South Shore, data centers aid Michigan City’s booming downtown projects
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndividually, each of the development projects coming to downtown Michigan City is a sign of progress for a community that’s often left out of the state’s business headlines.
A new phase of a major hotel and townhome project breaks ground in June. On the south edge of downtown, a mixed-use building with a parking garage will come online next year. There’s some workforce housing and then a mixed-use apartment complex and grocery store project that’s in the bidding process.
But taken together, the series of builds signals a transformation as the town on Lake Michigan is the setting for $450 million in development projects.
Clarence Hulse, a member of Michigan City’s redevelopment commission as well as the Economic Development Corp. Michigan City, said the change he’s seen in the city has been relatively sudden thanks to the completion of the South Shore rail line’s double track project, the COVID-19 pandemic and large data center developments to the east.
“When I moved here in 2013 there was grass in the streets and sidewalks downtown, plywood all over,” Hulse said. “The last three years, we have had over $100 million worth of projects committed every year. For a city of 30,000 people, that’s huge. The time is now for Michigan city to make things happen.”
That approximately $450 million of development mostly comes from four main projects.
- SoLa project: a $311 million build featuring two hotels, townhomes and retail space to the corner of Franklin Street and Michigan Boulevard. Construction is underway. Managed by YAB Development
- Franklin Tower: a $101 million 12-story building featuring 220-apartments, some retail space and a parking garage at the corner of 11th and Franklin streets. Slated for completion in spring of 2026. Development by Flaherty & Collins
- Singing Sands: a planned 300-unit workforce housing project at the corner of 8th and Michigan streets with some first floor retail space. Project development by Indianapolis-based Helix.
- Fifth and Pine Street project: a development slated for 500 apartment units with a grocery store along a three block stretch starting at Pine Street and 5th Street and going east.
In total, the projects represent close to 1,400 housing units.

Hulse said the redevelopment commissions received nine bids on the Fifth and Pine project, and the commission has narrowed it down to four finalists, with a winning bid being announced in the next two months. He added the grocery store will be a key asset for downtown since the area is currently a food desert.
“[Grocery stores] want to have 2,000 people living within a square mile. Downtown didn’t have that. Part of that story for us is we have to build the density to get a grocery store,” Hulse said.
Hulse said none of the bids have been made public yet.
If you build it
The recent boom in Michigan City is reflective of the growth across northern Indiana as the South Shore’s double track project is bearing fruit.
The $649 million project, completed last May, added a second rail line along a 17-mile stretch between Gary and Michigan City, reducing travel time to Chicago by about 30 minutes.
Northwest Indiana Development Authority President Sherri Ziller said it’s impossible to overstate the impact the new track has had as it’s generated around $700 million in investments already across the region.
“What’s going on in Michigan City is exactly what we expected when we started the commuter rail expansion initiative,” Ziller said. “And this is the benefit of investing in northwest Indiana and connectivity to Chicago.”
But Ziller and Hulse pointed out Michigan City is also in a unique position to capitalize on the thousands of jobs that are soon coming to western St. Joseph and LaPorte Counties courtesy of major employers General Motors, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.
With the South Shore looking into building a station in New Carlisle, Michigan City residents would be just a 15-25 minute train ride away from their jobs.
“In four years, there will be 4,000 jobs 20 minutes east of Michigan City. Where are those people going to live?” Hulse said of Michigan City’s focus on housing developments. “It’s a perfect trifecta of meeting current demand, meeting demand from COVID and meeting future demand.”
Future growth
What’s coming down the pipe in Michigan City could be just the beginning. That’s because the city and others in northwest Indiana are beginning to take advantage of newly created Transit Development Districts—or TDDs.
TDDs were created by the state legislature in 2017. and Ziller said they work as “super TIF” districts that allow municipalities to capture incremental growth in both property and income taxes. TDDs must be centered around stations and can extend a half mile, though they can only be extended one time.
Currently, 10 TDDs have been approved, but Ziller said communities are just beginning to collect funds and award them to projects. But already, she said developers are already taking notice and flocking to places like Michigan City that will soon be able to offer even more incentives.
“It allows our communities to be more proactive with development, instead of reactive,” she said. “Now that the communities are able to be in the driver’s seat, they’re able to see more of the quality development that they want to see, and they’re able to be more selective with the development that comes their way.”