Hi.

I'm George Lepeniotis as co-host of Economic Outlook.

I'm stepping in for Jeff Rea this week as he's out on break.

Thank you for joining us.

Each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts.

The city of Sturgis, Michigan, made history in 1896 following the city launching its own municipally owned and operated electric utility.

The city has leaned into that history and launched a placemaking campaign to leverage the Electric City brand to draw more visitors to downtown Sturgis.

We'll learn more about that effort.

Coming up on today's show.

The Sturgis, Michigan Downtown Development Authority has long worked to amplify the vibrancy and business activity in the downtown area.

They've recently launched a new placemaking campaign in the Electric City.

The campaign aims to draw more visitors to downtown Sturgis, and to install a little bit of hometown pride in a historic Michigan community.

Situated just north of our Indiana border.

Joining me today to talk more about these efforts are Kari Hatt, director of the Sturgis Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ryan Conrod, DDA event coordinator, Sturgis and Anna Brand, Sturgis Area Community Foundation.

Everyone, thanks for being with us.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

So and I'm going to start with you.

Would you tell us a little bit about the Sturgis area?

And I don't you know, it's interesting to describe your hometown in an area, but how would you describe Sturgis to maybe some folks who've never been there?

Well, I would say an historic small community.

So a lot of people take pride in where they live and, I mean, I grew up there and, so, I mean, I love where I live.

But I think it's a community that supports each other and is, you know, a lot of people that live there care about where they live and put a lot of work and effort into making it a place that people want to stay, and people want to move back and hopefully, you know, raise their families and find a job there.

Yeah.

And, you know, Kari, when we were talking about coming back home and living in the places where we grew up.

We are working harder as communities to establish the value that our communities can present to our youth and attracting them back, whether it be Sturgis or Plymouth, Indiana.

What is it about our small towns that makes them a great place to come back to?

Yeah, I mean, specifically for Sturgis.

You have three examples right here who all graduated from Sturgis High School, went off to do a few things and then came back to support our community.

And I think a big piece of that is the community support and that small town atmosphere of being able to know pretty much everybody to some degree, and seeing that direct support from our businesses to our schools to just our community members.

I think that is a big aspect of it.

I know Sturgis has a big drive and passion to trying to attract their young talent to, yes, go experience a little bit, but please come back, bring your talent back to our area and add to the value of Sturgis.

Yeah.

And Ryan, we talked about all three of you being Sturgis grads.

What attracted you back to Sturgis when that time it came in your life?

I think it was an opportunity to give back to the community where I grew up from.

I mean, we're all from different eras and just kind of, you know, you graduate, you want to leave.

You want to explore the world a little bit or the region.

And then when you have an opportunity to come back, then it's like, hey, what can I provide for those that are younger that are coming up opportunities?

And it's like whether you're volunteering or working.

Similar similar to what we're doing, different positions like that and what we could contribute.

And that to me is great because you want people that are younger, experiencing the downtown in the city happy that they came from there.

Move on.

And then if they feel like they want to move back for any particular reason, proud of it, you know, happy to come back.

Yeah.

And when we think about our historic small towns, right.

America's made up of small towns, but our region in particular is made up of a lot of historic, small towns.

As you think about what they once were.

And as we look to the future, you guys are all invested pretty heavily in that quality of place, right?

We said at the beginning of the show, placemaking, but really what you're doing is you're just you're reinvesting and creating a quality place where people can enjoy and appreciate it.

What what areas of Sturgis have you focused on to make that happen?

For me, more of being the DDA, it's the downtown.

So it's providing, you know, marketing it to, for one, make sure people are aware of what's going on that come from surrounding communities and cities to enjoy it.

Okay.

You get them here.

We also want to make sure our downtown is full or 99% filled up downtown in the businesses, so it means hard to get in now since everybody wants to, you know, work or live downtown.

There's also things to do to keep people wanting to stay in the town without having to leave.

So there's monthly, bi monthly events going on and something.

So that way people don't have to drive, you know, to Kalamazoo or South Bend, let's say, to do something that they could go on their own backyard and find something to do of an interest or a, you know, something we could provide them.

And that, to me, improves their quality of life.

Yeah.

And investing in our downtown.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's right.

And talking about the downtown.

You are.

You describe yourself as bricks and mortar before.

I mean, as we think about downtown features, what is it about Sturgis that you're really most proud of?

Is it the walking score?

Is it, you know, is there things about that that you really can't, you know, that only come in small town America?

I'd say the community, the people that you know, the businesses that are there, the community that support it, I think kind of proud of the people that live in our community.

I would say that's probably like a highlight.

I think for a lot of us, just to see people returning and coming back and just even though it's not a super small town, just it feels like a small town because people do invest into the community, whether it's to the schools, the businesses, just the various avenues of that.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I think that's very right.

You know, we talked about a little bit before we went on air.

The broader community.

Right.

Saint Joseph County, I know that you have some experience in that.

How what do you see?

Sturgis is place in that broader community, even over into areas like South Bend and such.

What is it about Sturgis that that is unique and could bring people, to that particular community?

Yeah, sure.

Well, I mean, in Saint Joseph County, it's is kind of made up of quite a few smaller communities.

And, on different places doing different things.

I, you know, just to Sturgis, I think that we're doing quite a bit, but at the Foundation, I know our name is Sturgis Area Community Foundation, but our two focus is to look at the whole county and and care for the whole county.

And we have geographical affiliates.

And so we do have representation in other communities.

But, yes, Sturgis is is important, but the whole county, we want to see the whole county thrive.

And, and, you know, we are located in Sturgis, so we of course, take pride in that and, and want to be a part of making it a vibrant place to live and, just keeping the history alive and, yeah, just keeping things going.

Okay.

And what is it?

Are there some goals that Saint Joe County has or there some things that it's looking to accomplish?

Well, from our our perspective as the foundation, we have spent quite a bit of time and money, collecting data across the county to, understand where we're struggling the most countywide.

And we've identified, a few funding priority areas that we, you know, heavily fund projects and programs that are focused in housing, community development and placemaking.

Yeah, care of children and education.

So when we receive grant applications, we are looking not strictly or they always have to be, but when we have a project or a program that's dedicated or aligned with one of those priorities, it's piques a lot of our interest.

And we want to invest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well in that I think that type of investment is so important.

And you, you rattled off 3 or 4 of kind of the key problems that many residential or rural communities are facing lack of housing, attracting infrastructure, you know, these types of things and needing that investment.

So, it's good to see that you're addressing that.

You know, Kari, when we talk about let's kind of move forward to the Electric City project.

Yeah.

Tell me about what what is this?

What what are we talking about?

And it sounds like something that I used to see on maybe, like, Sesame Street.

Well, I mean, kind of.

Right, because it was this has been probably almost a decade in the making.

And, my predecessor, Kathy Abbs, who was the executive director before me at the Chamber of Commerce, they had had many conversations with the DDA about how can we make our downtown more vibrant and how do we create this play on the Electric City kind of logo, because we are known as the Electric City.

So, the conversation on lighting up the downtown really started back in about 2017, I think.

It was so, eight ish years ago.

And, it took quite some time to kind of get some traction, but, the DDA then put together, a committee, about two years ago now.

Yeah.

23.

Yeah.

And, started moving forward looking for grants and whatnot to kind of make this come to fruition.

And really, what we've, developed now is this really unique lighting of our skyline of downtown Sturgis and, man, people just love it.

I mean, it really changes the whole landscape, especially in the evening, and just makes it feel warm and welcoming.

And depending on the time of year or the holiday, we have different lights, different colored lights going on downtown.

And we get comments about it all the time, but it just really makes us look vibrant and exciting and energizing.

That's awesome.

And that has that helped contribute to some of the occupancy rates that you're, that you've achieved?

I would say some are more interest now since it started, because it really started right before Halloween, as when we unveiled it, you know, so it's interest from other communities, even a couple counties away.

How do you do this?

You know, how much did it cost?

Oh wow.

That much.

You know, you just kind of people are excited to see that because when you have it on the skyline over downtown, businesses like that, it takes a lot of work.

I mean, was chamber involved, the city, the foundation?

I mean, just all the funds that I took and the crowdfunding and the grants.

I mean, it's just and so many supportive businesses and businesses.

So, yeah, let's let's talk about that a little bit because it really it's such a unique way that nowadays we have these opportunities to put together different funding sources where I feel like in the past those didn't exist.

You guys had the crowd funding event that leveraged community involvement.

You also had some support from the MEDC, I believe.

Tell me about that process.

How did the MEDC learn about the project and how did they help you get over the hump?

Well, yeah.

Going back to the committee from the DDA, we also had a great supporter from the city who was, working right alongside of us to help us look into some of the different grants, the match grants that were out there, that required the the crowd funding to happen, and then the state would come in and match some of those funds.

And then, of course, then you add in the community foundation on top of that.

That really took us to the next level and really ensured that this could, could take place.

So we had lots of supportive businesses that we reached out and let them know, hey, if we can raise I think it was 50,000 was it 50,000 in business?

Donations towards this.

Then we would receive 50,000 from the state.

And then the foundation came in and basically helped cover the rest of it to make this happen.

All right.

So let's talk statistics while we were well, refresh on the lights I have here, there are 2900 lineal feet of lights that sound about right.

That's about right.

Yeah, it's a lot.

It's like half a mile of lights.

Yeah.

It's our entire downtown on both sides of the road, so.

Yeah.

All right.

And it lines buildings along Chicago Street for our viewers that want to come downtown Sturgis and see it.

What time do they turn on.

Is it always right around dusk?

Yes.

Okay.

Yep.

They're on timers.

And so it is timed with the sunset and the sunrise okay.

So hours from when it sets.

And then like an hour before sunrise.

So all night.

No no it just like it'll, it'll stay on for the two hours at night.

Oh.

And then like an hour in the morning so.

Oh I gotcha.

So when people are waking up or it's dark in the wintertime.

Yeah.

The lights are on.

Yes.

So that way, because we do have quite a few folks who live in our downtown area, there's apartments and whatnot.

And so we had to be cognizant of the fact that some of them might want to go to sleep or not have.

Yeah, that's one in the morning showing the lights going on outside their window when they're trying to sleep.

So do the lights.

Are you able to is the city or who.

Whoever's in control of the lights are they part of like the celebration?

I mean, for instance, I'm envisioning on July 4th they might be red, white, blue.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

All right.

So we have them program for a year out in advance for right now.

Since this is so new with the company that helped install them.

And then it will, go to a local or a local company that will be taking that over after that first year is over.

They're kind of going through the training in figuring out how to do that.

So we'll have more control over let's say, we have a wonderful Sturgis track team this year.

If they were to win state, we could very quickly have that local organization change those lights to to orange lights so that as they come through as state champions, you know, fingers crossed, right, that we can celebrate them coming in on the fly.

Like them.

Awesome.

And beyond the lights, there are some other initiatives, right, to help that placemaking that we've been talking about.

I have here a food truck park.

Yeah.

The truck.

And who wants to take that one?

And do you know anything about the food truck?

But, you know, honestly, I think Ryan, Ryan, you might be a good it's a yeah, it's like, in a parking lot by crossing City Hall as a food truck hub.

So, I mean, it's got a mural that was painted on it, electric hookups for the trucks that want to come there.

Yeah.

It's also lit up because it was in part of this.

And then the electric alley behind our fireplace coffee shop that's got the arches with the, logo lit up.

Electric city, you got to go up by the name of that.

That's right.

So you don't want to slide up one thing.

You want to light up as much as you can because you want to go by that name.

Yeah.

We've been making our electric since 1896.

So, I mean, you know, it's city owned.

Let's capitalize on the name and just, yeah, light up everything.

So all these different like, projects we have, our pleasant Avenue has, you know, festoon lighting, North Street too.

So we have like, different areas that we use, like events add or whole host things.

We got the lights to go with it when it's darker out and it just looks fantastic when you go through, look down the side road and there's lights.

This one here, that alley downtown, I mean, if you're gonna have the name, you got to live up to it.

All right, well, you know what?

On that note, I think now's a good time for us to actually go on out there and take a look.

So, let's take a break.

Let's go on out to Sturgis and see what's going on.

our city is based on our electric utility.

So that's one of our big claims to fame.

That's kind of part of what, what really, really pushed us.

So we have a hydroelectric dam in the area.

We have our own, municipal electric utility.

So we run into really kind of feed off that with some of the marketing.

You see the city logo, it's a lightning bolt, those types of things.

So we tried to find a way to incorporate downtown into that.

And that kind of coincided with this, this concept of wanting to light up the downtown, do some lights in the downtown area.

So we kind of naturally brought those two things together.

Helped make the, the lighting push into a campaign that that included some public art and some other elements as well.

it really.

It really highlights the businesses and it makes it more warm and inviting.

It lets us enhance, you know, kind of around events and holidays kind of show off the downtown a little bit more than we hadn't been able to in the past.

We've been having some, you know, food trucks show interest in our area.

We have them at a lot of our downtown events.

We had always kind of envisioned this as a good location to kind of let them come on some of those places when we didn't have events to allow a lot of food to come here and, and some of what we did through the project really enhance that provided power receptacles, provided some, some art to really set it off.

We're going to be doing a seating area, behind this space here, as part of this project and finishing that up.

So, you know, it's really about enhancing that and helping to show off and give the food trucks an area to, to market themselves by, by some of the heavy, more heavily trafficked, highways and stuff like that be seen and, and, and really bring some more people to the downtown this old pump house here, really was it was just a gray block building kind of sitting in the middle of this parking lot and, you know, not really.

Didn't really have a purpose, didn't really offer anything to kind of the area by by adding the public art, adding some lighting.

We've made it a little bit of a feature, a little bit of a signpost for our downtown area, you know, if you can see the backside of the building, it has the same logo, but in Spanish, we have a, we have a very large Hispanic, Hispanic population.

So kind of highlighting some things for them too, but but really making it a little bit more of a, a place for people to gather when they're, when they're eating at food trucks and using the downtown space.

still a little bit early to see if we'll, we'll get a lot of new business in the town just specifically because of that.

But I like to think that the overall package of what we're providing in downtown between our events, you know, our infrastructure improvements, things like the lighting campaign and the public art that we have down there, it all adds to that atmosphere where it's a place where businesses want to locate and want to be.

I think it starts with the people in your community, right?

Like our downtown and our success of our downtown doesn't happen without the private business owners investing.

And, you know, as a government entity, as the Downtown Development Authority or the city of Sturgis, our job is to help facilitate that and enhance that even more so when they're investing.

We're investing in infrastructure projects, we're investing in placemaking.

We're we're doing things to to enhance the area and really make it, make it a cohesive space that people want to be and want to hang out in.

And I think the most important thing is to start.

just simply start and try and find something that, that is going to enhance your area and make it unique in your own.

So Ryan, as we think about the future of Sturgis, you have a couple of projects that might be coming online soon.

Or maybe I think you said are almost done.

Let's talk a little bit about the electric alley.

What what what's the plan there?

Oh, that one there's add more like seating, more of an area.

So when you get your lunch, your coffee somewhere, you could sit and enjoy the lights, the public art that's on the wall.

More art.

They'll be added.

It's just we're trying to add more art, more seating, just so people can enjoy the downtown and feel like you don't have to just like, take your stuff and go.

But hey, you can enjoy the businesses, do your shopping, see the art?

We got a lot of public art.

We got art around town project that's been going on for six years now.

Just more to see when you're walking around through downtown.

Besides just the lights.

Yeah, we've got, you know, the businesses and the art and the just more.

You want to make it more welcoming and then you're getting people coming from other communities coming in because they love our downtown.

Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, Michigan has done a pretty good job of shifting some of its legal landscape to allow these downtown areas and these seating areas to serve alcohol and people to be able to eat down there and, you know, kind of maximize outdoor areas.

So it sounds pretty exciting.

Is that kind of the vision you have of that is kind of a a centralized place where between the food truck park and, the alley, people can spend an evening.

Oh, yeah.

And we have the social district.

So you could get your to go cup if you want alcohol.

Yeah.

Walk around in the sections that you can.

So you could do your shopping.

Look at the yard.

You know it's like a community you know gathering type of situation that yeah that social district is actually what I was referring to.

It's just such a great thing.

I mean, it really does open up these downtowns to, a whole new way of using them, instead of forcing people to remain inside of a restaurant or.

Yeah.

And that way you can, you know, gather with the other in the community and just you want that involvement not just being stuck in one place, but you actually can come as a community together.

Yeah, yeah.

And let's talk a little bit about the community foundation.

We've talked about your involvement in some of these projects, but what is truly the foundation's goal, to improve quality of life for people that live in not just Sturgis, but in Saint Joseph County and, you know, we really focus on, our partnerships and collaborating with, not just, you know, our donors and people who have set up funds, but also our community partners.

Like the city of Sturgis and, supporting their mission.

And, you know, where they see, just for example, the city of Sturgis, where they see that going, we trust our partners, and we want to be that that, financial support piece.

Okay.

And that really wasn't what I was getting to is you are, in fact, kind of a financial support organization that helps nonprofits and communities realize some of these goals financially.

Yeah.

I think before we while we were on break, we were talking about Sturgis Fest.

That sounds like, kind of a lot of fun.

What?

Tell me about Sturgis foster care.

You want to take that one?

Yeah.

So Sturgis Best is a huge undertaking.

It is a weeklong celebration.

And, let's see the very first one.

Man, what year did they start?

It ran as Michigan Week for 50 years prior to it becoming Sturgis Fest, about 12.

This I think, is 13 years that has been going at Sturgis Fest, but it's the last week of June.

And, really it is just a way to celebrate our, our city.

And so we do a lot of stuff downtown.

We have a family night where it's all geared towards, kids and rides.

And it's, a lot of it is free so that kids of all ages and all backgrounds can enjoy it.

And then we have, bike Night, where we have a kind of a in of motorcycles on Thursday night of that week.

And then Friday night we have a huge electric parade.

So of course, here come the lights again.

So the lights will be all on at night for the parade to go through.

Once the sun has gone down.

And then we have floats that are all lit up.

Think kind of like Disney Parade, right?

Electric lights coming through the downtown right on us 12 there.

So, and then we wrap everything up on Saturday with some fun sporting events, like a three and three basketball tournament.

But then we end it all with fireworks that evening.

So it's a lot of fun.

You can't go wrong with fireworks.

Yeah.

Back to the bike night.

Did you?

Is that a playoff, Sturgis.

Because it isn't Sturgis.

I think it's Sturgis.

Every time someone says I'm going to go to Sturgis.

Yes, right.

I always think.

Or are the others Sturgis?

The others?

But yes, we have I let let's say we've had upwards of over 600 bikes come for that evening and park along us 12.

We close off, that corridor right there downtown so that they can park right along the street.

And then we have live music and a beer garden and all sorts of stuff right downtown for people to enjoy.

It's a lot of fun.

But route 12 for Harley Davidson is a big supporter of that.

And so that's one of the the Harley Davidson stores been involved with that bike night from the get go.

So, it sounds like a great, partnership.

Yeah.

Another reason to come down the stairs.

Just got a couple minutes left.

Ryan, I'll give it to you if if you could give someone that had never been to Sturgis one reason to come to Sturgis.

Well, what would you point to?

You know.

Hey, come visit, see the, see the lights, see the art, see the businesses.

We have a variety of, you know, different businesses, retail, restaurant and just a variety.

Just see how a smaller town has grown that way back and from our times, even with the downtown and the city has changed just over the decades, it seems like.

And just, you know, it's nice.

People come from other cities, could see our, you know, our downtown and get some ideas like maybe that'll help them out.

So if you're, you know, watching this and saying, hey, you know, I have some ideas from our downtown.

Well, you know, it's okay to get ideas, suggestions, borrow things.

Maybe that will work for yours.

But you just want to build your core downtown so it grows.

You know, we don't want our population to keep going down.

We're actually have been staying up and and growing.

And that's what you want to do for your city.

Well, and that's a, that's a real big success in and of itself, growing your population, making sure.

And you guys are a testament to it.

I didn't think, as we started the episode when I first met you, that all three of you were actually, you know, a part of the model that you're really what you're trying to accomplish.

So, thanks for being with us today.

I, you know, I promise you, I'm going to go visit Sturgis.

I think I might come for, Sturgis Fest and, Sure.

Come and see.

What's that coming out?

See, the lights come during the day to see the R and.

That's right.

Yeah.

You know, a little bit of everything.

Thanks again for being with this, guys.

I really look forward to visiting Sturgis.

That's it for our show today.

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I'm George Lepeniotis I'll see you next time.

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