The courtyard of the Riverview Plaza in downtown St. Clair has become one of the most popular gathering places in the County. Redesigned, rebuilt and opened as “new” in 2015 by the Community Foundation of St. Clair County, the Courtyard will celebrate the occasion by releasing an updated master plan later this summer.

“Few people would have predicted the immediate success of the Courtyard when we rebuilt it ten years ago,” said Will Oldford, Chair of the Foundation’s St. Clair Endowments and CEO of Eastern Michigan Bank. “It almost instantly became one of our most successful placemaking projects and truly helped inspire the growth we’re seeing at the Plaza and in the City of St. Clair.”

For years local stakeholders struggled to come up with a cohesive plan and the necessary funding to convert the courtyard space from a parking lot with some amenities, to a fully dedicated space for people and families to gather. The Community Foundation and the Riverview Plaza Association Board entered into a development agreement which turned over control of the entire Courtyard to the Community Foundation, with the stipulation that they provided the majority of the funding.

“It was really a unique partnership,” said Randy Maiers, the Foundation’s President & CEO who personally oversaw the creation and implementation of the new Courtyard plans. The Foundation hired the firm of SmithGroup from Ann Arbor, who had also worked with the Foundation to create the vision for the Blue Water River Walk in Port Huron.

In late 2024, the Foundation hired Smithgroup again to begin meeting with local stakeholders and users to come up with an updated master plan, which will be unveiled later this summer.  

Quentin Bishop is the City Manager for the City of St. Clair. “It’s really a critical anchor in our downtown,” he said. “This is really a case where our local Community Foundation helped pay the majority of costs for a project that supports local businesses and jobs in the Plaza, which in turn draws tourists and people to our downtown.”

The Foundation expects the new plan to feature a few key changes to better accommodate the large crowds and heavy visitor and tourist traffic that the downtown has seen in recent years. “We want to make sure the Courtyard is ready for the next ten years,” said Oldford, who is also a local resident. “Our Community Foundation understands the importance of placemaking as an economic catalyst in our region, and the Riverview Plaza Courtyard may be the best example of that.”

The updated master plan for the Courtyard also coincides with other projects the Foundation is doing in 2025 along the cost of the region, including upgrades and new amenities to the Blue Water River Walk and the redevelopment of the courtyard at the Foundation’s offices in downtown Port Huron, which it shares with Michigan Mutual.

“2025 is going to be the year we resume some placemaking work” said Maiers. “Our donors have been supportive, and we really feel that placemaking is a niche we do well in.”