CLAY 'LISTENING' TO TALKS ON AIRPORT PARTNERSHIP; Unnamed investor with millions to give to airport plan has city's attention.

Mayor Rudy Clay says he is "listening" to a Wall Street-based investment banker who wants to form a public/private partnership at the city's airport.

Clay, who said no commitments have been made, wouldn't name the investor Thursday, but the mayor said he has the city's attention.

"Anytime anybody says to me that they are willing to give the city millions and millions of dollars and thousands of jobs at the airport, then, quite naturally, we want to listen to that," Clay said.

One scenario being considered, Clay said, is a lease of the Gary/ Chicago International Airport that would leave the airport authority in place.

"It's just an idea that hit the table," Clay said.

A sale of the airport, however, is not under consideration.

"It will continue to belong to Gary," Clay said.

Potential partners for the investment are being sought out, Clay said, and a final proposal is in the works.

"This may, or may not, happen," Clay said.

The mayor said he has told the airport's executive director, Chris Curry, and the president of the airport authority, Marion J. Johnson Jr., about the talks.

Curry said he didn't have any details about the negotiations Thursday, and Johnson failed to return multiple calls for comment.

Other airport authority members, who deferred comment to Johnson, cautioned that discussions are always taking place to find ways to improve the airport.

Clay said he also told U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky about the talks during a visit to Washington, D.C., last week.

Visclosky was unavailable Thursday, but a spokesman said "whatever moves the airport forward should be pursued."

Gus Olympidis, a member of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority's board of directors, declined to comment about Clay's talks.

"I'm afraid it would not be appropriate," Olympidis said.

Upon learning of Clay's comments, Speros Batistatos, president and CEO of the Lake County Indiana Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he was excited about the possibilities.

"It's welcome news," Batistatos said. "We've got to get that facility moving and contributing at its potential."

Curry said he is skeptical that investors would be willing to sink their money into an airport in the midst of a runway expansion, considering all the legal wrangling that comes with it.

"They would not want to be dealing with the FAA, the EPA, the DNR," Curry said. "You know, all those agencies with initials."

But Curry also said a memorandum of agreement, which would settle most of the legal details of the expansion, is close to completion.

Patrick Lyp, the airport authority's attorney, did not return calls for comment Thursday.

Contact Jon Seidel at 881-3148 or [email protected]