and including a year-round restaurant inside at the Indiana Dunes State Park in the Chesterton, Ind. area Wednesday December 21, 2011. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media
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The Department of Natural Resources is seeking proposals to establish a public/private partnership to upgrade the iconic Dunes State Park Pavilion on the shores of Lake Michigan, near Chesterton.
“The Dunes Pavilion needs to be rehabbed and we don’t have funds,” said Gary Miller, DNR assistant director of State Park Inn and Concessions. “The building has a lot of age. It’s a very significant historic structure.”
Opened in the early 1930s, the pavilion stood southwest of the Dunes Hotel designed by John Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright. The hotel was razed in 1972.
Miller said the DNR has issued a prospectus on the project and is accepting proposals until March 1.
The building once housed a restaurant and many people think it’s the most logical option.
Indiana Dunes Tourism Executive Director Lorelei Weimer thinks a lakefront restaurant in a historical site would bring more tourists into the state park and the surrounding area.
“It would be the only place in Porter County to dine right on the lake,” she said. “A restaurant would be a driver to get them to come out.”
Miller said bidders can be as creative they’d like with a use for pavilion, which also housed an arcade decades ago. Miller said any structure modifications or repairs have to be approved the DNR’s Historic Preservation and Archeology Board. The National Resource Commission will select the winning proposal.
Whoever wins the project will receive a long-term lease. It’s likely the bidder will have to do expensive renovations that would probably include the roof, heating and air conditioning units, plumbing and electrical work. They would also have to bring the building up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The improvements are up to the bidders, Miller said.
“We don’t want to stifle creativity and say you have to do ‘1-2-3-4,’” he said.
Miller said alcohol is prohibited in the park. He said the state’s private partner would likely have to get state law changed and receive DNR approval to serve alcohol.
Weimer said her tourism department has been in contact with Indiana and Illinois restaurant associations to get the word out. “This is a golden opportunity for people to put proposals in,” she said.
The DNR’s plans caught the Save the Dunes Council by surprise said its president, Jeannette Neagu. “Save the Dunes is not aware of it that I know of,” she said. “That building has been in need of attention for many, many years. Save the Dunes would support the rehabbing and the building being used to its greatest extent.”
In 2006, Save the Dunes opposed plans for a large hotel on an auxiliary parking lot west of the pavilion. Environmental groups felt the new construction would threaten the dunes’ delicate ecology. The project came to a halt when the DNR didn’t receive any proposals.
It appears there’s widespread support, however, for the pavilion’s renovation.
“I think it’s terrific,” said environmentalist Lee Botts, of Gary. “That building is just sitting there unused... I applaud the DNR for at least trying to use the resource on the shoreline.”
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