City Manager explains the sales process so far
By Barb Pert Templeton
A townhall meeting in Marine City had members of local historic groups, residents and City Manager Michael Reaves, sharing thoughts and ideas about the fate old city hall at 300 Broadway.
The city council approved listing the property with Pilot Property Group last June with a stipulation promising that the city would hold a townhall to get the public’s input before any sale took place.
When contacted after the recent townhall Reaves said the listing for the property expires six months from June 10, 2025. He explained that there is no asking price for the property currently as the city is allowing the real estate market and vision for the development to dictate the asking price.
During the Oct. 21 townhall, which included a pair of presentation from the city’s Historical Commission and Historical Society, Reaves explained how thing are going with the property listing via Pilot Property Group.
Old city hall in Marine City was built in 1884 and is located at 300 Broadway.
One marketing source the real estate firm is using has a component for historical properties while also reaching into a number of different areas. To date the listing has had 3,239 views of the
property, unique prospects views of 1,362 and 200 detailed page views. The frequency of hits on the page is two per week and the average time on the page is 32 seconds.
“That concerns me a little bit, that’s not a lot of time when you’re looking at views,” Reaves said. “Total time on the page is one hour 31 minutes and 17 seconds.
Images of the interior of old city hall in Marine City is part of a real estate listing for the property held by Pilot Property Group.
“When I look at total time of the listing over six or seven months, in my mind that’s not a lot of time spent on marketing,” Reaves said.
In looking into possible developers who have done similar projects Reaves said he reached out to one in Port Huron and one in Traverse City. The one up north refers to the developer of the old state hospital in Traverse City that has been turned into a shopping venue.
Many developers have told Reaves that the building is just incredibly unique.
“You’re dealing with a unicorn, you’re not going to find that exact comparable with that project,” Reaves said he’s been told.
One of the main questions potential developers ask is what is my Return On Investment (ROI) if the price tag is $11 million? Developers also want to know who else is involved in the project whether privately or at the state level.
The interior of 300 Broadway, old city hall in Marine City, needs some attention and renovation.
Reaves said he’s had contact with the state and they are not in a position to purchase the building but they offered advice about who to contact at the federal level and what grants might be available.
Where to next?
As to where to go from this point, Reaves said the building is still listed for sale, he’s still meeting with the state and potential developers but “I need your help, very candidly” he said.
“Some of you are well connected and some of you have worked hard to reach out to different organizations and different people,” Reaves said, noting that if individuals are out looking for help with the project, they need to inform the city so everyone’s on the same page.
As far as the building itself, he said it’s been empty for 21 years, the city is struggling because it’s become a target for vandals including frequent spray painting and people removing bricks from the columns.
“I have no money budgeted at this time for the upkeep of 300 Broadway,” he added.
He went on to list problems with the hall’s roof and furnace plus frozen pipe issues in the building during the last few winters.
“At this point we’re trying to find ways to secure the building and keep it heated to prevent further damage,” Reaves said.
Georgia Phelan with the Historical Society of Marine City asked the city manager if the city will in fact work with a developer in terms of tax breaks or something, has the city talked about what they’d be willing to do? Reaves said no he hasn’t had the chance to have those discussions yet.
“I’m diligent and still trying to find somebody to take this building on,” Reaves said. “The last resort that I would offer is if a developer came and said we want the property to develop housing then that’s something the board would have to consider.”
The bottom line where the city is concerned, despite the fact that they own the building, is they lack funding to support any renovations.
“The city is not setup to properly handle a project (old city hall) of that magnitude and even if we were I’m not sure we’d do a good job at it because sometimes we have our hands full just doing
what we do every day to provide services to our residents,” Reaves said, noting it was his opinion he was not speaking for the city council.
