Downtown growth program draws new businesses

A program to encourage downtown businesses in St. Joseph, Benton Harbor and Stevensville through rent subsidies is now at work for four new businesses.

The third business to join the program was MadDog 5/1 in Benton Harbor, a fitness studio specializing in group fitness. The studio features RealRyder bikes that tilt and lean and TRX Suspension Training for total body workouts among its workout offerings.

Lana’s Boutique in St. Joseph became the fourth business in the retail program. That brings two new businesses each to Benton Harbor and St. Joseph since the program got off the ground in September 2010. HarborTown Interiors in St. Joseph, Murfee’s Boutique in Benton Harbor were the first businesses to enter the Downtown Retail and Restaurant Subsidization program.

The St. Joseph location for Lana’s Boutique, a store that offers upscale women’s contemporary clothing, is the fourth store for owner Lana Hawkins.

She also owns the 3-year-old Lana’s Couture in downtown Kalamazoo and for a year has operated Lana’s Boutique in the popular tourist destination of Saugatuck.  

Hawkins says her stores are geared to the professional woman and carry everything from “beach accessories to the perfect pair of denim.”

In St. Joseph, her store is located at 400 A State Street, a building owned by the Edgewater Development Co., which renovated the space to prepare for the new retailer’s location there.

The rent subsidy program is designed to encourage retail establishments that complement one another and stabilize the downtown business districts in Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Stevensville.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Jamie Nilson-Balkin, Cornerstone Alliance