CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH JARRED DROWN
CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW KEMPER
A new hotel is planned for downtown Escanaba.
Construction is under way for a Hampton Inn and Suites, which will be a four-story, 93-room facility on the site where the Delta County Jail used to sit next to the waterfront.
Jarred Drown owns the recently-expanded Terrace Bay Hotel near Gladstone, and he is spearheading this project to add to his company’s portfolio.
“It’s going to bring 45,000 guests per year all the way downtown to stop at the shops and to eat in the restaurants,” Drown told RRN at Monday’s “first shovel” ceremony. “It will be a huge impact overall on Escanaba, for the local economy, for the payroll, and the hospitality jobs it will bring to the area. The area has been growing, with a lot more corporate business than there were even five, ten years ago.”
Drown says the hotel will be more than 54,000 square feet, with an indoor pool and fitness center. He says it will be a roughly $15,5 million development that will create jobs for Delta County.
Andrew Kemper is the vice president at Houghton-based Moyle Construction, the lead contractor for the project. He says it should take 12-to-14 months to get the hotel built, with an approximate opening date in February of 2028. Hampton Inn & Suites is a Hilton-branded hotel.
“On a busy day down here, we’ll probably have 40 to 50 trades on site,” Kemper told RRN News. “That’ll be at the mid point of the construction, I imagine. We’ll between 30 and 50 local vendors involved in the project, which is awesome. We started constriction about a month ago.”
“Winter is going to be a bear at the point of the project that we’re going to encounter it, so I’m not to commit to any precise timetable. Let’s see how bad Mother Nature kicks our butts this winter.”
Financing for the project is also happening locally, spearheaded by the Upper Peninsula State Bank. Vice President Eric Lundin says this kind of project epitomizes what his bank is all about.
“We’ve worked with them in the past,” Lundin told RRN News. “Seeing what they’ve done at the current Terrace, and looking at what the impact could be for downtown Escanaba for years to come, is really what led us to partner with the Terrace group on this project.”
“We’ve been here since 1902. As a community bank, we take in deposits and lend them out for local projects. That’s what this is. It’s a large project, and we’re happy to play a small role in this.”
Escanaba Mayor Mark Ammel says this is another example of how the city is growing, and he tells RRN News that it could spur additional development down the road.
“I think this will inspire some people to at least take a look,” Ammel said. “I think what’s really inspiring growth around here is the fact that the city itself has decided to take the first step on its own. Working on our infrastructure and making sure we have everything work right. That’s what makes this an attractive place to come build.”
The city last week wrapped up a massive two-year total rebuild of 16 blocks of Ludington Street.
CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH ERIC LUNDIN
CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH MAYOR MARK AMMEL
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