Capitalizing on 2020’s explosion in work-from-home arrangements, a Michigan economic development group is rolling out a package of incentives—including $15,000 cash, driving range memberships and free passes on commuter rail—for Chicagoans who move to its slice of southwest Michigan.
The Move to Michigan offer includes a grant of up to $15,000 to people who buy a home for $200,000 or more in selected ZIP codes that cover Bridgman, St. Joseph, Berrien Springs and a few other towns.
Amid the pandemic, buyers have been flocking to the lakefront crescent in southwest Michigan and northwest Indiana often called Harbor Country. The Move to Michigan deal offers incentives to look slightly farther north up the Lake Michigan coastline. The southernmost ZIP code it covers, 49106 in Bridgman, is 86 miles from downtown Chicago.
While farther from Chicago than, say, New Buffalo (71 miles from downtown Chicago), these towns have restaurant districts and nice beaches, including the spectacular sand dunes at Warren Dunes State Park near Bridgman and Silver Beach County Park in St. Joseph. The area also includes some economically depressed areas, such as in Benton Harbor.
The $15,000 grant is forgivable at the rate of $5,000 per year—which means for each full year the recipient stays in Michigan, the debt goes down by $5,000, until it’s gone after three years.
The money comes with some stipulations: It's available only to people who
•are not already living in Michigan
•pledge to get a Michigan driver's license and become permanent Michigan residents
•certify that they work for a company outside southwest Michigan.
“We have thousands of people who come over here from Chicago on weekends. Why not come over and live in a beautiful place?” said Rob Cleveland, president and CEO of Cornerstone Alliance.
Cleveland said that while his group ordinarily recruits businesses to locate in the region, the remote-working phenomenon pointed toward a different approach: “If you can’t recruit Google, go recruit a Google engineer.”
Along with the cash, the Move to Michigan incentive package includes a menu of other offers, from which buyers choose options worth $5,000. They include use of a discount program for Whirlpool appliances, a one-year free pass on the South Shore Line that runs from Chicago to South Bend, Ind., a free membership in a Benton Harbor fitness facility, free use of the driving range at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, and car service to local airports for a year.
Those incentives are designed to “make moving here easier,” Cleveland said. The idea is to help newcomers get settled into using local amenities, like the Welcome Wagon of old.
People who move to the area might remain employed elsewhere, Cleveland said, “but they’ll have kids they put in the schools, they’ll spend time at the breweries. That’s how we build community.”
At not far over the $200,000 minimum, a buyer could get this four-bedroom, 1,700-square-foot house in St. Joseph, priced at $209,900, or in Bridgman, this new-construction three-bedroom, 1,460-square-footer priced at a little under $231,000.
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October 27, 2020 at 02:38AM
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Get $15,000 to move to Michigan and work remotely - Crain's Chicago Business
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