MICHIGAN CITY

Mayor: Consensus key to revitalization

Michigan City has come a long way in its effort to revitalize the downtown in a short time.

The biggest challenge was getting a group of investors and residents to share a vision and work together to make it happen, said City Councilman Richard Murphy.

"I believe we have that now," Murphy said.

Murphy said noticeable changes in reviving the downtown have occurred just within the past two years.

Mayor Ron Meer said the once-thriving downtown laid dormant for so long because nobody could come together and decide on one strategy.

There also were people who couldn't accept that the ''big box stores'' and grocery chains that began migrating to the city's south side in the early 1970s were not coming back.

"Everybody knew something needed to be done, but they couldn't come to a consensus. Sooner or later you have to move forward," Meer said.

Fueling the revitalization is the arts, but there are specialty stores and shops to help drive the recovery in a downtown with appeal due to its historic flavor and close proximity to Lake Michigan, Blue Chip Casino and other attractions.

Another asset for the downtown is the nearby South Shore Railroad for people who want to commute from Chicago.

To keep the rebirth going, Murphy said the long vacant Warren Building, a former hotel in the 700 block of Franklin St., is a major key.

He said state tax credits are being pursued for a proposed artist colony to go into the seven-story building in the 700 block of Franklin Street.

A $10 million investment is on the table from Artspace, a Minneapolis-based group, which plans to have 40 units for artists to live and work in the structure.

Murphy said that would snowball into even more investment in the downtown as well as additional foot traffic.

He said the economy is the biggest challenge for an even healthier downtown, but the low real estate prices can fuel the momentum during these difficult times.

"We have money to invest in our downtown and again we have a committed vision from these investors, these people who are all on the same page. There's a lot of excitement for us," Murphy said.


Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/illinoi...l#ixzz1jZO3Traj

Now and Then: A Look at Area Downtown's

Not sure what that title means, but it's exciting what's going on downtown!

Heart of the community

By Susan Erler susan.erler@nwi.com, (219) 662-5336 | Posted: Sunday, January 15, 2012 12:00 am

Jon L. Hendricks | The Times

A look at selected region downtowns

People throng to downtown Lowell each year for a host of events from the October pumpkin decorating contest to the July taste of the town.
A handful of volunteers puts out the decorations, bakes the cookies, roasts the hot dogs and does the cleanup, all to bring in a trickle of dollars.
The money goes to efforts to preserve the downtown, including work last year to install plaques identifying historical buildings in town.
Their reason is simple, said Lowell Main Street Association President Dianne Boylan.
"If you have a historic downtown, it's the bones of your economy," Boylan said. "As it goes, so goes the rest of the town."
Lowell is working to preserve its center, but not all downtowns in the region have fared as well.
Some have yet to recover from a staggering loss of business during downturns in the steel industry or from the shift of major retailers to shopping malls.
Still others, including those in Crown Point, Hobart, Chesterton and Valparaiso, survive and even thrive, often thanks to efforts of small groups such as Lowell's Main Street Association.
Among community planners looking to the future, the focus appears to be shifting back to the centers of towns, after years of looking to develop on the outskirts.
"Downtowns represent the heart of the community," said Michael Burayidi, a professor and the chair of the Department of Urban Planning at Ball State University in Muncie.
"If the heart is not healthy, the rest of the body cannot be healthy," he said.
Increasingly, downtowns are becoming more attractive to Baby Boomers seeking "walkable communities with lots of amenities," rather than flocking to retirement communities, Burayidi said in an article in the November 2010 issue of Downtown Idea Exchange, excerpted from Burayidi's book, "Resilient Downtowns of Small Urban Communities."
Strategies endorsed by Burayidi for communities looking to strengthen their downtowns mirror some of the very ones embraced locally, including keeping civic buildings in the center of town, preserving historic buildings and, in some cases, reinventing themselves.
"The downtown is where a community can identify its uniqueness, its sense of identity for the community," Burayidi said.

The Times is doing a series of articles featuring several Northwest Indiana downtowns. The Times' photographers set out to make a series of several then-and-now images documenting local downtowns. They printed historic images of downtown scenes and, held at arm's length, photoshopped them against the modern-day location where those moments occurred. Just like this shot of downtown Valpo:

Looking north up Franklin Street at Lincolnway shows the march of time from this 1900s photo to the present.

So what is going on with this whole Artspace thing? 6 months of nothing since a load of cash was approved by City Council.

The closing was at the end of November.

Yeah, but what does that mean? Other than absolutely no activity going on there. And Rich says "...state tax credits are being pursued for a proposed artist colony to go into the seven-story building in the 700 block of Franklin Street". So, is it proposed or a done deal?

My bet is that nothing happens there for a few years and when they are pressed about it they say the project has been cancelled due to a lack of financing/government subsidies.

Commission approves expanding National Register request

By Lois Tomaszewski
Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 5:06 PM CDT

MICHIGAN CITY — The Michigan City Redevelopment Commission approved a proposal to begin the required documentation to designate the town's Franklin Street Historic District as part of the National Register of Historic Places.

Kurt West Garner, a consultant working on obtaining federal recognition for the Elston Grove neighborhood, proposed expanding his work in the area to target the Franklin Street area for inclusion on the federal listing. National Register locations can reap numerous benefits including tax breaks for businesses and grants to fund restoration projects on publicly owned properties.

"It's a great economic development tool to have National Register distinction," Garner said. "It's a great tourism tool; it's a great marketing tool. The more tools you have in your tool belt, the best it can be."

The historic district will start at 11th Street on the south to Fourth Street at the northern boundary, on the east starting at Pine Street and ending on the west with the alley between Franklin and Washington Streets. Garner, who will submit the paperwork and document the historic structures, hopes to have it ready for federal review by late September or early October.

Federal guidelines require at least 20 percent of buildings within the district to be 50 years or older and meet criteria that includes original design or architectural details. Garner said Elston Grove had 15 different architectural styles and exceeded this guideline.

"I think it will be well above the threshold," he said.

The cost for Garner's services will be $4,200. The council has asked him to come back for the next meeting with a proposal to include the Washington Street historical district in this effort as well.

In other action:

• The Mainstreet Association requested funding from the redevelopment commission to place 15 bike racks throughout Franklin Street area, including in front of restaurants and stores, at the farmer's market and at the South Shore train station. The cost of this would be about $5,400.

Representing the Mainstreet Association, John Stimley said the racks would be maintained by the association and be black steel tubing to be anchored into place. The racks would help boost the city's image as bike friendly, Stimley said, and complement the new Michigan Boulevard bike lanes.

• The board approved spending $14,500 to continue investigating the source of ground water contamination in the East Michigan Boulevard and Trail Creek area. Tom Stevenson, representing Environmental, Inc. told the board that a possible source may be a now-closed cleaning business in the area because of the nature of the contaminates found in the water.

While the project will likely not be eligible for grant money from the EPA because of the city's culpability in the pollution, City Planner John Pugh said following through with Michigan Boulevard site shows the EPA that the city is taking steps. This good faith gesture may result in opening up grants for future projects.

• A former landfill on U.S. 12 is being developed into a usable space that can draw visitors 12 months out of the year, said Eric Neagu. The project, now called Duneland Park, encompasses 35 acres of a site categorized as a brown site by the EPA.

Neagu said this designation and the efforts to rehabilitate the site into park space may prove a good draw for grants and business sponsorships. The project is long-term, between 5 to 10 years, "depending on how aggressive the city wants to move on it," Neagu said.