Page 118 - Michigan City, IN US Highway 421 Corridor Plan

4.9 Michigan City: Live-Work Haven in the New Mobile Economy

As the Midwest emerges from its prolonged economic malaise,
Michigan City is well positioned to become the de-facto eastern
node of what has been termed, the Chicago Global Mega-City.
The city’s long-term fundamentals and attraction-factors are
excellent: The advent of express commuter rail via the South
Short Line will bring it fully into orbit of the Chicago market while
the still very real possibility of a Midwest High Speed network
connecting through Michigan City, could do the same vis-à-vis
Metro Detroit.
Meanwhile, the addition of the Franciscan Hospital will help
anchor the city’s south end with a new, high-profile cluster
of professional service employment while further adding to
the city’s visitor base. Taken together, these are potentially
transformational changes that will help round-out Michigan
City’s primarily pass-through leisure economy and place it
firmly in-league with the full-form Chicago satellite cities of
Schaumburg, Aurora/Naperville, Elgin and Joliet (only with the
coastal amenities that these communities sorely lack). The City
can accelerate this transformation with strategic “place-quality”
enhancing investments in the public domain, and aggressive
co-investment in quality development projects that stimulate a
virtuous cycle of follow-on investment.

All of these factors bode well for the gradual redevelopment of
the Franklin Street corridor which, in future incarnations, will
consist of comparatively less retail and more mixed-use. Like
the larger city itself, a fully sustainable Franklin corridor will
depend on the increasing growth and diversification of the city’s
population and economy particularly its base of professional
employment and year-around middle-class households. In the
new economic era of lifestyle-driven, talent-dictated, place-
dependent corporate location decisions, the city’s increasing
access and complement of services and amenities, along with
its special land/lake features, make a compelling live-work
proposition for both people and companies.

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Adopted: August 16, 2016 Redevelopment Scenarios 4.0