Rob Harte, a NW Indiana booster and developer, cut the ribbon on his latest project a couple weeks ago: The Reserve: a Grand Venue. It’s the main floor of The Banc in downtown Hammond. The Banc, a 100-unit apartment midrise, was created out of the 100-year-old Bank Calumet building Harte’s company, company, along with two partners, ASA Real Estate Development and ResElevate, recently renovated. The Reserve is a beautifully restored bank lobby with gorgeous original fixtures, matble and woodwork and lots of light streaming in arched windows. It can host 250 for a seated affair and up to 350 for a cocktail-style event

The Banc sits in the center of downtown Hammond, whose streetscape recently underwent a pedestrian-friendly renovation based on a design by noted urban planner Jeff Speck  of Speck Dempsey. Within a few blocks’ walking distance is a Strack and Van Til grocery store, a South Shore train station (with one even closer set to open soon), and 18th Street Brewery.

The Brew Box Coffee Shop is scheduled to open in the Banc building lobby area in the coming weeks. (Brew Box is also the company renovating the classic diner on Franklin and 10^th in Michigan City across from the new train station and opening there soon.)  Observers are anxiously awaiting news on development of a huge vacant lot across from The Banc, once the site of the iconic Goldblatt’s department store.

The Banc is just the latest project for Harte, president of NWI Development Group and somewhat of an accidental preservationist. For years, I passed by the way-cool, long-vacant midcentury modern glass office building in Beverly Shores and hoped that someone would buy it and restore it. Not only did I love it, it turns out it was commissioned by the couple who built our home in Beverly Shores, Carol and Neil Ruzic. (Read more about Carol and our house here.) Neil used it to house the editors of his scientific publishing company.

“It was just a really cool, period building that needed a new life,” Harte says. “There was nothing wrong with that building. I’d wonder when I drove by, why is it sitting there vacant?” With all new windows and other improvements, the building now has several small business tenants, including Cat’s Eye Vintage. Another retailer is set to open soon–details when I have them.

Harte also is responsible for the revitalization of Barrelhouse the Venue at Zorn, a 6,000-square-foot event space across the street from Zorn Brewery in Michigan City. The 1871 structure, built to manufacture beer barrels, sat vacant for decades until Harte got it in 2019. It has a modern, industrial charm—with lots of exposed original brickwork and timbers—couples love for wedding photos.

Harte doesn’t exactly embrace the notion that he’s a savior of cool old buildings. Instead, he says he thinks like a smart developer: “When you buy broken deals, you get them at a discount,” he says. However, he says, “I do have an affinity,” for old buildings.

He acknowledges that it’s not always easy. “Renovation is a tricky thing because you don’t really know what you have until you get down to a building’s bones.,” he says. “With new construction, everything is on paper and you can buy exactly what you need.”

With the bank building, “When we went through demo, the whole structure was behind drywall and drop ceilings,” he says. “We had to demo and hope that what was behind it was in good shape.”

Harte’s latest purchase is a 103-year-old Masonic Temple at 6th and Pine Streets in downtown Michigan City, formerly a halfway house for inmates at the Indiana State Prison, soon to close.

“It’s an incredible building, a cornerstone of the streetscape,” Harte told the NW Indiana Times. “It’s one of the remaining gems in the city.” Harte said he’s considering turning the building into a boutique hotel, but will rent it out as offices for now.

Harte—who from 1990-2007 was a principal in Chicago-based PRM Realty Group, overseeing the firm’s worldwide operations in Southeast Asia, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Europe—started his company in Northwest Indiana after buying Beachwalk Vacation Rentals, and an unfinished portion of the Beachwalk resort community close to the beach in Michigan City, out of bankruptcy.

Harte and his wife, Sharon Harte, started to grow the business managing rental properties in the area in 2015 for those renting out their vacation homes
and recently formed a The Wanderluxe Collection to encompass their three lodging and short terms rental brands, Beachwalk Vacation Rentals, South Shore Vacation Homes and IntheDunes National Park Lodging.  Last year, the Hartes entered an agreement with Indiana Landmarks to take over management of the Cypress House in Beverly Shores, a historic log cabin brought to the area from the 1933-34 Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago. It’s now available for vacation rentals through IntheDunes National Park Lodging.