By Amanda Haverstick, The News-Dispatch
Franklin Square wasn't always the quiet little corner it is at the moment.
At the turn of the century, Franklin Street extended to the harbor and was lined with hotels, drug stores, shoe stores, barbershops, saloons, hardware stores, two newspapers - the Evening News and the Michigan City Dispatch - furniture shops, a police station and a hospital.
But something happened somewhere - three blocks of the street disappeared.
By the 1960s, the North End landscape changed. Like many towns across the country, anchor stores like Sears left the downtown for enclosed malls outside of the commercial district.
The city also explored another trend in 1968 by closing Franklin Square to traffic and turning it into a four-block pedestrian mall. By the 1980s, it was determined that Franklin Square was a flop. A 1982 News-Dispatch poll showed that 74 percent of the city's residents wanted the square torn out and the street put back.
In the early 1990s, the once two-way street reopened to one-way traffic, but it hasn't been the savior for Franklin Square that people hoped.
Michigan City Mayor Chuck Oberlie said re-opening the square was done to make the area more accessible and visible.
“Did it translate to higher occupancy and more businesses? No, it did not,” Oberlie said.
Franklin Square is currently home to financial institutions, law offices, a few restaurants and some specialty shops. Many of Franklin Square's buildings are vacant.
“The difficulty is not necessarily finding individuals and businesses who would like to invest,” Oberlie said. “It's having the financial ability to match the perceived market value of the owners.”
In the 1980s, said Oberlie, the Urban Enterprise Association organized an annual manufacturers product show - Food Fantasy. “It proved you could still bring people downtown,” Oberlie said. “The event was successful, but there weren't any businesses (there to sell to the attendees.)”
Adding to Franklin Street's facelift was the Beachway Urban Renewal project in 1970. By 1974, the current Post Office and The News-Dispatch opened in Beachway, and in 1977, City Hall and the Michigan City Public Library were added to Beachway.
Some find the location of the library irksome and a hurdle that blocks traffic to the lake. Oberlie disagrees, saying he does not see it as an obstacle.
“It's an excuse in people's minds,” Oberlie said. “Michigan Boulevard doesn't have a library sitting in the middle, and it has more traffic than Franklin Street and is a struggling business area just like Franklin Square.”
The city's 2001 Andersen-Camiros North End Redevelopment study recommended a redesign of the area around the library to establish a pedestrian friendly walking environment connecting Franklin Street to Washington Park.
The U.S. 12/Michigan Boulevard corridor to the east of Franklin Square is another area critical to North End redevelopment. Once located at the corner of the two highways was a collection of substandard houses known as “The Patch.” In the 1960s, “The Patch” was razed to make way for Harborside Homes, a public housing development.
Part of the development was torn down in the late 1980s to make way for the new U.S. 12 bridge. In 1999, the property was vacated and the last of Harborside was torn down in 2003.
In 1997, the addition of Blue Chip Casino changed the look of the area. The boat has also created revenue to remedy the city's blight and fix infrastructure.
“Elston Grove will benefit from this once the Eighth and Lafayette sewer project is complete,” Oberlie said, referring to the residential area east of Franklin Square composed of many historic homes.
Currently the city is obtaining properties near Fifth Street and around Eight Street for redevelopment along the Trail Creek corridor.
The area to the west of Franklin Square, occupied by Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets, has seen success just as Blue Chip has.
“It was a local investment done by local business folks,” Oberlie said. “They weren't in it for themselves, they were in it to provide a positive impact for the whole community.”
The property had been home to Barker and Haskel Car and later Pullman-Standard. One of the city's chief employers, the business closed in 1970 and in 1973 the Pullman Complex burned in a fire.
Lighthouse Place was built in 1986. Since then the outlet mall has been a prime spot in the region for destination shopping.
Initially there was some doubt as to whether the outlet mall would attract people. “It didn't take long after the first Christmas when cars were parked everywhere,” Oberlie said.
Despite two attractions to the east and west, Franklin Square has not pulled the same amount of traffic. “We have to come up with an attraction in the middle,” Oberlie said.
Residential development is one idea. The north end could be home to both second homeowners and people that work in North End. “There's great residential opportunities down here,” Oberlie said. “As that possibility were to grow, it will create the need for certain support services.”
Oberlie said a new not-for-profit corporation the city is organizing may have some remedies for the North End's problems.
“The downtown is composed of many independent businesses,” Oberlie said. “When you go into a shopping center, promotion and maintenance are a part of your budgeting. That's what's missing in the downtown.”
The not-for-profit corporation, said Oberlie, will have the ability to acquire buildings, renovate them and put them back on the market. “There are a lot of plans going on in the downtown right now,” Oberlie said.
Amid changes on the North End, another part of town was starting to grow. Big box retailer Wal-Mart opened in 1990 in what had been a field along Franklin Street. Less than 10 years later, more big boxes - Meijer and Lowe's - came to town, pushing development further south.
In the last two years, the south end has welcomed more businesses including Menards and the Showplace 14 movie theater. The south end's chief selling point is its location near Interstate 94.
“It's the old thing of locating next to your competitor,” Oberlie said. “To be a successful business, the business can't just rely on Michigan City for its success. The proximity determines how much that happens.”
With infrastructure work planned for County Road 400 North, Oberlie said the hope is the south side will give way to a large scale commercial center with residential development to the east and west and warehouse distribution centers along I-94.
“It's not all that different from the vision of downtown,” Oberlie said.
To a great extent, said Oberlie, the future of the downtown rests in the hands of the entrepreneur.
“The private investor is going to make this happen, not city government,” Oberlie said. “I think (there will be) opportunities that will present themselves in the next couple of years.”