Multi-million-dollar improvements to passenger rail service for the Region has led to an $80 million development for Michigan City.
City officials, Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, and Flaherty & Collins Properties are co-developing a mixed-use, 12-story facility which will house 208 apartments, a new train station, 10,000 square-feet of commercial space and a 558-space parking garage.
Flaherty & Collins Properties will develop an entire city block bounded by 10th and 11th Streets on the north and south sides, and Franklin and Pine Streets on the west and east.
“We are catapulting Michigan City through the present, right into the future,” said Duane Parry, mayor of Michigan City.
Michael Noland, president of the South Shore Line, said time to travel to work is what matters to commuters.
“The Double Track improvements will make Michigan City an easy 67-minute commute from downtown Chicago,” he said. “With the additional trains that will be added and the reduction in travel time to and from Chicago, we expect to more than triple our daily ridership out of Michigan City.”
He said projects like Michigan City’s mixed-use development, will not only leverage off of the $16 million NICTD is contributing to the project, but will also further support ridership.
“This type of economic opportunity is precisely why our four-county region, the state of Indiana, led by Gov. (Eric) Holcomb, and the Federal Transportation Administration funded the $649 million Double Track project,” Noland said.
Sherri Ziller, president and CEO of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, said when the RDA approached local, state and federal officials for funding for commuter rail expansion in Northwest Indiana, the RDA promised the projects would bring more than $2.5 billion in development to the Region.
“Between Munster, Hammond and now Michigan City, more than $250 million worth of development projects have already been announced, and that’s with the official start of construction still a month away,” Ziller said. “RDA is currently finalizing Transit Development Districts in communities along both existing line and the West Lake expansion that will take development, and the Region, to the next level.”
The name 11th Street Central is being used temporarily for the development because it conveys and emphasizes that Michigan City is at the center of Lake Michigan’s southern shore, serves as a connection point between South Bend and Chicago, and sits at the merger point of several historic and arts districts in Michigan City, officials said.
The project could break ground by the summer of 2023 and have the new transit station open by May 2024 with the apartments completed by spring of 2025.
