If He Builds It, People Will Most Definitely Come

New Buffalo, Michigan, is one of eight small communities clustered along the shore of Lake Michigan where up-scale Chicago folks go to … well, to get away from Chicago.

For several years, developer Jimmy Gierczyk has been trying to get Amtrak to put a station in downtown New Buffalo and schedule a stop there, but without success.

So he’s doing it himself, spending a million-and-a-half bucks on a parking lot and a railroad platform smack alongside his new condos. If there was ever another privately-financed Amtrak station, no one can think of it.

The convenience of the new station will help Gierczyk sell his condos, of course, but the new location will also shave 10-15 minutes off the running time between New Buffalo and Chicago.

Once finished sometime in the next few months, Amtrak’s Blue Water (Chicago-Port Huron) and Wolverine (Chicago-Detroit), will each make one stop a day in each direction at Gierczyk’s station.

“The only way to get this done,” he says, “was for us to do it.”

Jimmy does have the look of a guy who knows how to get things done.