Million Dollar Homes, Scintillating Theater, Store Closures and Openings, a Hot Summer Ahead, and Marquette: a Soccer Mecca?
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
REMEMBER WHEN MILLION-dollar homes in Marquette were a rarity? It wasn’t that long ago…But consider this: There are seven homes in the county now listed for between $987,500 and $3.1 million…And in the last twelve months, ten houses between $900,000 and $1.5 million have sold. One pending sale is for $2,250,000.
“The money is mostly coming from buyers from outside the area,” say RE/MAX realtor Chris Cosco. “And a lot of them are cash offers, squeezing out other buyers who aren’t offering cash.” Some prospective buyers are just giving up for the year, hoping next year will be better.
Good luck. The problem is a shrunken inventory—supply and demand. Very few single-family homes are being built because they’re too expensive to build…You can find increasingly pricey condos and townhouses, but single-family homes? Nope. So, you rent and wait for the next real estate downturn, whenever that may be.
DON’T MISS IT…“Rock of Ages,” NMU’s latest offering at the Forest Roberts Theatre, might be the most entertaining show we’ve had here in the last decade…From start to finish, superb singing, music, choreography, staging, acting, humor, poignancy…All of the actors deserve applause (and they’re getting plenty of it from cheering audiences), but special praise goes out to the husband-and-wife team of Kristen Beth Williams and Jimmy Ludwig…Both of them NMU faculty members…She’s the director of the impeccably produced show, and he’s the engaging and riotously funny narrator…
The last performances are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
NMU has come a long way with its musical and dramatic productions…The university used to put out four productions a year; now, it’s twelve. And they’re good…Some of the shows use professionals and local residents, but mostly it’s NMU students…“Our job is to serve our students and let them use their artistic muscles,” says Bill Digneit, the Head of the Theatre and Dance Department…NMU is now drawing theater students from New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Alaska, as well as the Midwest. And it may start drawing audiences from well outside Marquette.
LOOKS LIKE PEOPLE care about this town…Proof? 4000 people submitted responses to a survey regarding Marquette’s new master plan, now being drawn up by city officials and residents. “That’s more community involvement than I can remember for any time in my career,” says Dennis Stachewicz, the city’s Director of Planning and Community Development…Lots of meetings and workshops…Among the biggest concerns: Lakeshore Boulevard development, and affordable housing. Any housing!!...Also up for discussion—development of the old Marquette Mall, the Tadych’s (Econo) neighborhood, and the abandoned We Energies property.
The final master plan will be drawn up and released later this year.
MOVING IN, MOVING OUT…A new clothing and gift store, Lake Superior Unsalted, is moving into the Washington Street space formerly occupied by the RG Design Group. Should open up by early July, just in time for the tourist crush…Ironically, another similarly named store, Unsalted Goods on Front Street, just closed down after a very brief tenure at its location. It specialized in eco-friendly goods, but apparently never found a market, especially not in winter…It does seem, doesn’t it, that Marquette has a more-than-sufficient supply of gift boutiques. But then again, you can say the same thing about coffee shops, breweries, restaurants, hotels…and auto parts stores.
A FRESHER LANDMARK INN…They just finished renovating all of the guest rooms—furnishings, floors, wall-coverings…“You’ve got to freshen things up every seven or eight years,” says Matt Mering, one of the hotel’s owners. “It’s a very competitive market.” An understatement, given that we’ve learned about plans for five new hotels in Marquette County…Wondering about the Landmark’s first-floor restaurant space—the former Capers, Piedmont, etc? It’s now become a little breakfast spot, primarily serving the hotel’s guests. It’s also being used as an event space…No plans at this point to revive it as a full-service restaurant.
IF YOU’RE DRY, YOU’LL FRY…Weather guru Karl Bohnak says that’s an old truism among meteorologists…And that may apply to the UP this summer…“We recently went through 19 days at the National Weather Service in Negaunee without measurable precipitation,” says Bohnak. “That’s a lot. The alltime record is 24.”…And when it’s dry, that generally means warm, or even hot, days lie ahead…In case you missed it, we’ve already had two 90-degree days at the NWS—91 on both May 31st and June 1st…Could be a scorcher this summer.
HOW DO YOU explain this?...Marquette United recently sent 12 youth soccer teams to a big, 143-team tournament in Oshkosh—athletes from four states…Marquette’s record at the tournament: 26 wins, 10 losses, 3 ties. The three youngest divisions don’t play for championships, but of the nine other Marquette teams, four were crowned champions, and three others were runners-up.
Amazing. “We typically play in five tournaments a year,” explains Peter Hrodey, the Marquette United Travel Director. “So that means maybe 15 or 20 games. Many downstate and Wisconsin teams can double or triple that.”…And yet Marquette beat the other teams 26 times, and lost only 10…
Good athletes, great coaching, apparently…The next step is to build an indoor soccer facility, and a large outdoor field complex so that Marquette United can start hosting tournaments…Is there a sports-loving, Marquette-loving philanthropist out there who’d like to get the ball rolling?
POEM OF THE WEEK
Self Pity
I never saw a wild thing
Sorry for itself
A small bird will fall frozen dead from a bough
Without ever having felt sorry for itself
--D.H. Lawrence
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You're so right about the glut of tourist shops. The LAST thing we need is another store selling mugs and shirts with UP slogans on them. What we desperately need are some more actual clothing stores that sell items without words on them. For women's clothing, we have Getz's (nice, but a bit pricey) and Kohl's. That's it. And bookstores! What do we have, one? It's a good one, but it's small and we need more. As far as restaurants, we need more ethnic restaurants. This town doesn't even have a decent Chinese restaurant. We have two good Thai restaurants, but how about Indian, middle eastern, etc? Please, no more places selling t-shirts with jokes about beer and saunas on them.
Where are the 5 proposed hotels in the county going and where do we have room for that large of a soccer complex?