Revitalize Richmond Initiative Has Leaders, Community Hopeful

RICHMOND, Ind.–Leaders in Richmond say a new initiative called “Revitalize Richmond” is valued at $100 million and spans over a five-year period.

Earlham College and several other community partners are taking part in the initiative. Earlham gets $25 million, and community partners added $83 million.

“If you’re ever going to draw a map of the state of Indiana, make sure to put Richmond on it. From now on, we’re here, we’re back,” Director of Community Relations Dakota Collins told Inside INdiana Business. “This is going to be one of the next major cities in Indiana, and it’s going to start downtown.”

Collins says one of the major goals of Revitalize Richmond is to strengthen the connection between Earlham College and the City of Richmond.

“The college’s relationship with the community has waxed and waned over the years. You see it with colleges of our size, especially around the Midwest,” Collins said.

Nearly half of the upper story buildings in downtown Richmond are either vacant or not being used at all. Collins says there is a plan for that.

“There are a lot of people, business owners, development organizations trying to do really good work, and they’ve been pushing forward inch by inch for decades now, but we still remain in this sort of place where we lack this sense of vibrancy,” he said.

Revitalize Richmond also includes new apartments, a makerspace, new activities at Whitewater River Gorge Park and more. Collins says there are plans to bring students to various projects in an effort to keep Earlham graduates in the area after graduation.

“We’ve got five institutions of higher education in Richmond. Earlham is just one of them, but we see it all across the board. People come here for education, and then we have what we hear all the time — this brain drain of those college graduates leaving,” Collins said. “We want to help those college graduates see that Richmond is a viable and exciting place to build their life after graduation. Revitalize Richmond is just a portion of that, but it is a big piece.”

They hope to have all projects complete by 2028.

Revitalize Richmond Initiative Has Leaders, Community Hopeful  was originally published on wibc.com