Workforce housing development gets funding support in Petoskey, with perhaps more to come

What’s happening: The announced redevelopment of a Petoskey industrial site into more than 200 units of affordable workforce housing was one of several projects to receive brownfield redevelopment funding from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) in these past several weeks, it among a bevy of developments that will transform vacant, polluted sites into creative adaptive reuse projects throughout that state.

The Michigan Maple Block Company opened in Petoskey in 1911 and closed in 2020. (Photo: Facebook)What it is: The approximately 12 acre site at 1420 Standish Ave. in Petoskey was home to the Michigan Maple Block Company for nearly 90 years, where the company manufactured butcher blocks from 1911 until 2020. Real estate and private equity firm Great Lakes Capital plans to build a nine-building apartment development atop the site, featuring more than 200 units of workforce housing with some commercial space added. It’s expected that construction will wrap come spring 2025.

Why it is: Given the location’s near century-long usage as an industrial and manufacturing site, the property is reportedly contaminated with metals and petroleum compounds. EGLE has awarded the project a $1 million Brownfield Redevelopment Grant and $1 million Brownfield Redevelopment Loan in support of the removal of contaminated soil, installation of a vapor mitigation system, and construction of special foundations to account for unstable ground.

The project is also in the running for a $3.8 million Missing Middle workforce housing grant from the Michigan State Housing and Development Authority (MSHDA), the current status of which is available online.

But that’s not all: The Michigan Maple Block news was announced alongside a $700,000 EGLE Brownfield Redevelopment Grant for an interesting project in Escanaba, which will convert the old Delta County Jail into an 80-unit Hampton Inn. EGLE also awarded a $1 million EGLE Brownfield Redevelopment Grant and a $2.2 million EGLE Shore Power Grant to the Carbide Dock reclamation project in Sault Ste. Marie, and a $900,000 EGLE Brownfield Redevelopment Grant toward the West State Street mixed-use development in downtown Traverse City.

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