Downtown Muskegon redevelopment may have reached the “tipping point” in 2006.
Announcements of plans for several new businesses came after years of agonizingly slow process in recreating a new downtown Muskegon, five years after the closure of Muskegon Mall.

This year’s developments, with an estimated value of about $80 million, not only gave downtown boosters renewed energy and optimism but also quieted some of the naysayers.

“This year was a critical development year,” said Cindy Larsen, president of the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce.

Without a single shovel being turned, a series of private sector development plans for downtown Muskegon also stoked interest from the development and investment communities.

Among the announced plans:

• Hot Rod Harley-Davidson and Seelye/Wright Hyundai dealerships for the city of Muskegon’s Terrace Street lots.

• The Vida Nova at Edison Landing waterfront condominiums.

• The Viridian Place office building at Edison Landing.

• The Sidock Building, a retail-office facility on the “city center” site of the former Muskegon Mall.

In addition to the private sector investments, public improvements included the city’s reconstruction of West Western Avenue from Third to Terrace streets. It is the first time vehicles have driven down Muskegon’s historical “main street” since the central business district was enclosed by the Muskegon Mall in the early 1970s.

‘Things are happening’

Downtown developments announced, under construction or completed in 2006 hit $76.3 million, according to a Muskegon Chamber and Muskegon Main Street analysis. And that was before this month’s announcement by Baker College of Muskegon that it would build a $3 million to $5 million culinary arts facility at the corner of Third Street and Clay Avenue.

The Chamber — one of the institutions that formed the Downtown Muskegon Development Corp. to take control of and redevelop the mall property — announced a partnership to build its own mixed-use building for its office at Third Street and West Western Avenue.

“The community leaders are looking to build downtown Muskegon like (lumber baron) Charles Hackley did 100 years ago,” Larsen said. “We are finding developments that will stand the test of time.”

But for the past five years, progress was slow. “Up until about three months ago, it has been painful every step of the way,” Larsen said.

Flip back the calendar five years and Muskegon was celebrating the 2001 opening of The Lakes Mall at Sternberg Road in Fruitport Township. But the new mall was the downtown Muskegon Mall’s death knell.

Christmas 2001 was the last for retail shopping in downtown Muskegon, and the mall closed as the year ended. Owned by a Chicago real estate developer and manager, the mall that covered West Western Avenue could have sat as a decaying symbol of a dying city.

But the Community Foundation for Muskegon County took the lead in taking back Muskegon’s historic downtown. Joining with the Chamber and the Paul C. Johnson Foundation, the Community Foundation created the nonprofit Downtown Muskegon Development Corp., which along with the city of Muskegon obtained the mall and its 23 acres through a mortgage foreclosure.

Downtown Muskegon Development auctioned off the remaining contents of the mall and demolished the old shopping center, clearing the way for the downtown’s resurrection. Only five buildings from the historic West Western Avenue remain — the Century Club, Daniel’s Office Supply and the Muskegon Savings Bank, National City Bank and Comerica Bank buildings.

The community participated in a planning process called Imagine Muskegon. A downtown redevelopment concept was formulated in 2003 that began taking shape this past year.

“This is truly a time when thrilling things are happening,” Community Foundation President Chris McGuigan said as the Imagine Muskegon plan began to unfold downtown. “We are living in a time that we haven’t seen in 100 years.”

The past five years of downtown Muskegon redevelopment progress has seen more than $100 million in total investment from private developers, nonprofit institutions and governments.

The emerging downtown stretches from Edison Landing on the east — with Grand Valley State University’s alternative energy center, Parmenter O’Toole law offices and the Vida Nova and Viridian Place developments — to the former Shaw-Walker furniture manufacturing plant on the west, which is being redeveloped into the WaterMark Center residential-office-retail facility.

Seeing is believing

No piece of the downtown development puzzle is more important than another, Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington said, because each adds to the overall picture now emerging of a downtown that is drawing investment.

The 2006 downtown redevelopment story is being written by a combination of developers and investors from across the state, including Muskegon, Grand Haven, Grand Rapids, Holland, Kalamazoo, Midland and Novi.

“To me, it’s important that people outside the community recognize what’s happening in downtown Muskegon,” Warmington said. “There are too many people right here in the community who don’t recognize what’s happening.”

Dr. Mark Campbell, a Grand Rapids oncologist and businessman, and partner Carl Miskotten chose to put their Hot Rod Harley-Davidson development on the city’s downtown “Terrace Street lots,” rather than the growing area around The Lakes Mall, where Campbell is part-owner of the My Import Center auto dealership.

New economic development activity, along with capital projects, like the rebuilding of Western Avenue, also have attracted the notice of the Grand Rapids Business Journal. The regional business publication named Muskegon’s downtown redevelopment among its Top 10 Newsmakers for 2006.

As much as the announcements of private development promise to change the face of downtown Muskegon, infrastructure developments also have excited the community and quieted the critics, downtown promoters said. Nothing has changed the downtown landscape more than the rebuilding of West Western Avenue and the new traffic circle at Third and Western, which the Imagine Muskegon report determined to be the heart of downtown.

“People have been seeing the infrastructure being laid in the ground,” said Dan Rinsema-Sybenga, manager of Muskegon Main Street, part of a national nonprofit program to revitalize America’s downtowns. “This was a year of tangible progress. People see the progress and understand the vision. People are bringing projects downtown that are sustainable for the long run.”

Although the $15 million Vida Nova or the $5 million Heritage Square Town Homes — 16 “live and work” condominiums proposed for Clay Avenue — are nothing to dismiss, downtown Muskegon has yet to land “the big one.” There has been no major, community-defining development— such as a large recreational facility — as some have suggested is needed.

But others believe long-term success lies in solid, economically-viable developments rather than “flash in the pan” projects that thrill residents but aren’t sustainable. One only has to look at Auto World, an automotive theme park in Flint, to see that some “big ideas” are better left undeveloped.

“We like the healthy mix of developments we are seeing that are sustainable,” the Chamber’s Larsen said.

More in 2007

The momentum built throughout 2006 should carry on into 2007, downtown promoters said. Construction on several buildings, including the chamber’s offices, Sidock Building, Heritage Square and Hot Rod Harley, should begin in the spring. The city’s future new Central Fire Station at Terrace Street and Western already is under construction.

Next year, a Community Foundation committee plans to host discussions and develop plans for public spaces throughout the “city center” — from the middle of the traffic circle to a walkway and plaza along Third Street and the old “Federal Square” in front of the U.S. Post Office. Public art for these open spaces will be a high priority, foundation officials said.

Also early in 2007, Main Street’s Rinsema-Sybenga said he expects a deal to be publicly announced for the former National City Bank building on Western Avenue, and possibly a residential development on the east end of the “city center” site. Two Muskegon institutions are looking at possibly locating substantial buildings at Third and Clay, Rinsema-Sybenga said.

“I think now is really the time for downtown Muskegon,” said Gary Post, retired president of Muskegon Construction Co. and developer of two downtown projects. Post and partner Russ Strong are redeveloping the Russell Block, including renovation of the former Century Club for Hegg’s Gallery of Fine Furniture. Post also is the developer of the Heritage Square Town Homes.

“We are at a threshold,” said Post, who is also the outgoing chairman of the Chamber. “This is an opportunity that comes along only once in a lifetime, if even that. There are a whole lot of projects that are creating what we will be calling downtown Muskegon.”

© 2006 Muskegon Chronicle. Used with permission