Luke Robson ’17 dreams of bringing a renaissance to Hillsdale, and he’s scoping out properties in the city in pursuit of his vision.
Robson’s company, Hillsdale Renaissance LLC already, owns several properties downtown including the Courthouse Annex and Stock’s Mill, and is working to restore Hillsdale’s historic charm and industry.
“My plan is not to make Hillsdale look radically different or utterly new. I want to restore what is already there,” Robson, the founder of Hillsdale Renaissance said. “I just hope it looks fulfilled. There’s a lot of raw material, and we just need to get in there.”
Hillsdale Renaissance, which Robson founded in March 2022, owns 16 buildings downtown with 30 tenants. While the company is currently renovating the properties which are uninhabitable, many house well-established businesses, including Gold Star Taxes and Heather’s Blossom Shop.
Last year, Robson unexpectedly received a small share from the sale of his family’s biotechnology firm in Fargo, North Dakota. With this money, Robson founded Hillsdale Renaissance.
“I was sitting on this pot of cash and thought, ‘So what do I do now?’” Robson said. “I could go sit on a beach somewhere. But I also asked myself, ‘What’s the most amount of responsibility I can reasonably take on and be successful?’”
Since Robson was already planning to move back to Hillsdale with his wife, Emma ’20, investing in the town seemed like a good option. Many of Robson’s friends still lived in town, and he had fallen in love with the community at Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in Albion.
“I want to be in this town. I’ve got this ability to take on this opportunity. And hopefully, do right by it,” Robson said.
Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford said he is optimistic about the company’s plans, having seen its connections to Hillsdale and track record in Van Wert, Ohio.
“I’m excited about the prospects and plans of HR and their partners in our downtown,” Stockford said. “I’m confident they’re not only going to add some wonderful additions to Hillsdale but that they understand the needs and flavor of our community.”
The project may seem ambitious, but Robson believes anyone who’s familiar with Hillsdale’s past knows it’s not impossible. The town was once a thriving industrial town packed with factories and Victorian homes.
After the Michigan Southern Railroad opened in Hillsdale in 1843, the company ran out of money to continue the track. Hillsdale became the final stop on the railroad for settlers moving West from New York. Its proximity between Chicago and Detroit made it a regional hub in the late 19th century.
But today, like many rust belt towns, Hillsdale has seen better days. Historic buildings downtown sit abandoned. The average family income is below the statewide average and the poverty rate above. For the first time since 1980, the town has seen a population decline, according to the latest census data.
Still, Robson is confident that Hillsdale can be restored to its former glory.
“In my mind a town can have transportation, industry, or tourism,” Robson said. “We used to be a transportation center. We used to be an industry center. But we do have the college, which means we have tourism.”
According to Robson, more than 70,000 visitors come to the college every year, bringing with them resources the town can capitalize on.
Brigid Maines, the company’s property manager, said Hillsdale Renaissance mostly works with retail businesses that will contribute to a vibrant downtown.
“We want people to be walking downtown while they are doing their errands and going into the different shops. It brings life,” Maines said. “If someone were to approach us for office space, that is not something that we would probably prioritize.”
In addition to creating community, Robson also wants to create a beuatiful downtown
“If we love this place, we have to make it beautiful,” Robson said. “To the extent that these buildings are beautiful, that these spaces we live in are beautiful, it is a mark of gratitude for the place.”
Maine said the company’s projects are inspired by Christopher Alexander, an Austrian-British architect, who found inspiration in the close knit design of medical cities. His seminal work, “Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction,” contains 253 patterns, or qualities, for designing comfortable homes, offices, and cities.
“We believe that he really kind of touched on what humans need in their spaces,” Maines said.
But intensive renovations require experience and funds, which Hillsdale Renaissance can’t supply on its own. The company works closely with Pago USA, an Indiana-based consultant group dedicated to reclaiming America’s small towns, according to its website. Eric Doden ’92, currently running for Indiana governor as a Republican, is the current president of the group.
“We want to activate neglected historic infrastructure, restore historic buildings, and try to make rural downtown’s vibrant community centers like they once were,” said Erik Long, a project manager at Pago USA, who has worked with Hillsdale Renaissance for two years.
While Pago USA does not finance projects, it makes funds available by securing both federal and state tax credits and grants. It also works to find investors for local projects. According to Long, the group only works with investors in the community.
“We believe in local ownership, so any investor that we work with typically needs to be based in the towns that we work with,” Long said. “Those investors can be anyone from a community foundation, to an institution, to a sole investor.”
Pago USA has helped Hillsdale Renaissance acquire many of its buildings. The companies’ first project is currently under renovation at 92 N. Broad St. The space will house Ad Astra’s new café and St. Joe’s Pizza, a European-style restaurant set to open in January.
Joshua Mincio, St. Joe’s owner, said the pizzeria complements Robson’s vision for the town. The restaurant will be the only wood-fired pizzeria in the area and will source ingredients locally. Mincio hopes to build his own mill to grind Michigan-grown wheat for dough.
“We’re trying to work within the community to make the pizzeria someplace that is not just enjoyable to eat at, but also someplace that a lot of people are actually involved in, whether it’s farmers or it’s other businesses,” Mincio said.
When Mincio signed the lease for the space last year, the building was under different ownership. Mincio had already drawn up a floor plan for the pizzeria and agreed on rent when Robson bought it. Initially worried about the sudden change of hands, Mincio said his fears disappeared when he met with Robson to discuss business over beer.
“We started talking and going over my vision for the space and it turns out that we have a lot in common,” Mincio said. “I am very much into localism, urbansim, reviving our downtown, making it walkable with business and apartments — and that’s his goal as well.”
After months of renovation, the space now includes a marble floor, a faux tin ceiling, and bricked-up windows characteristic of a 19th-century building. While Robson has invested in the building’s foundations, including a renovation to waterproof the basement, he has given Mincio creative license over the space’s design and aesthetics.
“I pick out the products, send them over to him, and he gives me the thumbs up,” Mincio said. “We would not have been able to restore the space to the extent we are now.”
The company is also working to transform the Secret Garden behind the businesses at N. Howell and E. Bacon streets into an outdoor club and cigar lounge. It recently helped Fetched Dog Groomers and Hillsdale Court Appointed Special Advocates relocate to new storefronts downtown.
Robson said he is most excited to renovate the Courthouse Annex, Stock’s Mill, and the freighthouse on Hillsdale St., which will become the company’s largest holding once the property is closed on. Robson said he’d like to turn the freighthouse into a market and find a restauranter to transform the annex.
In 2024, Robson also hopes to lay the foundation for a traditional trade school modeled after the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, South Carolina. Robson was inspired after witnessing the college’s challenge finding stonemasons to complete Christ Chapel.
“There’s certainly demand for preserving these old buildings,” Robson said. “But I think there is also a decent amount of demand for creating new things as well.”
Robson said he hopes the trade school will complement the college’s intellectual endeavors through a practical application of beauty.
“We will have the first sort of symbiotic institution with the college,” Robson said. “If you come to visit Hillsdale you can witness the liberal art up the hill and go down the hill and actually find someone to build you something beautiful.”
Maine said the reaction to Robson’s plans has been overwhelmingly positive. She said people are shocked to hear that the company prioritizes restoring old buildings instead of building new ones.
“I think some people have the impression that we want to buy everything up and take control,” Maines said. “But they are really surprised and happy to hear that we are taking into consideration the town and trying simply to revive it out of both goodwill and, of course, our investment.”
Despite his lofty dreams, Robson says he has a simple mission at its core — to give back to a town he loves.
“It’s probably always going to be a small town,” Robson said. “I just hope it’s the best small town.”
