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Opportunities & Information
Chicagoland
- Burns Harbor is part of Chicagoland (Metropolitan Chicago), the nation's third largest regional economy, with a population of 9.62 million.
- The City of Chicago is a key national transportation point with the fourth busiest airport and the fifth busiest rail hub in the nation.
- Burns Harbor's strategic location within Northwest Indiana offers low-cost, high quality living with easy access to Chicago and the logistical and economic benefits of the Chicagoland region.
Indiana Dunes
- Burns Harbor is located along the Indiana Dunes National Park, a national protected area encompassing 15,000 acres of some of the nation's most biologically diverse land, including 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and 50 miles of hiking trails, swamps, bogs, marshes, rivers and forests. More than 1,100 flowering plant species and ferns can be found in the park, along with more than 350 species of birds.
- The Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana Dunes State Park and Porter Beach and other Porter County attractions bring an estimated 3 million visitors to the area every year.
- The tourism and travel industry contributed $413.4 million to Porter County's economy in 2015.
Source: Certec, 2016; Indiana Dunes Tourism 2020, World Atlas 2021
Ninth in the United States for cost of doing business
According to CNBC's Top States for Business 2021, Indiana No. 9 for the cost of doing business, No. 3 in terms of infrastructure, and No. 19 overall best state for businesses in 2021.
Daily employees
Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., the nation's largest flat-rolled steel company and the largest iron ore pellet producer, operates its second largest U.S. facility in Burns Harbor. Cleveland-Cliff's Burns Harbor facility employs more than 3,000 people.
Specialty retail
In neighboring Portage, Bass Pro Shop is a regional tourist draw, attracting thousands of visitors.
Train Station/port
- The Port of Indiana is located adjacent to the town and is a multimodal transportation hub that handles 325,000 trucks, 10,000 railcars, 450 barges and 75 ships per year.
- Burns Harbor is served by the NITCD South Shore Line. The rail line, running between South Bend and Chicago, is the 15th busiest commuter line in the country with more than 3.2 million riders annually.
Highways
- Four state and federal highways traverse the town — U.S. 20, U.S. 12, I-94 and S.R. 149. The I-80/90 toll road runs less than 1.5 miles south of the town border.
- More than 120,000 vehicles per day pass by Burns Harbor.
- More than 4.5 million people live within an hour's drive of Burns Harbor and more than 11.7 million people live with a two-hour drive.
Source: CNBC, 2021; Ports of Indiana, 2021; Wikipedia, 2021; Cleveland-Cliffs, 2021; Indiana Department of Transportation, 2021.
For more information about economic development opportunities, contact:
Town of Burns Harbor Economic Development Team
219-241-9316
Download and print a quick, informative guide to Burns Harbor Opportunities & Information here.