New train station is a first for NWI, state, seen as gateway to Michigan City's future
The station and parking garage are the final piece of the Double Track NWI project.
'When someone asks what is TOD, just bring them here, and they'll recognize it right away,' said Michal Noland, general manager and president of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates the South Shore Line.
With the Double Track NWI project completed, the South Shore now operates an express train that can get riders from Michigan City to Millennium Station in downtown Chicago in just 67 minutes, Noland said.
'The whole skyline in Michigan City is going to be changed because of this,' Nelson Deuitch said.
Attached to the new station is a mixed-use development still under construction.
'We pride ourselves on doing very complex mixed-use' developments, said David Flaherty, CEO and principal at Flaherty & Collins.
The Michigan City project is the large developer's first transit-oriented development project in Indiana and its eighth overall.
The $101 million investment is expected to result in $700,000 in real estate taxes and have an overall economic impact of $150 million over five years for Michigan City and the surrounding area, Flaherty said.
The mixed-use project will have 220 residential units along with residential and retail spaces. The 547-space parking garage will be shared between South Shore passengers, residents and shoppers.
Flaherty anticipates 300 people 'with good disposable' income moving to Michigan City, literally sharing the wealth as they patronize local businesses after returning home from high-paying jobs in Chicago.
'We will be attracting young professionals and baby boomers to this location,' he said. 'We want you to live in Indiana, spend all your money here.'
'It's walkable, it's bikeable, it's connected,' Flaherty said.
He expects the Michigan City project to have a ripple effect on other stops with transit development districts along the South Shore's traditional route.
For Flaherty & Collins, having the 11th Street train station incorporated into the parking garage is a first, Flaherty said.
The station gives a strong nod to the railroad's history, starting with the historic terra cotta façade that was saved from the station that formerly stood on that spot. The façade was saved when the old building was razed and repurposed for the new structure.
Inside are two large pictures that were black and white when they were created a century ago, but colorized to be displayed inside the station. Another display gives the history of the railroad, from 1901, when the Chicago and Indiana Air Line Railway, which would later become part of the South Shore Line, was incorporated, to today.
A model South Shore train runs along a track overhead inside the station. Another one will be added later, Noland said.
'We really want this train station to be welcoming to the entire community,' he said.
'At core, this is an economic development project,' Noland said. 'It's the vision. It's what so many people envisioned when we sought funding.'
Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority President and CEO Sherri Ziller is pleased with the development.
'This marks the end of a long, very long project for the RDA,' she said. 'Today, we can literally see that vision becoming a reality.'
'The point was really to unlock Michigan City's potential,' Ziller said.
'Michigan City, they've really been leading the charge. They've embraced the doubletrack project since Day 1,' she said.
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan applauded the collaboration that led to the station's construction and the completion of the Double Track NWI project.
'This is an example of where the struggle is behind us. This is an example of where, in a bipartisan way, we all came together,' he said.
'We can achieve anything' when partisan disputes are set aside, Mrvan said.
'Let this be an example, a ripple effect for Northwest Indiana,' he said.
The Double Track NWI project was completed on time and under budget, Noland said. Mrvan thanked organized labor for their efforts to make that happen.
Former U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky and State Rep. Hal Slager used decades of political capital on this, Mrvan said.
'This train is not only something we can celebrate, but it's a catalyst,' he said. 'It's going to create jobs. It's going to create safer neighborhoods here in Michigan City.'
'I couldn't be more proud of the region than I am today,' Ziller said.
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