HAMMOND — Hammond has had trouble attracting businesses to the downtown for years.
"Even if they do come, it’s always been a struggle to survive," said Anne Anderson, executive director of the city's Planning and Development Department. “By 2018, we were just tossing our hands up saying ‘we need a fresh set of eyes to look at the situation.'"
That's when Anderson heard about Jeff Speck, a Massachusetts-based urban planner and author of a number of books including "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time." After learning about Speck's work revitalizing Grand Rapids, Michigan's downtown, Anderson attended one of Speck's lectures and decided the renowned planner might be able to help Hammond.
"Everything he was saying, I was immediately applying to Hammond … I saw Hammond over and over again," Anderson recalled.
Over the course of a year, Speck analyzed Hammond's downtown, observing the city's busy streets, vacant buildings and lack of foot traffic. In 2019, the Downtown Hammond Masterplan was released.
Four years later, construction crews fill the downtown and Speck's master plan has won a national award.
Reimagining downtown
On June 1, the Downtown Hammond Masterplan became one of 13 projects recognized during the Congress for the New Urbanism's annual award ceremony. Hammond's plan won a Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District and Corridor category of the Congress for New Urbanism, or CNU, Charter Awards.
Judges highlighted the plan's focus on transit-oriented development, how it emphasizes walkability and its adaptive reuse of some of Hammond's historical buildings.
Before 2018, Anderson said she'd never even heard of the term "walkability."
"The concept of it is so logical and it makes so much sense," Anderson said. “When you focus on the pedestrian, it really revitalizes neighborhoods and downtown cores, making it a welcoming place where people want to come... it really does spur additional economic development."
The idea behind creating pedestrian-friendly downtowns is that when people walk or bike through an area, retail sales are higher. A 2019 report from the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis found metro areas with a higher number of walkable urban places are more economically successful. Encouraging non-motorized transportation is also better for the environment and public health as it reduces emissions and encourages physical activity.
Recent reports have also found walkability is increasingly a top factor residents consider when deciding where to move.
The problem in Hammond is that the stretch of Hohman Avenue that cuts through the downtown has served as a short-cut where drivers speed by at 45, 50 mph.
During the 2021 Hammond State of the City Address Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said Hohman had become "basically a four-lane highway." McDermott said it's hard for shoppers and diners to feel comfortable in the downtown when traffic is moving that fast.
That's why the city is completely redesigning Hohman, bringing the road down to one travel lane in each direction, with center median parking, curb-side parallel parking, a shared bike lane and trees down the center. Anderson said the city has pretty much finished work on the west side of Hohman.
The road will be closed between Sibley and Russell streets until Aug. 11 while work is completed on the center of Hohman. The city hopes to complete the east side of the road sometime this fall.
The city has already completed the "Rimbach realignment," a project that straightened Rimbach Street. Years ago, a swoop was added to Rimbach, aligning it with Fayette Street. Anderson said the "suburban swoop" encouraged speeding.
Hammond's downtown redevelopment is being completed as work continues on the new West Lake commuter railroad, which is scheduled to begin full service in 2025. The West Lake Corridor project includes two Hammond stations: a South Hammond station off of 173rd Street and the Hammond Gateway station, located about three blocks west of the city's current South Shore station. The city has committed to constructing a third station downtown once the train is running.
“Two factors together are giving downtown Hammond a new lease on life: the arrival of a new train station, and the enlightened leadership that knows how to make the most of it. Both of these circumstances are rare," Speck said in an email to The Times.
Initially, the downtown Hammond station was proposed for south of Douglas Street, however Speck said this location would be too far from the heart of the downtown. Now the city plans on constructing the station closer to the federal courthouse.
Construction has begun on the middle section of Hohman Avenue. Construction on the west side of the street is mostly done and work on the east…
The West Lake Corridor Project hopes to make commuting from Lake County to downtown Chicago more efficient. According to the Hammond masterplan, residential developers have said they expect the new train service to increase the demand for housing in the city's downtown.
Over the next few years, some 360 market-rate rental units will be coming to downtown Hammond.
The former Bank Calumet building, at 5231 Hohman Ave., is slated to undergo a $28 million redesign that will include about 100 residential units and 7,000 square-feet of retail. Work on development, called 'The Banc,' is currently underway. Anderson said most construction should done by the end of this year.
Tailor Row, a $24 million apartment complex coming to an underutilized parking lot off Hohman Avenue, will break ground later this year. Tailor Row will consist of six buildings laid out in a courtyard configuration and one building across Rimbach Street in the southwest corner of Rimbach and Hohman. The apartment complex will have 208 units, 6,600 square feet of retail space and an outdoor plaza.
Madison Lofts, the final downtown residential development, is planned for the northeast corner of Sibley Street and Hohman Avenue. The $15 million complex will consist of about 55 residential units. Anderson said the Madison Lofts property has been prepped for development; construction will likely start of the end of this year.
"It's really exciting to see the street shape-up and the developments move forward," Anderson said. "It's just really satisfying."