Wingard and Morrison celebrate completion of Kerr Building project

Twenty years after the city of Coldwater and the Downtown Development Authority began efforts to redevelop three dilapidated West Chicago street buildings that once housed Kerr Hardware, the project is complete.

Developer Jennifer Wingard and architect Scott Morrison commissioned a mural along the Hanchett Street side of the building to commemorate the struggle and journey.

Muralist Kimber Thompson, who did the postcard-like mural across the street to the east, finished her work Wednesday.

After half a dozen other proposals failed between 2002-2007, Wingard returned to her hometown and began to look at the Kerr Building with Morrison.

It wasn’t until designation as a Brownfield site and approval from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which would grant a state tax credit against the Michigan Business Tax liability equal to as much as 20% of the investment, that the project became viable.

Wingard then found a bank and tax credit expert to move the project forward. This was 2014, seven years after Wingard and Morrison began their work.

Morrison had worked a year on design. By April 2015, the 14 apartments, the financial anchor of the project, were complete and tenants began moving in.

Both the city and Wingard looked to fill the commercial space. The commercial first floor did not take off until last fall when Two Bandits Brewery went into the corner location and opened its brewpub.

The other locations along the street now house other businesses prompting the mural.

The mural banner reads, “In 2007, Scott Morrison and Jennifer Wingard partnered to rehabilitate this historic structure. By 2019 the massive project of residential apartments was complete and 100% occupied. The ground-floor commercial space followed soon after. The building initiated the revitalization of downtown Coldwater.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Reporter: Hanchett Street mural celebrates completion of Kerr Building project