WHAT2WATCH What will make headlines in 2023

By Craig Manning

It’s January and that means it’s time for the TCBN’s list of happenings in and around Traverse City as we head into the New Year. Here are 16 of the people, places, and products to watch, including FishPass, the community of Kingsley, new hotels in and around TC, the arrival of commercial cannabis, inflation and labor, and much more.

Fall 2022 was hotel building season, with no fewer than eight new hotels either in site preparation mode or fully under construction.

If all those hotels are built as planned, they would add nearly 800 rooms to Traverse City’s room capacity – a 20 percent increase over the 4,000 hotel rooms that already exist.

Here’s a quick rundown.

Tru by Hilton: This four-story, 90-room hotel in Garfield Township will soon join the area’s hospitality industry – if it hasn’t already. As of press time, Fritz Heller, the president of hotel developer Northern Michigan Hospitality Management (NMHM), said he was expecting the certificate of occupancy for Tru to come through by the end of December and that the hotel would likely “be selling rooms by January.” The hotel is located on US-31 South, across from Panera Bread.

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott: With Tru done, NMHM is gearing up to build a four-story, 95-room Fairfield right next door on US-31 South. Heller said that all permitting is complete and that construction should kick off in the spring, with a target opening date of May 2024.

Avid: A four-story, 92-room Avid Hotel is under construction on the US-31 North parcel in East Bay Township previously occupied by Wendy’s restaurant. Lake

Michigan Hospitality 31 LLC, the developer, demolished the Wendy’s in August to make way. Andy Abro, an equity partner/ owner of Lake Michigan Hospitality 31 LLC, had previously estimated a completion date of September 2023; he did not return a request for a status report.

Residence Inn by Marriott and Staybridge Suites: Construction is also underway at another property in East Bay Township, this one the former home of Pebble Brook Adventure Park. Those projects have been in the works since 2018, with COVID-19 forcing the developer – the Farmington Hills-based Premier Hospitality – to reapply for site plan review with the township. Now, construction is finally underway, with the same concept as in 2018. Both hotels will be six stories, with the Residence Inn boasting 123 rooms and the Staybridge Suites 122. Also planned is an 8,692-square-foot restaurant/retail space which could host a restaurant, drive-through coffee shop, or other uses. The project is on track for a phased buildout with a late spring/early summer 2024 completion.

Hyatt House: An extended-stay Hyatt House hotel is also bound for East Bay between the Traverse City State Park campground and the Hampton Inn. The hotel will include 143 rooms across five stories, as well as a 4,153-square-foot restaurant with outdoor seating. Construction hasn’t broken ground yet, according to developer

Chris Abbo, but he said he and his team “are near completion of our drawings, have started estimating the project, and are trying to time it out for a second or third quarter 2023 start.” Abbo is hopeful the hotel would be ready to open by “first quarter of 2025.”

The Alexandra Inn: The smallest on the way is the Alexandria Inn, a 32-room boutique inn on US-31 between Pointes North and Gens Park. According to Ali Wuerful, director of operations for Wuerful Resorts – which will develop, own and operate the new inn – the project has moved ahead quickly since it was approved by East Bay Township last spring.

Marriott Autograph: Jeff Schmitz, the developer who brought Hotel Indigo to Traverse City a decade ago, is now bringing another to the Warehouse District. That project will be four stories and will encompass approximately 100 rooms, plus a restaurant, three bars, and a rooftop space similar to Indigo’s.

With core planning approvals now in place, Schmitz says his development group – the downstate-based J.S. Capitol – has already started excavation.

Could 2023 be the year northern Michigan finally moves the needle on affordable housing?

Some good news from late-2022 suggests the answer might just be yes.

In December, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a package of four affordable housing bills into law. The legislation, led in part by the locally-based Housing North, was developed in part by 60-plus housing advocacy organizations throughout the state.

Two of the bills are expansions of existing programs – PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes), which helps eliminate some of the tax burdens faced by workforce housing developments; and Neighborhood Enterprise Zone legislation, which offers financial incentives for the creation of workforce housing.

The other two bills introduce new tools into the affordable housing equation – one through housing districts targeting rehabilitation projects and one by creating new residential facility tax exemptions for income-eligible housing projects.

Housing North Executive Director Yarrow Brown sees the legislation as a victory for attainable housing. While she told the TCBN that the bill package is not a “silver bullet” and will not solve the region’s housing crisis outright, she still expects it will entice more developers to build, encourage more of those developers to set aside units for income-restricted demographics, and enable developers already working in this space to work faster and more efficiently now that certain barriers are out of the way.

“I can’t predict the future, but we have 1,100 units that we’re watching and we know are in progress (throughout our 10-county territory), and I think these tools will help bring more projects into that pipeline,” Brown said.

Here’s a quick rundown of just a few of the affordable housing projects on the horizon:

• Annika Place, a $14.7 million project that will bring 53 new affordable apartment units to the property at 947 S. Garfield Ave., officially broke ground last month. Units will be reserved for those earning 30-80 percent of area median income (AMI). Woda Cooper Companies, Inc., the developer, was also behind Ruth Park, which recently brought 58 units online in Traverse City for those in the 30-80 percent AMI bracket.

• The Traverse City Housing Corporation (TCHC) officially has the green light to break ground on the Flats at Carriage Commons, its affordable housing development at the corner of Hammond and Lafranier roads. It will consist of five multifamily buildings, encompassing more than 200 units in total. Rents are expected to fall between $680 and $820 per month, including utilities.

TCHC Executive Director

Tony Lentych said the organization has enough funding to build one of the five buildings and is pursuing funding opportunities to cover the remaining costs. BATA is also building its new headquarters on the site, while Habitat for Humanity plans to build 15 single-family homes there.

• HomeStretch Nonprofit Housing Corporation has numerous irons in the fire for affordable housing in and around Traverse City. One is in Suttons Bay, where the organization recently broke ground on Vineyard View Apartments, eight brand-new townhouse-style apartments reserved for low-income residents. Another is a proposed 10-unit apartment building on Carver Street in Traverse City. Also in Traverse City, HomeStretch is working to finalize a purchase agreement with the City of Traverse City to buy one of the city’s downtown parking lots (Lot O) and redevelop it into 60 rental apartments.

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