Mishawaka Riverwalk expansion on the way
Mishawaka, Ind.--
An agreement between neighbors will help Mishawaka move forward with a major expansion project.
The Princess City can now expand its Riverwalk thanks to a little help from a local hospice center.
“We’re happy to be a part of the neighborhood and doing what we can to improve the neighborhood as best we can,” said Mike Wargo, the COO of the Hospice Foundation.
For nearly a decade, the city had hopes of buying a home on the 200 block of North Cedar Street.
“Jonathan wasn’t interested in selling at the time, and the city had been trying to acquire it, they just hadn’t come to an agreement,” said Wargo. “We were able to acquire the property and sell it to the city and the improvements the city will make to the property I think will really enhance the beauty of our campus.”
That acquisition was approved Monday by the city’s common council.
It is one of three properties the city has bought in order to expand the Riverwalk.
Before, the path would wrap around the house and deviate from the river.
This acquisition will allow the city to tear down the home in order to extend the path to the Cedar Street bridge.
The city saved quite a bit of money through this transaction as well.
The hospice center purchased the property for about $245,000 from the previous owner.
It’s now selling it to the city for $150,000.
But Wargo says considering the costs to level the property, move the sidewalk and more, it’s well worth it in the long run.
“There’s a lot of things when we did the math on it, we think it would have cost us more to do something like that than the city, because the city have done this a lot of times along the river,” said Wargo.
It’s also worth it as the outpatient center will finally have room to grow as well.
“Through this process, we’ll also get addition parking that we wouldn’t otherwise have,” said Wargo.
This Hospice Mishawaka campus has been there for four years.
The plan is to build two additional buildings.
It's raising money for these capital projects.