NEGAUNEE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The City of Negaunee is celebrating another major statewide honor. Its downtown enhancement project has been named The Michigan Downtown Association’s 2025 “Project Of The Year”.
The new award is proudly on display inside Campfire Coffee, where it is temporarily housed, here on Iron Street.
The project that won the award was entered in the place-making category, revitalizing a once-dilapidated commercial area with upgraded infrastructure, wider sidewalks, new landscaping, and the creation of Irontown Plaza.
“We believe the Downtown is the heart and soul of our community, and if your heart and soul isn’t doing good, then the rest of your community isn’t doing good. So we want to make sure the downtown was solid,” said Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron.
When he arrived in Negaunee, Heffron saw a downtown that was ripe for development, a stagnant business strip desperately in need of reinvestment.
“Since we’ve started this project and finished this project, we’ve been able to have businesses move here. We see more people coming to our community and going to the businesses here,” said Heffron.
Allison Carpenter, the new owner of Campfire Coffee, says the energy in downtown Negaunee is purely electric.
“I’m very proud to be a new business owner in Downtown Negaunee. Everybody who passes through just has wonderful things to say about how it’s looking and just the overall vibe and feel,” exclaimed Carpenter.
This is Negaunee’s second major award this year, after winning the Michigan Municipal League’s highest honor, the Community Excellence Award, in September. Heffron is confident that these accolades are just the beginning of great things to come for “Irontown, USA.”,
“We are working to make sure that we can invest across the board in Negaunee, which we’ve done some of, but we had to start in our core. We had to make sure our heart and soul were healthy.
