By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch
HOLLAND, Mich. - More than 20 years ago, the bustling shops and restaurants along Eighth Street in Holland, Mich., began to feel the effects of a large, new shopping mall being built on the city's north side.
People were leaving the traditional downtown area and migrating north to shop at J.C. Penney and Sears. After a while, traffic at the new mall created a need for big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Meijer, which begat Target, Old Navy and a Barnes and Noble.
The migration out of the traditional downtown was quick and, according to some, unavoidable.
But as the exodus began from downtown, city leaders in Holland chose to stem the tide by redesigning their main downtown street to bring back shoppers.
They made some difficult decisions, but eventually turned Eighth Street into one of the premier shopping and tourist districts in the Midwest.
“There's no quick fix to a rebirth in the downtown area,” Holland Mayor Al McGeehan said, sitting in his office chair looking at a map of downtown. “It's taken us a quarter century to turn this around. The status quo would've seen us run right over.”
City leaders in Holland decided 20 years ago to not let their treasured downtown die. They worked together, gathered consensus and sacrificed. That meant essentially closing their downtown for a year, getting rid of the stores that were now languishing because of the mall, and devising a way to bring people downtown and encouraging them to stay.
The city began by ripping out its parking meters and allowing free parking, as well as tearing up Eighth street and placing a heating system underneath the road surface.
But most importantly, McGeehan said, was the city's effort to discover the mix of inhabitants needed to make the downtown attractive.
“We tried to build a vision. To beat the mall, we had to become a mall,” he said. “We began with a common vision, which was to bring in a mix of things. We began to understand there were five components.”
What Holland figured out is what Michigan City Mayor Chuck Oberlie already understands. For a downtown area to flourish, people need to work there, live there, eat there, shop there and entertain themselves there.
Holland accomplished that by opening art galleries and theaters, while enticing the professionals who work downtown to eat lunch downtown, and buy groceries downtown.
Hope College, a small downtown school, helped by creating a need for some of those entertainment avenues, as well as coffee shops and music stores.
“It can't just be a place to work,” McGeehan said. “Those working people need places to linger both before and after work. You want to get people downtown and keep them downtown.”
Decades ago, Franklin Street had such an environment, but retail development along South Franklin Street did away with that. Theaters now sit empty next to vacant storefronts, and visitors to Lake Michigan Lighthouse Place Mall and Blue Chip Casino - the “Golden Triangle” city leaders thought would bring people downtown - drive right past Franklin Street on their way to another stop.
Oberlie said he agreed with McGeehan's assessment, but getting there is another matter.
“There's a need for marketing and better code enforcement. We didn't have the right mechanics to get the downtown going again and we didn't have the right engine to do it,” he said. “We're looking at getting people to live down there.
“Maybe as we develop the residential side, then maybe people will start buying buildings,” said Oberlie.
The city is working with the Michigan City Chamber of Commerce and Mainstreet Association to bring in funding from outside agencies to begin better marketing the downtown. They hope to buy some storefronts and refurbish facades.
That worked in Holland, both with the use of city money and the initiative shown by business owners who felt, as did city officials, that the downtown was worth saving.
“We're a sleepy little Dutch town that now has an entertainment district. It has vibrancy, there's a pulse,” he said. “Business people see the value, as do residents and tourists. Living downtown is hot and shopping downtown is popular.
“It can happen, just not overnight.”