When Chicagoans pick out their next vacation home they're being invited to look a bit closer.
Instead of heading hours up the shoreline of Lake Michigan the Windy City summer refugees are being asked to look at a new development in St. Joseph,
reports Crain's Chicago Business. About 100 miles from Chicago, Harbor Shores sits on 530 acres assembled by Evergreen Development LLC, a nonprofit partnership for economic renewal headed by retired Whirlpool Corp. CEO David Whitwam.
The development group has ambitious plans to put up close to 800 residential units, with some custom homes topping $1 million.
The 18-hole golf course at the center of the development will open in June, with designer and professional golf legend Jack Nicklaus slated to attend a grand-opening celebration on Aug. 10.
Excerpt:
Ron Eng, director of marketing, predicts that 60 percent of Harbor Shores' buyers will come from Chicago seeking second homes. Billboards on Interstate 94 already promote the development, and ads in Chicago media will soon follow.
"For years, vacationers looking along the lakeshore skipped the twin cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph because we were viewed as manufacturing centers," he says. Now, Harbor Shores will create "a Grand Traverse-type of experience with three or four hours' less driving."
Source: Crain's Chicago Business
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