Inside INdiana Business is reporting that Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood says a $7 million park proposed for an emerging downtown area is a play on city leadership’s top priority: attracting people. “Now, more than ever, people want to pick their community, then they’ll pick their job,” said Wood, who first came to office in 2010 and has emphasized quality-of-life investment. He used Monday’s State of The City Address to detail plans for the amenity, which will be located on the site where the city was originally founded. The property is a converted brownfield site where a factory that employed thousands previously sat.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Wood said the city has been laying the groundwork for its ongoing rebirth for years. “We think we were ahead of the curve on some of our investment in quality of life,” he said about long-term efforts that have included parks and riverside walking trails. “By doing that, we’ve really kind of created an area that is attractive where people — we’ll have tens of thousands of people visit it each month, so that followed, and then once we started to feel out more people coming back to our downtown. Now, all of a sudden, people want to live in our downtown, and that’s fairly new. So, now, we’re seeing luxury apartments develop in our downtown.”
The park will also be located across from the $45 million Mill at Ironworks Plaza being developed by Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties. The mixed-use project will include over 230 apartments and more than 13,000 square-feet for retail, including the first tenant — a Stacked Pickle location. Multiple other downtown project have also received city, private sector and Regional Cities Initiative support.