A historic hotel, called Hotel Northern, in the city of Manistee, will soon become a new apartment complex with some commercial space as part of the statewide effort to redevelop old properties.
Bill Gambill, city manager of Manistee, said he’s excited to see the new life that this project will breathe into the city.
“It shows a renewed interest in developing some of these older buildings, and it's exciting to see something happen with this building in the city of Manistee,” Gambill said.
Hotel Northern will be redeveloped into a two-story building with 15 residential units and 3,685 square feet of commercial space, according to a press release.
It was built in the late 1800s in the northern part of downtown and even had a bakery there at one point, Gambill said. But he said Hotel Northern hasn’t been functioning for 20 years.
“It's a two-story hotel,” Gambill said. “It has a nice facade on it with some ... larger windows. It's a nice building. It's a nice brick, solid building. So, we're looking forward to seeing some activity in it.”
The project received $1,497,091 in grant funding from the state's Revitalization and Placemaking (RAP) program.
It’s one of the two projects that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently announced to be supported by RAP. The other one is a former hotel in Fennville.
RAP is the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s program that finances infrastructure development. The latest round of RAP funding that happened in May provided 27 applicants with grants totaling $25 million, according to a press release.
Manistee is a part of the Redevelopment Ready Communities with MEDC, and Gambill said that’s why the state knew about this redevelopment project and the funding gap.
The developer known as Clover Real Estate Investments received the grant to revitalize the community. Kevin Schaeffer, founder of Clover REI, said the grant covers about 50 percent of the project, and the rest is funded through other sources and financial partners.
The company bought the hotel before the COVID-19 pandemic and has been working on redeveloping it for housing since.
“I love the northwestern coast of Michigan, just beautiful area, and I was looking for an opportunity to invest and find an old vacant building that needed some love,” Schaeffer said.
Redeveloping the property got underway this week with some cleaning of the building, and Schaeffer said he hopes it will be finished in the next 12 to 14 months.
“I just love the area, so being able to redevelop and make the city more desirable, more beautiful, more marketable is really a strong selling point for me,” Schaeffer said. “Being able to help and provide housing for people that want to live there, it’s just always been a passion of mine.”
