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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=12302

Building Hope
Owner of former city landmark says he’s ready to rehabilitate the site

Jason Miller
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - More than six months ago, Dan O'Brien told The News-Dispatch all it would take for him to rehabilitate the Warren Building, and the rest of the 700 block of Franklin Street, was traffic on the street becoming two-way.

"I saw the story on the front page (of The News-Dispatch) about the mayor changing the traffic and I said, 'Let's do it'," O'Brien, the owner of Whittaker Woods Golf Course and O'Brien's Restaurant in New Buffalo, Mich., said Tuesday. "I've got the contractors in there now."

O'Brien said Tuesday he plans to turn most of the west side of the 700 block - which he owns - into an artists' colony, including lofts and gallery space.

His Warren Building, which decades ago served as a premier hotel, also will be refurbished, with the top two floors serving as a senior living home and the remaining floors, O'Brien hopes, as a hotel.

City officials have had talks with O'Brien for more than a decade in trying to get him to refurbish or sell the unoccupied seven-story Warren Building as a means to begin Franklin Street's redevelopment.

The Chicago and New Buffalo businessman has told city officials he's planned to work on the block, according to Michigan City Planner John Pugh. But the myriad plans have never come to fruition.

"I think what's going on right now is just some repairs and clean-ups," Pugh said Tuesday. "I hope he's serious this time and really plans on making these changes. We'll see."

O'Brien said Tuesday he's entering into a partnership with Karen Conner, a local woman who owns the building at Franklin and Eighth streets, which houses three loft apartments and the store Bridal Reflections.

If O'Brien's plan comes to be, it will help fulfill a vision another local businessman has had for years. Arnold Besse owns Prince Galleries, which sits across the street from the Warren Building.

He's wanted to create an artists' colony on the block for years and currently has a couple of artists working in the building he owns in which Prince Galleries sits.

Conner said Tuesday she anticipates movement on the plans in "a very short period of time." She also said higher-end antique and boutique stores could be part of the plan as a "natural draw" to people shopping at nearby Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets.

"What he wants to do, it would just be perfect," Conner said. "I know there are already people interested in coming in. And this is a natural because we could capture that audience (from Lighthouse Place).

"This is just a hell of a thing," Conner said. "It's going to be a hell of a story."



Contact Jason Miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.