NMU’s Move Downtown, Dead River Coffee and Lakeshore Depot Changes, the Sinking Lake, and the Latest on Greg and Aoy

The latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell

BIG CHANGES COMING to downtown. The city’s SmartZone, Innovate Marquette, and Invent@NMU are leaving the fringes of the NMU campus and relocating into the heart of downtown, in the Flagstar Bank building… The move is scheduled for February… “The space is laid out much better,” says Joe Thiel, the executive director of both organizations, “and it’ll give us much greater visibility.” …A tighter bond with the downtown, as well, and better for promotion with Marquette.

The new offices will be used as an incubator space for dozens of young businesses trying to gain a foothold, and as an accelerator space for businesses who’ve already had some success and are looking to make the next step.

The SmartZone, Marquette’s attempt to attract and nurture high tech companies to town, is now considered to be about seven years behind Houghton’s SmartZone… But it’s gaining speed.

THE BIG MOVE comes about as a result of Veridea, the highly successful local developer, buying and renovating the Flagstar complex on the corner of Washington and Front Streets… It’s actually three buildings… 50,000 square feet, three stories, a $10 million job… “It’s a complete renovation but we’ll leave the bank untouched,” says Michele Thomas, the Director of Development at Veridea… The building, of course, is an historical architectural gem, but the inside is being reconfigured to accommodate the new tenants—plenty of others besides NMU and the SmartZone.

The entire project should be completed by the end of 2022…. No official name for the complex yet.

CHANGES, AS WELL, across the street at Campfire CoWorks…. Local entrepreneur Keith Glendon took over the space last year when it was abandoned by the now defunct Chamber of Commerce. He didn’t intend to, but he didn’t want to see it fail… Now, as he focuses more on his own tech business, Lucid Coast, and tends to family problems, he’s turned Campfire over to fellow techsters, Mike and Jazmin Gorski… Glendon remains an investor.

Campfire CoWorks now deals with about 100 clients, but has not yet been profitable. Maybe next year, says an optimistic Glendon. “We have a relentless belief that sh*t’s gonna work out.”

A CHANGING OF the guard at Dead River Coffee Roasters. Theo McCracken, a Marquette original, has sold the business to one of his employees, Sloan Dorr… “I feel good about it,” says Theo. “I feel accomplished.” …Accomplished, because, after 20 years and three moves, he’s turned his shop into an institution widely respected for its gourmet coffee and its authentic coffee shop atmosphere.

“I’m excited, really excited,” says a smiling Sloan, the new owner. “Now I get to hang around a coffee shop all day long.” …She’s got a college degree in communications, a background in sales, and four years experience as a barista at Dead River. She found financing for the purchase and now she’s a business owner… Theo will remain as an employee and mentor for the next 15 months, at which time he’ll retire at age 70.

MORE EXPANSION AHEAD for Lakeshore Depot, the tiny grocery and produce store just off of Lakeshore Boulevard, across from the Lake… Owner Mike Hainstock recently was awarded a $100,000 Rural Development grant to expand the store’s offerings… And next week, he’ll be announcing yet another, different kind of expansion… His hope is to make the Depot—currently lacking proper signage—more of a community gathering spot.

MAYBE WE CAN start breathing a sigh of relief about the rising waters of Lake Superior. The latest measurements show that the Lake has dropped one foot in the last year. That’s significant… “It’s been unbelievably dry in the Lake Superior basin,” says Keith Kompolotowicz, the chief of watershed hydrology for the Corps of Engineers… An absolute drought in some places… The Lake dropped another inch in the last month.

WHAT WAS ONCE a pipe dream is now almost reality. The brand new Steve Mariucci Family Beacon House will open its doors to guests on January 3rd… Five years ago, Mary Tavernini-Dowling, the CEO of the Beacon House, initiated the capital campaign to build the new 22-room structure on the campus of the new hospital… A lot of bumps along the way—changing hospital CEO’s, unforeseen site problems, a pandemic, rising construction costs—but with the indispensable and generous help of Mariucci and his monied friends, the project is just about completed… A beautiful and convenient home-away-from-home for families struggling through a medical crisis.

“FOR THE FIRST time ever, we’ve been able to enjoy the summer and fall here in the U.P.” The words of former TV6 anchor Greg Trick who, with his wife Aoy, managed to retire earlier this year… Aoy, of course, is the inimitable former owner of the Rice Paddy… So what have they done in their retirement? Hiking, biking, traveling, exploring, attending family reunions. No pressure, no demands, no set schedule… Aoy still caters small parties while Greg is taking a break, although he concedes he’d be open to some sort of work in the future if it was appealing. 

AARON RODGERS. LOVE the quarterback on the field, but tired…oh so tired…of the thoughtful, mysterious, introspective, sensitive, Hollywood-schmoozing, golf-playing, Jeopardy-hosting, truth-bending human being… Synonym for “truth-bending”? That would be “lying”… When you tell football fans you’ve been “immunized,” you have to know, with absolute certainty, that they understood you to mean “vaccinated”… So yeah, you lied to them.

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