East Chicago is transforming the Galleria shops in the North Harbor neighborhood of the city's Indiana Harbor section into an incubator for start-up businesses.
The city government is renovating the dated 1970s storefronts to have a more contemporary look as part of its ongoing redevelopment of North Harbor, near Lake Michigan.
“When we began talking about giving new life to the Galleria, I wanted to create a plan to repurpose the properties rather than tearing them down,” East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland said. “People have fond memories of those shops, which we hope will carry over to the new business incubator."
The city's plan is to convert the retail court into 10 separate 10,000-square-foot office spaces, each of which could be leased by a different startup business. It will keep the mature trees for shade and line the fronts with masonry and the interior courtyard with stone and stucco.
The goal is to foster more small businesses, which employ about half of Indiana's private workforce, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“Our entrepreneurs need a place to set up shop in East Chicago,” Copeland said. “We are eager to get these offices completed so they can get started."
East Chicago has been working the entire North Harbor neighborhood, including with increased walkability, streetscaping and public space improvements along Main Street, Broadway, Guthrie Street and Indiana Harbor Drive. The hope is to revive it as a mixed-income neighborhood that connects with Lake Michigan and supports a variety of sustainable businesses.
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