As the warmth and ease of this sunny season kick in, many people dream of owning a summer home. In Benton Harbor, Michigan, an ambitious residential development around a golf course, also comes freighted with dreams of healing entrenched poverty and racial division and of restoring spoiled industrial land.
Harbor Shores is a 530-acre development that so far has 22 homes occupied of the 500 that are supposed to be built over the next 20 years. Touring the place on Monday, I saw a lovely setting where woods, golf greens, the Paw Paw River, and home sites are woven together.
A less visible thread is the social mission. The three nonprofit foundations that own the project “see this as a transformative opportunity,” Kerry Wright, the project’s sales director, told me. Via the foundations, proceeds from the development are all to be invested in Benton Harbor, a city that has struggled for decades, as Alex Kotlowitz detailed in The Other Side of the River More Top Picks Baby Crib
Nevertheless, it’s an attempt to use real-estate development for a larger good—and it’s a 95-minute drive from the Loop. Click through the photos below for a tour.