ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – One of the buildings affected by the Ludington Street fire in Escanaba will soon be torn down.
On January 24, a fire destroyed two downtown businesses—Trinkets & Treasures and Schwalbach Kitchens—and killed one man. The building next door to Schwalbach Kitchens, which housed the East Ludington Gallery, sustained heavy smoke damage.
According to building owner Craig Woerpel, it now needs to be torn down.
“The cost is much greater than it was insured for in order to repair it, if it was even repairable,” Woerpel said.
Woerpel has had discussions with the City and the Delta County Economic Development Alliance about options for the property to avoid leaving a large empty space in the downtown.
“Whether there are Brownfield options to clean up the three locations here, as well as potential uses for this,” he said. “I think we’re going to try and market that hole—similar to what was happening at the jail and the chamber of commerce building—where we come up with a concept and then try to find a developer that is willing to go ahead with that concept. The big drawback here is that all of the land is privately owned, so we’ve got to get the landowners on board with this as well to see what their interest might be.”
In the meantime, the artists displaced by smoke damage from the fire are securing a new location to show their work. The Bonifas Arts Center hosted a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for them days later, helping to make that transition possible.
“They told me that they wouldn’t be able to find that location without the generosity of that fundraiser,” said Woerpel. “We certainly appreciate everybody who came out, bought spaghetti, and supported that group. There was also a fundraiser for the tenant upstairs who lost all of her artwork—she wasn’t part of the gallery—and that was very successful. I know that there was a fundraiser also for The Beaten Path. They’ve been doing some cleaning in here, but he’s got a long road to haul.”
WZMQ 19 will have an update on where the East Ludington Gallery artists will be showing their work as the information is released. Click here for WZMQ 19’s most recent story on the Ludington Street fire.
