High-Priced Property Sale, Critics Bashing Downtown Marquette, Kildare Up for Sale Again, and a Blind Man’s Christmas Gift
The Latest From Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
ANOTHER MAJOR LAND deal in the works…Six acres of property overlooking the Lake one mile south of downtown could be changing hands. A purchase agreement reached. Sale could be completed by the end of the year…List price was $715,000. “Location, location, location,” explains RE/MAX broker Terry Huffman. “The view of the Lake is amazing, and it’s right at the gateway to the greatest city on the planet”…Hyperbole? Maybe, Maybe not…The question now is, What does the apparent buyer plan to do with those six valuable acres?
THAT LONGTIME EMPTY space along the street at One Marquette Place may finally be filled…A purchase agreement just reached, according to architect and partner Barry Polzin. Plans had called for it to be a café. Now…“I’m not sure exactly what it’s going to be,” says Polzin. “It’s not going to be a pot shop or a regular restaurant…but a coffee shop may be part of it…”
TWO MARQUETTE PLACE, its next door neighbor now under construction, is moving along smoothly, according to Polzin…Looks like it’ll be a combination of offices and retail—likely whatever the market dictates it to be.
A RECENT EXTENDED conversation in the Facebook group, “You know you are from Marquette if…” recently took up the issue of Marquette’s ever-changing and increasingly prosperous downtown…Amazing all the negativity from some critics—“It sucks!” “Mediocre motels!” “Trinket shops!” “Business owners don’t care!”---And of course, the usual “It’s not like it used to be!”…Sheesh. Go find another town of 21,000 in the upper Midwest that has the vibrancy, visual appeal, diversity and dining options of Marquette’s downtown (Washington, Front, and Third Streets). Good luck.
All that said, almost nobody wants us to become a boutique town—all cutesy and touristy. There’s gotta be a happy medium.
A FOR SALE sign at Kildare Irish-American pub downtown. Not much of a surprise…It’s had a checkered history. Rumored mismanagement and personnel problems. Structural questions. …But, as RE/MAX realtor Dave Mingay tells us, “It’s in the center of downtown, it’s priced right ($495,000), it includes all the kitchen equipment, and it’s got a great upstairs”…Interest already from potential buyers.
THE BEACHES IN Marquette continue to widen. The lake level on Lake Superior is still dropping….Down another 3 inches in the last month, now down 13 inches from last December….And the forecast from the Army Corps of Engineers calls for it to drop another 3 inches in January….Help!!! We’re drying up!
BUT YES, WE will get more snow here this year than last. Weather guru Karl Bohnak assures us of that…Here’s the shocker, though, and it hasn’t gotten much attention: Since November 2020 through December of this year, every month except February has been warmer than average in Marquette County. That’s 13 out of 14 months. Sure seems like a trend…No, we’re not going to argue climate change here; it’s just an interesting and revealing fact.
SO, MR. BOHNAK, what do you think of the folks who’ve replaced you at TV 6—chief meteorologist Jennifer Perez and evening meteorologist Noel Navarro? “I’ll be honest,” he says. “I haven’t watched a TV 6 newscast since I was last on the air. And I don’t miss it at all”…No rancor. Just a man who’s moved on to another phase of his life.
AN OMICRON CHRISTMAS…The new variant that’s now sweeping the world and the nation has apparently not hit us that hard…yet. Latest CDC figures show that Covid cases, Covid deaths, and positivity rates in Marquette County are all down in the last week, but hospitalization rates are up…And that’s the fear of doctors, nurses and hospitals nationwide: Omicron is going to send more and more unvaccinated patients to the hospitals and Intensive Care wards in the next several weeks while we continue to debate endlessly about the value/harm of the vaccine.
AN 88-YEAR-old local man, totally blind and 80% deaf, took care of his errands last week with his volunteer from Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly…First stop, Pete’s Barber Shop for his monthly $10 haircut…Next, the Dollar Tree to buy a dish cloth, a butter dish, and dryer sheets…Then Walgreens to buy six gallons of water—two for the price of one, and six bottles of vitamins—also two for the price of one…He’s on a strictly limited income and always looking for bargains.
Final stop, the Salvation Army. He pulls a sealed envelope from his pocket and hands it to the employee…“A donation?” the employee asks. “Yes!” the man replies. “Merry Christmas!”…He’s driven back to his apartment building where he wishes the volunteer a Merry Christmas, and then slowly makes his way, tapping his cane ahead of him, toward the elevator…Upstairs, he’ll return to his apartment---and to a solitary world of darkness and quiet. No Christmas tree and no Christmas carols for him.
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There will always be people bashing Marquette for whatever reason. I always loved the city, it's people, restaurants, stores and beautiful scenery. As far as business's - There has always been a change in venue over the years. Some like Doncker's made a comeback. We still have some unique items when they first went out of business. The charm of downtown Marquette will always be there with new businesses and restaurants. Thats why it is a big retirement area. The many downtown festivals along the lake - Perfect!
Your story about the generous man was beautiful. Thank you for sharing.