Indiana Correspondent 

KINGSBURY, Ind. – Originally, the vision for creating hundreds, if not, thousands of new jobs in the Midwest involved agriculture.

The new jobs from a project taking shape more than a decade later are tuned in more to manufacturing and logistics.

However, companies linked to farming could still be part of the economic development efforts at Kingsbury Industrial Park because of the major presence agriculture has in the area, said Matt Reardon with the LaPorte County Office of Economic & Community Development.

“The size and opportunity at Kingsbury Industrial Park lends itself to a lot of different things,” he said.

Major rail service at the 8,000-acre park in northern Indiana is possible this year. 4,600 linear feet of track was laid since late October to connect the park with a CSX trunk line just before the end of 2020, said Jim Carroll of JBC Rail.

JBC Rail installed the new rail and will operate a switch diverting trains in and out of the park once a new company requiring service by CSX makes a commitment to build at the park.

Carroll said the switch could be installed by CSX as soon as the second quarter of this year because of how talks are progressing with interested companies.

The connection was paid for with a $1 million grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. 

Eventually, the plan is to connect the park to another major rail line owned by Canadian National. 

CN now serves Kingsbury Elevator just inside the northern part fringe of the park. 

An easement was just recently purchased for laying new track allowing CNR rail cars to travel deeper into the park, officials said.

The limited number of light industries and other businesses like warehousing at the park are served already by the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, a Class III freight carrier operating between Chicago and South Bend.

The hope of bringing in two Class 1 railroads is attracting major industry to the 2,000 undeveloped acres of the park zoned for heavy manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and trans-loading.

Much of the remaining land at the park consists of the Kingsbury Fish & Wildlife area.

Some of the ground is also farmed. 

Originally, fresh produce from Florida brought in on refrigerated trains cars and stored until loaded on trucks for local delivery was the vision for the park.

A deal with an interested shipping company never materialized, though, because of legal and other problems holding up the major rail connections.

Reardon said the company wanting to ship produce is no longer in the picture but other investors from the early beginnings of the project remain interested.

They’ve been waiting for the park to be served by major rail before deciding whether to release their dollars. 

“It’s exciting to be at this point,” said LaPorte County attorney Shaw Friedman.

LaPorte County government with $6 million invested in the project will start receiving its money back from property taxes generated by new development raising the current assessed value of the property, he said.

“It’s been a long, long haul. We’re glad to see it at this stage,” said La Porte County Commission president Sheila Matias.