$900 Million Economic Transformation of Lake Michigan Shoreline Area
As the Jack Nicklaus Signature course at Harbor Shores Resort – the every-other-year host of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship – and its surrounding 550-acre community marks its first 10 years, the transformative impact the development has had on the Lake Michigan shoreline communities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan is humbling to consider.
Harbor Shores stands as a remarkable testament to a vision made possible by $900 million in strategic investments, a collective set of projects with collaborating community leaders and organizations, led by the Whirlpool Foundation and its benefactor, global home appliance leader Whirlpool Corporation.
When Whirlpool Corp. and community leaders made the critical decision to develop Harbor Shores Resort and transform its hometown in Southwest Michigan, it was unknown how a 
development of this magnitude with golf as its anchor could help turn a city around. Now a full decade later, Harbor Shores has far exceeded its original masterplan. That vision, to transform a once-thriving manufacturing hub into a beautiful and robust residential and recreational development that would serve and promote the local community, has yielded immense economic impact to the two core cities and the surrounding villages and townships. Today, this development has become part of the fabric of the community.
“Before construction of Harbor Shores began, the area was in need of a monumental project that could have the scale to bring about real change, especially in Benton Harbor,” said Jeff Noel, Vice President of Communication & Public Affairs for Whirlpool Corp. “While the golf course may generate most of the publicity, this community is consistently working on projects to ensure a better quality of life for everyone. Using golf to bring people together to give back remains an ongoing mission and is the proud center of the Harbor Shores story.”
The Nicklaus course at Harbor Shores sits on a site where 6,000 manufacturing jobs were lost over an 18-month period in the 1980s. Most of these buildings sat empty for years, leaving roughly three million square feet of industrial materials and contaminated soil—enough to fill a football field 80 feet tall. In 2008, that property had a state equalized value of zero dollars. By 2017, the same land had a taxable value of nearly $37 million.
The opening of the golf course at Harbor Shores in July 2010 signaled a turning point in Benton Harbor’s history. The 6,852-yard, par-71 Jack Nicklaus Signature design is a key component of the $500 million core Harbor Shores development on the shores of Lake Michigan and the Paw Paw River. The direct spike in jobs, redevelopment, new homebuyers, tax base, vacationers and civic pride from the sprawling resort and residential development is almost incomprehensible when one considers what stood on these shores just barely a decade ago.
The golf course, which Jack Nicklaus has tabbed as one of his 18 favorite designs of all time and was the daily work of his then assistant, Chris Rule of Holt, Mich., runs across four remarkably diverse terrains including a photogenic setting along the coastal dunes of Lake Michigan. This is also the 10th anniversary of one of the greatest, probably longest, and most fun putts ever made by Nicklaus that is a must see (even if you already have before). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNS0qZ85kYw
The First Tee of Benton Harbor, headquartered at Harbor Shores with offices and programming located directly on the golf course, is also the only fully subsidized program of its kind in the Midwest and reaches more than 1,000 children annually.
Another major component to the development is The Inn at Harbor Shores. A 92-room luxury hotel on the St. Joseph River, The Inn also features 14 luxury suites, two top-floor condominiums with a fine selection of dining options and spa. Next to the Inn, guests and locals may enjoy a 100-slip deep-water marina that can accommodate boats up to 90 feet long. Real estate is also flourishing within Harbor Shores with five residential communities.
From lot after lot of abandoned manufacturing plants and industrial waste sites, to a focal point in a community that has been sustainably and measurably revitalized, Harbor Shores and the surrounding area is one decade-long chapter into a remarkable journey.
