Alex Bertram (left) and Tim Stockdale (right) at the Railroad Festival hosted by Hillsdale Renaissance in October. Courtesy | Scot Bertram 

Real estate development firm Hillsdale Renaissance recently purchased the historic railway freight house, located at 16 Hillsdale St., which it plans to convert into a community hub.

Luke Robson ’17 said he is working to restore the historic charm of downtown Hillsdale with his company, Hillsdale Renaissance LLC, founded in 2022. The company is a real estate development and property management firm that restores historical buildings, hosts events, and aids local businesspeople in improving their operations, according to the Hillsdale Renaissance website. 

“These buildings are great. Most of them are built in the mid to late 1800s, and they’ve got all these cool eccentricities and sort of architectural features,” Robson said. “And the stuff we’re doing, it’s going to be historically sensitive.”

The restoration of the freight house will include updating the electrical service, improving access to the building, and restoring the platforms for tourists. Robson said he hopes to create a welcoming place for the customers of the Indiana Railroad Experience, which offers rides on historic steam trains across Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. 

“In the summers and falls, the steam engines and diesel engines that bring tourists into Hillsdale right now, they just get dropped off in the Indiana Northeastern’s spare parts yard,” Robson said. “It’s just not a terribly welcoming thing. So we want to rebuild the old platform that was on the freight house. Then those trains can pull right up, unload into the freight house, and have it be a good place for those people to be introduced to Hillsdale.”

Robson said he plans to purchase the railyard space that stretches from the freight house to Monroe Street within the year. 

“That’s owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation,” Robson said. “MDOT has a lifetime lease on that to the Indiana Northeast Railroad. They’re interested in moving, and we’ve been working on a deal for two years now to relocate the current railroad operations. We’ve purchased a space in Jonesville for them to move to. So hopefully, relatively soon we will own it, but right now it’s still under negotiation.”

Robson said he hopes to turn the railyard space into a park.

“A nice place to come and sit with the kids,” Robson said. “They’ll be right by the bike trail and walking distance for all these families and students.”

He said he hopes Hillsdale Renaissance will break ground on this project between October 2026 and March 2027, with construction lasting another 18 to 24 months. 

Robson said he will maintain the character of the building to preserve its history.

“Hillsdale used to have a festival called Roosevelt Days that commemorated when Teddy Roosevelt came through on the rail to do his campaign,” Robson said. “He spoke just right down there near the freight house — probably closer to the depot that is now the Presbyterian church — and gave a campaign speech. I’d love to see some of that brought back to life.”

Robson said the freight house project was not only motivated by Hillsdale Renaissance’s goal of restoring downtown Hillsdale, but also by the desire to bring Hillsdale College and the town together. 

“We kind of view it as a sort of psychological block between the college and the downtown,” Robson said. “When you’re walking along, it kind of feels like a natural break.”

Colm Maines, chief operating officer of Hillsdale Renaissance, emphasized the importance of the freight house building to their project. Maines said the freight house is the most important part of the first phase of a development package involving 15 buildings. 

“It’s the most important building for the project because of its location right on the highway,” Maines said. “It is a gateway to downtown in many ways.”

Maines said the buildings will regain their character through the project.

“Some of them are fine and are perfectly functional but have lost the historic character that we all associate with the town of Hillsdale,” Maines said. “And the goal is to restore them back to that historical character, restore the facades with as much historical accuracy as we can, and the general goal is to bring back businesses and revitalize the area to make it feel like the vibrant town it was as recently as the ’90s, I would say.”

Andrew Gelzer, who owns and operates Gelzer’s Hardware, said he has a family connection with the freight house going back decades. 

“That was originally a partnership between a number of old community leaders from a past generation, specifically Grant Baker and Bill Nash,” Gelzer said.

According to Maines, these community leaders attempted to develop the property, but lacked the necessary time to negotiate with the Indiana Northeast Railroad and MDOT. Baker, Gelzer’s cousin, held onto the property in hopes of developing it and keeping the building standing. 

“It wasn’t until Luke came along that I found someone that actually had the vision, the time, and the patience to develop that property correctly,” Gelzer said.