BENTON HARBOR -- This year's Senior PGA Championship will wrap up today at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores.
The thousands of fans who came here to watch some of the game's greats will head home, and the millions of people who watched the tournament on national television will change the channel.
But the revitalization of this city of some 10,000 people along the Lake Michigan shoreline will continue. To use a golf metaphor, the rebirth of Benton Harbor hasn't even reached the back nine.
Major players like Whirlpool Corp.have directed millions of dollars toward turning what was an industrial wasteland just a few years ago into a world-class, Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course.
Whirlpool also took a major stake in downtown Benton Harbor earlier this year by opening the first phase of a new office complex on Main Street next to the St. Joseph River.
Before those major projects, however, the first seeds of downtown Benton Harbor's rebirth were planted by artists and developers who found new uses for old buildings, and started turning the city in a new direction while preserving some of its past.
Like any industrial city, Benton Harbor accumulated some baggage over the years. Residents here have turned some of that into a championship golf course, art galleries, restaurants and loft apartments.
The PGA event will help introduce the area to some new visitors, but many in Benton Harbor emphasize that the positive momentum has been building here for many years, and that trend won't end after this weekend.
Leslie Pickell, co-owner of The Livery, a brewery, restaurant and live music venue in the downtown Arts District, knows from musicians' comments that the city is on the upswing. She said performers who have come to town periodically since The Livery opened in 2005 notice the incremental improvements downtown.
"It's not like flipping a switch; it's not quite like turning the Titanic," Pickell said. "Maybe it's somewhere in between."
Patty Murray, who was born and raised in Benton Harbor, welcomes the changes she's seeing in her hometown, and she's looking forward to seeing more of them.
"I grew up here when the city was doing well, and I was here during the decline. I want to be here for the renaissance," she said Saturday, enjoying gelato, while strolling along Water Street with her husband, Dwight.
Several restaurant and shop owners said Saturday afternoon that business wasn't as busy as they expected it might be during the day while people were out on the golf course watching the PGA event. Instead, they said things revved up at night, with people packing the Arts District to eat and drink.
Tim Flynn, an architect and one of the founders of the New Territory Arts Association, said the arts were key in attracting people to Benton Harbor before there was a world-class golf course next door.
They remain an anchor of downtown development, with storefronts where people can buy artwork in just about every medium imaginable as well as learn to blow glass or take dance lessons.
Flynn, who has developed loft apartments in several historic downtown buildings, said there is a growing demand for living spaces in the city's core. "When there is a vacancy," he said, "it fills fast."
One of those projects at 210 Water St. looks out on the Harbor Shores golf course. A few years ago, the view from those apartments would have been an industrial wasteland.
"I think it was probably the highest and best use for that land," Flynn said of the golf course.
Peter Colovos, principal at Prairie Real Estate Group, said there are a lot of assets in Benton Harbor.
There's Lake Michigan, of course, plus the St. Joseph and Paw Paw rivers, but there are also many, many historic buildings waiting to be rehabilitated.
Colovos is in the process of developing a century-old building on Main Street into Saranac Flats, which will have eight apartments upstairs and commercial space on the ground floor.
On Saturday afternoon, he was preparing for a party he and five other local businessmen were hosting in the building for their employees and other people who have worked so hard to bring Benton Harbor back.
He was expecting more than 1,000 people to attend.
Colovos spoke passionately about how far Benton Harbor has come, but he spoke even more passionately about the city's potential to be even better.
He emphasized that the party Saturday night wasn't to celebrate an ending.
"This is a party because it's starting," he said. "This is the kickoff."
Staff writer Kevin Allen: kallen@sbtinfo.com 574-235-6244
