$18.3 Million Development Proposed In Escanaba

A big announcement Wednesday night in Escanaba about a new waterfront development project.

A joint meeting was held between the Escanaba City Council and the Delta County Board of Commissioners to go over some of the details of the proposal by Proxima Management Group.

It was announced that Proxima has stepped forward and wants to spend $18.3 million to redevelop the old Delta County Jail site as well as the Delta County of Chamber building nearby.

The development would be anchored by a 80-90 room high end hotel to open by October of 2021. The Second phase would include retail, residential, and other mixed use in the complex.

“Significant amount of development should be expected,” Ravi Patel, one of the principal developers, with the Proxima Management Group, told RRN News. “Mixed-use means residential, temporary housing in the form of the hotel, and retail. Potentially, professional office space. We saw an opportunity to help expand the economic base out here.”

The developers and architects were on hand Wednesday night to unveil the details of the plan, which would use local labor and financing from the Upper Peninsula State Bank.

“We’re really excited about activating the lakefront that is here,” Justin Hutton, the senior principal developer and chief architect with the Proxima Management Group told RRN News. “It’s a great opportunity for us, for the residents of the community. Mixed use development, hotel, to really tie in residences, the marina, the park. We love Michigan. The market says that there is a housing need, and a hotel need, and that’s what we’re looking to accomplish.”

Both the city council and county board voted unanimously to approve the concept of the agreement.  The company involved has experience in developing the Marina area of Hammond Indiana.

“I am impressed with the plan. I have some questions about it, this day is going to be remembered as the day that we started talking about it,” Escanaba Mayor Marc Tall told RRN News. “It’s a work in progress. There will be changes to it.”

“This is a great night for all of Delta County,” County board chairman Patrick Johnson told RRN News. “It gives me goosebumps just having such a great agreement between two forms of government. It’s just absolutely wonderful to include a developer and include architects. It’s just going to be a great development.”

Representatives from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the county’s Economic Development Alliance were also on hand Wednesday night. The downtown property along Little Bay deNoc is now vacant because the county jail and sheriffs department moved to a new facility near Bay College.

The nearby Chamber of Commerce building, which is owned by the city and has been leased to the chamber for the last 53 years, is vacant because the chamber recently opened a new facility at the UP State Fairgrounds.