Nov. 1—TRAVERSE CITY — A new 140-room “luxury boutique hotel” is coming to West Front Street in Traverse City.
The four-story structure will occupy a long-vacant lot between the Record-Eagle office building and J&S Hamburg. No name or brand for the new hotel has been announced yet.
Great Lakes Capital, a private equity developer based in South Bend, Indiana, expects construction to begin in the third quarter of 2025, with a grand opening to follow in early 2027. The project is expected to cost about $62 million.
“Despite the region being a year-round destination … there is a massive unmet demand for an upscale hotel,” GLC officials said in a slide presentation.
“Capitalizing on GLC’s hospitality arm and the devout foodie scene in Traverse City, the hotel will feature a stunning signature restaurant, French café, private whiskey club and outdoor space along the river.”
Various event and meeting spaces are also part of the hotel plan. Parking spaces will be provided beneath the structure.
Eric Helzer of Advanced Redevelopment Solutions presented updated information about the hotel plan at Thursday morning’s meeting of the Grand Traverse County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.
GLC is also working with global engineering firm TRC and various government agencies on the project.
ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has determined that soil and water at the site are contaminated from past business uses. Phase Two of EGLE’s environmental site assessment was largely completed this summer.
Grand Traverse Auto, one of the previous occupants of the site, had an underground storage tank that may have leaked petroleum into the soil. Founded in 1911 by Milton Bryant, a brother-in-law of Henry Ford, the car dealership moved from downtown Traverse City in 1996. It was sold to Fox Grand Traverse of Garfield Township in March 2009.
Contaminants from a nearby downtown dry cleaning business may have leached into groundwater at the hotel site, officials said.
The new hotel will likely include a vapor mitigation system underneath the building itself, officials said.
“EGLE has wrapped up most of its soil and groundwater studies,” said Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Administrator Anne Jamieson-Urena. “The proposed schedule calls for remediation work to begin next spring.”
Because of those contamination issues, the site is considered a “brownfield” for redevelopment, hence the authority’s involvement.
Earlier this year, the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority applied for an EGLE “grant/loan agreement” on behalf of the developer to pay for the cost of cleanup at the site.
Other GLC collaborators on the hotel project include global engineering firm TRC and various government agencies.
Not all brownfield projects involve contaminated sites. Some are simply blighted and/or functionally obsolete properties.
The goal of the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority is to facilitate the redevelopment of those properties, work to clean up contamination and facilitate the create of new jobs and employment opportunities in Grand Traverse County.
HOTEL BUILDING BOOM
Hundreds of new hotel rooms are planned or currently under construction in Grand Traverse County, from East Bay Township to the commercial corridor along U.S. 31 in Garfield Township.
Officials estimate that more than 5,000 hotel rooms and short-term rental accommodations already exist in the Traverse City metro area.
The newly rebranded “Beach District” in East Bay Township has one of the highest concentrations of hotels, motels and hybrid condo/hotel developments in the state — more per capita than any other area of northern Michigan, with the possible exception of Mackinaw City.
And the building boom continues.
Two new hotels are planned for the property next to the Traverse City Tourism office, which is located at 101 W. Grandview Parkway across from the Open Space and Clinch Park marina.
Another is slated for the open lot between the Traverse City State Park and Hampton Inn.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Great Lakes Capital, founded in 2005, has extensive prior experience building upscale hotel properties under various hotel brands, such as “Autograph by Marriott” and “Hilton Tapestry.”
Five such hotel projects are now underway in Muskegon, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska; Rogers, Arkansas; and Cedar Park, Texas.
GLC also invests in multi-family housing, industrial buildings, mixed-use developments, offices and medical/life sciences facilities.
Since its founding, the company has closed on more than $7 billion in commercial real estate investments, according to the firm’s website.
