Proposal seeks permission to use the city\u2019s Metro Center<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Downtown Gary needs a coffee shop and the ideal place is in the city\u2019s Metro Center. Story Posted: 9\/7\/2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Proposal seeks permission to use the city\u2019s Metro Center Downtown Gary needs a coffee shop and the ideal place is in the city\u2019s Metro Center. That was Ken Barry\u2019s proposal at Wednesday\u2019s meeting of the Gary Redevelopment Commission. Barry, director of the City Life Center at Bethel Church in downtown Gary said Innovation Suite or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-architecture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1591,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/1591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
That was Ken Barry\u2019s proposal at Wednesday\u2019s meeting of the Gary Redevelopment Commission.
Barry, director of the City Life Center at Bethel Church in downtown Gary said Innovation Suite or Caf\u00e9 IS will attract foot traffic and thousands of daily commuters using bus and rail transportation services provided at the Metro Center by Greyhound, Gary Public Transit, and the South Shore.
Bethel Church is housed in the former John Will Anderson Boys & Girls Club on west Fifth Avenue, across the street from the Gary Public Library & Cultural Center. City Life Center continues the focus of the Boys & Girls Club, providing summer and afterschool activities for school age children. Barry once headed Gary\u2019s Youth Services Bureau.
Caf\u00e9 IS would occupy the Metro Center\u2019s unused 2nd floor bar and restaurant. The Redevelopment Commission manages the Metro Center and is making updates to the building\u2019s interior.
Barry said the caf\u00e9 would operate as a non-profit. Caf\u00e9 IS has received a $25,000 Legacy Foundation grant. Renovations to the caf\u00e9\u2019s interior will be handled by volunteer donations, he said.
The caf\u00e9 has been offered major support from Spill the Beans Gourmet Coffee in Merrillville. \u201cSpill the Beans will teach us how to run the caf\u00e9. They will provide the initial coffee supplies and train our baristas,\u201d Barry said.
Barry is seeking permission from the commission to operate the caf\u00e9 in the Metro Center and \u201chopefully to give us some grace on the lease for a period of time as we move toward sustainability.\u201d
An initial start date is summer 2018. \u201cIt\u2019s a really cool space and it\u2019s not in bad shape. But we won\u2019t know really until we get in there and do an assessment. The plumbing needs to be checked out. I don\u2019t know what changes have been made by the commission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n