Prayers and planning intersect at church site
Harvest Square strip mall in Miller will house eight stores
Today’s column is the first in a series on a strip mall development in the Miller section of Gary, designed to connect faith, business and community.
He wept.
The Rev. W. Maurice White Jr. dropped to his knee, looked to the heavens and cried when he realized his latest vision would become a reality after years of planning and praying.
“So much more than just a building is going up at this site,” White told me outside Beyond 4 Walls Christian Center in the Miller section of Gary.
A congregation of church members, business owners, and city officials broke ground May 2 on church property for a new development, the Harvest Square strip mall.
The 12,000-square-foot project will house eight stores, including a Beggars Pizza, Lil Coffee Cabin, Harold’s Chicken, Chicagoland Popcorn, and Chef Blāque Steel
City Bakery. Every business owner believes it will transcend the blueprint of a traditional strip mall at the
south end of Lake Street. The project will be the physical manifestation of faith, investment, and determination. It will be a strip mall of transformation, they say.
“A lot of people have written off Gary. Pastor White didn’t do that,” said Dwayne Walker, owner of Chicagoland Popcorn, which has two locations in the area.
Walker was the first business owner White approached more than two years ago.
“He wasn’t spooky spiritual or talking dollars and cents about this project,” Walker said. “He just came to us with a vision. All of this came from something unseen. We’re excited about being a part of this vision.”
Beyond 4 Walls was organized in 2009 in a former hardware store. It now offers tools for the soul, not for the home, billing itself as a “seven day a week church with a seven day a week pastor.”
Last week, each business owner, the banker, the builder and city officials testified inside the church about White’s faith. Not only in Jesus, but in Gary. Watch a video of their testimonials on my Facebook page.
“This is about connecting faith and community,” said Gary Common Council President William Godwin, D-1st. “We have a lot of churches in this city, but there is devastation all around them. To see a church being responsible, and responsive, to the needs of its community is inspiring to me.”
Godwin rattled off all the food options soon coming to that site: chicken, popcorn, pizza and bakery goods. “We’re going to need a health club,” he joked.
White said the total down payment for the
$1.1 million project came from his congregation, fewer than 300 members.
“Not one penny came from outside our church,” he said.
Marisa Turner, a church member from Hobart, said she’s grateful for White’s vision.
“I am very excited to be a part of what God is doing through Beyond 4 Walls and the Harvest Square strip mall,” she said. “This will be such a wonderful blessing to the community in so many ways. The groundbreaking was just a glimpse of the manifestation. I can’t wait for construction to begin.”
The strip mall, scheduled for completion later this year, will also house a Don’t B Scared barber shop, a Press Send phone repair store, and a Blast laundromat.
“As a banker, lending money to a church is not an easy thing to do. There are no guarantees,” said Kent Mishler, a commercial lending manager for Horizon Bank in Valparaiso.
“Two years ago, Pastor White told me, ‘I want to build a retail strip mall on our property,’ ” said Mishler, who’s had a business relationship with White for four years. “I knew he was serious. Our bank is excited about this project.”
Last month, Horizon opened its first branch in Gary, on Grant Street.
“We’re seeing more high-quality businesses attracted to the city of Gary, and that’s positive for everyone,” said Gary Mayor Jerome Prince. “We are glad to work with Pastor White to shape this economic development project in any way that fits into our overall vision of re-imagining Gary.”
Tony Peuquet, from Chester Construction, the builder of the project, said, “This step was all on Pastor White. All we did was put it on paper so we can make it real, and he’s taken it from there. This is really something that’s been missing in Miller for a while.”
Chareice White, a business development officer with Community Investment Fund of Indiana, attended the groundbreaking on behalf of executive director
Phil Black, and Charles Kennedy, with Cambridge Capital Management Corp.
“I’ve known Pastor White since kindergarten. We’re delighted to be a part of this project,” White said.
Joseph Mims, owner of the Lil Coffee Cabin in the strip mall, said as a young man growing up in Gary, his goal was to escape Gary.
“But there is an opportunity here to make this community better,” he said. “My heart told me to be a part of something that could change where I’m from. Pastor White gave me this opportunity. It always stood out to me.”
White insisted on the strip mall housing strictly carryout businesses.
“This is a to-go community,” he said.
Maurice “Chef Blāque” Shelton, from Steel
City Bakery, said White approached him multiple times about opening a new location in the strip mall. Shelton, owner of Black Rose Pastries, has appeared on Netflix’s “Sugar Rush” and other shows on the Food Network.
“I’m excited to build our rapport and revitalize the community with this Harvest Square strip mall,” he said.
Quentin Grant, co-owner of the Beggars Pizza in Glen Park section of the city, said White shared his vision with him while walking from his church to the work site.
“We fell in love with this brother, and we’re gonna ride with him on this project. Everything he told me he was going to do, he did it. And he’s still doing it,” Grant said. “He shook my hand that day and broke down crying. He was overwhelmed with what he knew God was going to do in his life.”