Michigan City, In. Development Thread... (Hope, Westville: apartment, rent, condo)

[IronWright]

Originally Posted by Ned B

Yeah, I don't know what he means about not seeing any progress on it in three years. The current schedule has construction beginning on this project in 3rd quarter next year. It seems like the approval to proceed to engineering will happen any day now, as we last heard in November that officials were expecting the official go ahead in 4-6 weeks. The project is already 2/3s funded as well, and I suspect that even if Michigan City could withdraw their funding, it would only represent a small portion of it. But with this already submitted to the federal government, I suspect that the funding commitments may be binding as well.



My guess is that Michigan City has little real power to stand in the way of this project, but they could effect it in places where the South Shore may need to expand or move their right of way (such as down 11th street)

Michigan City doesn't want to fight NICTD on the project. They agreed to keep their headquarters in Michigan City for the next 15 years minimum as part of the deal. No way would a Mayor want to be responsible for breeching that agrement and losing the hundreds of high paying union jobs as well as the tax dollars.

Having said that though the citizens were sold a bill of goods. The railroad executives and planners came in back in 2016 rushing the city through every decision and pleaded for urgency while stating construction would begin in early 2019 and completed in spring 2020. The timeline has been all over the map and from initial claims, they are years behind schedule.

As for future development I'm worried the new Mayor will stifle the progress made during the last administration as he is out to expose their corruption and curtial spending.

[Ned B]

As far as the South Shore timeline goes, I can only put some fault with NICTD. Some of the timeline lag has been delays working with the local and state governments, such as when Hammond wanted the Gateway station which caused a massive redesign.

Also, I think if this had been submitted prior to the federal administration change in 2017, this project would not have had so much of a delay. All of the mass transit projects across the country are behind schedule right now, because the DOT spent a full year doing nothing while they tried to shut down the grant program against the direction of Congressional funding. They subsequently changed the rules for submission and lowered the amount of funding that projects would receive. The Double Tracking project was reclassified mid process into a different project category requiring a much lengthier federal review time and more extensive documentation. NICTD and the state at least saw this coming and doubled down on their funding and careful documentation to make sure that they were presenting the best project they could.

Either way I will take a project that eventually gets done, and gets done right, however long it takes.

[daug]

The latest posted minutes of the Redevelopment Commission has them discussing putting both the Memorial Hospital site and Police Station/News-Dispatch sites on the market

[Dreickx]

It's simple to diagnose Michigan City's disease--big projectitis. Big projects are fragile, fail easily, can be complete disasters practically and fiscally even when constructed, leave the city in deep debt, etc. But they're GREAT for enriching politically connected developers. Even now, they are trying to sell huge lots so some other big project can be constructed.



It'd be far better to divide the vacant land into small lots that can be built separately at a high density, with mixed-use or residential zoning, by individual developers, like was done 100 years ago. The city could work with banks to help guarantee mortgages for owner-built three or four-unit residential buildings on single lots, with minimal parking requirements. The owner's tenants cover the mortgage while the owner lives on the top floor at very low cost. If they have kids, their kids can play in the yard. I'm an upper-middle income millennial and I would do that.



Lots of little separate successes and a few little failures are far better than one massive failure, or a massive success that can go bad all at once and become a massive failure. Also, there's an insane amount of parking in these plans. What a waste of resources! A city can never become walkable, dense, and car-optional (yeah, that's what high-income millennials want!) if half of its landscape is parking.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Dreickx

It's simple to diagnose Michigan City's disease--big projectitis. Big projects are fragile, fail easily, can be complete disasters practically and fiscally even when constructed, leave the city in deep debt, etc. But they're GREAT for enriching politically connected developers. Even now, they are trying to sell huge lots so some other big project can be constructed.



It'd be far better to divide the vacant land into small lots that can be built separately at a high density, with mixed-use or residential zoning, by individual developers, like was done 100 years ago. The city could work with banks to help guarantee mortgages for owner-built three or four-unit residential buildings on single lots, with minimal parking requirements. The owner's tenants cover the mortgage while the owner lives on the top floor at very low cost. If they have kids, their kids can play in the yard. I'm an upper-middle income millennial and I would do that.



Lots of little separate successes and a few little failures are far better than one massive failure, or a massive success that can go bad all at once and become a massive failure. Also, there's an insane amount of parking in these plans. What a waste of resources! A city can never become walkable, dense, and car-optional (yeah, that's what high-income millennials want!) if half of its landscape is parking.

Larger metro areas with big businesses make similar backward thinking mistakes. In the Kansas City metro area, Cerner built a massive corporate suburban style office complex in the last few years with acres and acres of parking. It is now instantly obsolete by the dominant and emerging work from home shift.

[IronWright]

Here's the latest plan for the former Memorial Hospital site. It is quite the drop in quality from the original building that was planned in terms of height, design, materials and programming. Looks like a Holiday Inn now. Either way it's now a 7 story proposal with no restaurant or luxury building amenities and rooftop bar.

Current Proposal:


Original Proposal:



There is also plans for an 8 story "luxury-boutique" hotel with a fine dining restaurant and retail for the former police station/News-Dispatch site.

https://www.nwitimes.com/business/lo...dc99c086c.html

[IronWright]

Plan announced for $80 million development including new South Shore Michigan City station.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-revi...-city-station/

12 Story high-rise with 208 luxury apartments and 10,000 sq. ft. of retail.

[Ned B]

Hmm, it's great to see this development but I'm not keen on how tripling the height of the station garage now makes the historic station building look like the tacked on facade that it is. It would be nice if there was another solution like changing the design of the garage over the station building to look more like an addition over the top of the station.

[IronWright]

$150 million mixed-sue project announced for the former police station and News Dispatch site.

https://www.953mnc.com/2022/03/16/yo...michigan-city/

Boutique hotel and apartments. This thing is ugly and a far cry from the 16 story high-end hotel and luxury apartment building that would offer lake views and a fine-dining rooftop restaurant.

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by Northwest Indiana

Waterfront condos with Lake Michigan views going up in Michigan City



I really like this project and think it will be good for the city!

Some comments online, though, expressed the following concerns:

• These will be unaffordable and likely just vacation condos for out-of-towners (read: Vacationers from Chicago-area)
• These will not sell and then be converted to rentals
• Michigan City needs to focus more on the blighted neighborhoods and develop more affordable housing (but not TOO affordable)

I always laugh when people complain about projects being unaffordable as well as TOO affordable. In Michigan City, there are PLENTY of options for middle-income folks to rent or buy a home in the city. The city needs to attract more higher-income residents and a larger tax base in order to thrive. Generally speaking in the midwest, the folks that tend to be the most "loyal" to the city are the folks that are either lower income and cannot afford or do not desire to leave their comfort zone or the highest-earning folks whom live in the most desirable neighborhoods and can be somewhat insulated from the ills of urban living. Everyone else usually will give up and flee when they can in order to get what they can from what is likely their largest life investment (their home) or because they see that they can move into a shiny new vinyl village on the outskirts or in another town for a decent price compared to buying an older home in the more urban area and having to fix it up.

With that being said, I do believe that once Michigan City is able to attract more higher-income long-term residents into the city proper (and not Michiana Shores) the city will continue to thrive. The risk of creating market-rate middle-income single-family housing in Michigan City is somewhat high when you have places like La Porte with a better school system not too far away as well as Chesterton, Valpo, and even Portage with better schools systems and closer to Chicago for better and higher paying career opportunities. I do think that it can be done though sooner than later. There is a townhome development in Michigan City called Suburban Estates that it quite affordable and decent for the area. I'm really rooting for MC!

On another note - I think the BIGGEST opportunity to attract growth will be demolishing and redeveloping the Marquette Mall area into a mixed-use development.

Thoughts?

Regarding the end of the post above..."called it!"

Well, not really, but I knew I could not have been the only one to imagine the redevelopment of Marquette Mall as a huge and positively transformative opportunity. I really do hope a developer tackles this opportunity and it comes to fruition!

Article: Dead Marquette Mall could get new life through reimagining