A New Downtown Events Center, an Immersive Luxury Hotel, a $30 a Night Campground, a Beer-Lover's Heaven, and a Reprieve for the Geese

The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell

SOMETHING NEW COMING to downtown Marquette—a brand new events center…It’ll be called Bluff Street Station, located at the corner of Bluff Street and Front Street, in the same building that houses Forsberg Flowers.

“We’re really excited to bring the building back to life,” says Amanda Knaffla, a bank executive who’s the director of the events center. “We think it’ll bring more people downtown.”

Decades ago, the building was a service station. It also housed a riding shop in the back. More recently, it was an interior design shop, and just in the last year, Forsberg Flowers moved in to occupy a portion of the building…but that still left almost 5000 square feet unused.

Just prior to the COVID pandemic, Knaffla, her husband Scott, and Patty Barton (Barton and Scott Knaffla are partners in Method Real Estate) bought the building with the intention of making it a business office. But conditions changed, jobs changed, and as a result, the building just sat there, undeveloped.

“We started hatching the idea of an events center about a year ago,” Amanda Knaffla explains, “and we started clearing the space a couple of months ago. We’re redoing the surfaces, updating it, giving it a classic, elegant look.” Allison Clark of Curio Design Studio is heading the re-design process.

The building was recently awarded a grant to upgrade the facade. (It’ll need some work.)

Knaffla estimates that Bluff Street Station, once it’s completed. will be able to handle events with up to 200 people. When will it open for business? Likely in early Winter.

MARQUETTE’S SMALLEST AND most exclusive hotel opens on May 25th. The official, though somewhat unwieldy, name for it: EXPLORE: Marquette Historic District. We’re just gonna call it EXPLORE.

Thirteen extremely classy, well-appointed rooms. A valet, a porter, a concierge. E-bikes or cruisers available for no fee. Breakfast provided free by Slabz every morning. “The Gilded Hour” celebrated every afternoon 5-7 pm on the sun-splashed second floor deck (or inside with inclement weather)—drinks and snacks provided free….Arrangements for beverages made with Everyday Wines, the Ore Dock Brewing Company, and Provisions.

“This is immersive travel for visitors who want to experience Marquette the way that locals do,” says Charlie Holsworth, one of EXPLORE’S partners. “And it’s for people who want to enjoy affordable luxury.”

Here’s the interesting part of the story: EXPLORE’S rates for this June are only $159 a night. Ridiculous. That’s what you’d pay for some mid-priced highway motels. The rates jump to $249 in July and August (though higher around July 4th). Still more than reasonable. And then this winter, they drop again to $159…Just a sneaking feeling that as the word gets out and the rooms fill up, the rates will start climbing.

NOW, IF YOU have an aversion to luxury, we’ve got just the place for you—Kona Hills Campground, just a few miles south of downtown. It, too, is brand new but what it offers is primitive camping spots with picnic tables, fire pits, an artesian water source…and outhouses…40 campsites on 80 acres high atop a cliff overlooking Lake Superior.

It opens for business on May 30th. “We have about 50 reservations on the books so far and it’s really starting to pick up,” says Jeremy Johnson, one of the partners in the campground.

No hookups at the campground, no gas generators allowed, no RV’s over 24 feet allowed. Rustic camping, quiet, peaceful, and inexpensive—a mere $30 a night.

SOMETHING ELSE NEW in downtown Marquette—the Ore Dock Brewing Company’s beer garden (or biergarten). Spacious and inviting…On sunny days this summer, it’ll be a beer-lover’s heaven…The one criticism we heard is that there’s no greenery, no nature in the beer garden. All hard surfaces…Maybe that’s to be added later, or maybe that’s just the preferred aesthetic. Either way, we’ll manage just fine.

TOURISM IN MARQUETTE was up about 7% this Winter, January through March. But that figure needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because last Winter, warm and snowless, was an absolute dud…This Winter we had snow, and the tourists returned…Travel Marquette CEO Susan Estler expects this Summer will be normal, with perhaps an increase in tourism, but she worries about Fall. “Our visitors in the Fall generally are older and a little more price-conscious,” she explains, “and I think some of them will be worried about the stock market fluctuations and the tariffs.”

CONSTRUCTION OF THE new field house at the YMCA is right on schedule. “We’re excited,” says YMCA CEO Jenna Zdunek. “We expect that they’ll be done by mid-September, and then it’ll be open for our members.”…The new 19,000 square foot facility, which is especially needed in the winter, will be able to handle a variety of activities—soccer, flag football, softball, golf, pickleball, sports training, and more. Total cost: about $5 million.

MORE GROWTH FOR the 906 Adventure Team. Registration just closed for the 15 teams (two of them new) in towns across three states…and a record 1200 kids have signed up to test their mountain-biking skills on weekly adventure rides…Former TV6 anchor Elizabeth Peterson recently switched careers—she’s now the media, marketing, and fundraising specialist for the Team, and she’s gotten her feet wet by publishing a newsletter and posting news and interviews on social media. “The transition has been a challenge for me,” she concedes, “but I’ve always been a huge supporter of the 906 Adventure Team, and now I’m learning what goes on behind the scenes. It’s been exciting.”

MICHIGAN’S PROGRAM FOR the legalized killing of nuisance geese has been halted, according to Bridge Michigan. Animal rights activists had protested against the program, and the Department of Natural Resources has reversed course…The euthanasia program had allowed parks, municipalities, golf courses, and other properties to hire licensed contractors to kill the geese if they were deemed a nuisance…The DNR will now look for other ways to cut down on the goose population.

POEM OF THE WEEK

“Kinder than Man”

And God
please let the deer
on the highway
get some kind of heaven.
Something with tall soft grass
and sweet reunion.
Let the moths in porch lights
go someplace
with a thousand suns,
that taste like sugar
and get swallowed whole.
May the mice
in oil and glue
have forever dry, warm fur
and full bellies.
If I am killed
for simply living,
let death be kinder
than man.

—-Althea Davis