ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Several vacant Escanaba buildings are on track to redevelopment in the next few years.
On Tuesday, the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority adopted resolutions to revitalize several “functionally obsolete or blighted properties.” The first resolution included multiple sites, with some projects privately funded.
The former Delta County Jail on North 3rd Street, located behind the County Courthouse, is one of the properties up for redevelopment. The owners of Gladstone’s Terrace Bay Hotel hope to transform it into a Hampton Inn. The County Land Bank Authority applied for a blight elimination grant for the site last year.
“We have secured grant funding to cover a lot of the Brownfield costs here,” said Escanaba City Manager Jim McNeil. “I believe there is an allowance just in case, if needed.”
The resolution also includes the former Chamber of Commerce site on Ludington Street and the land beside it, up to the edge of the Municipal Dock, where Swanee Inc. plans to construct two condominium buildings and a mixed-use facility with apartments.
“The large private cost is integrated parking, which is Brownfield eligible,” McNeil said.
McNeil says there are two other entities involved in the funding aspects of the resolution.
“One is Delta County for some relocation of utilities that serve both the jail and the courthouse,” he explained. “Those utilities are to be reimbursed and relocated into the courthouse to pave way for the development. There’s about $4.5 – $5 million of City infrastructure costs as part of the project focused on some of the street work in that area, but the large cost will be for storm sewer outfalls, one being closer to the Municipal Dock that we’ll have to move over. Currently, it is really not functioning the way it should be anyway. The second one will be behind the jail… not only to upsize to handle the flows that are going to be coming, but also to move it away from the hotel development.”
Across town, the former Super One on North Lincoln Road has been closed for several years. The Brownfield Redevelopment Authority adopted a separate resolution to redevelop the site into a Kwik Trip fuel station and convenience store.
“Kwik Trip’s a Wisconsin-based company,” said Scott Teigen, Kwik Trip Real Estate Vice President. “We’re the most vertically integrated convenience store chain in the United States. For example, we have our own dairy plant. The milk, it comes from the cow from last night’s milk and is being processed in our dairy plant right now. It’ll be loaded on trucks and in the store tonight… If there’s a way to take the middle man out of the process, that’s what we try to do so we can provide a better value to the customers.”
Teigen says the store would be nearly 10,000 square feet, featuring a bakery, fresh food, two car washes, and ten to twelve gas pumps. Along with breathing new life into the vacant property, Tiegen says Kwik Trip aims to bring 40 to 50 new jobs to Delta County.
“The unique thing about Kwik Trip is we share 40% of our pre-tax profits with our coworkers,” he said. “Last year, that equated to about 11% cash bonus to the coworker, based on their W-2 total… Then they got nearly 7% into the retirement plan. That’s on top of a very fair wage and excellent healthcare and other benefits.”
According to Teigen, Kwik Trip is not proposing any change in access to the site, so no new driveways will be constructed. He also answered a Brownfield Redevelopment Authority member’s question about potential contamination.
“We were kind of the developer of the double-wall tank system that exists across the country today,” said Teigen. “There’s the tank that the fuel is in, then there’s an air wall all the way around it. That air wall is monitored, so if the pressure changes at all, you know something is wrong… If we have a leak, we’ll know almost instantaneously.”
The resolutions will now go to the Escanaba City Council. Pending approval, Kwik Trip hopes to open for business in 2026.
