PETOSKEY — While the city continues its spring road construction work on Howard Street and in the Park Garden parking lot, Petoskey City Manager Shane Horn provided an update to city council on a few other downtown building projects of interest, ranging from underway to nearly completed to stalled and stagnant.
Here’s where things stand:
441-445 E. Mitchell St.
The addresses of 441-445 E. Mitchell St., owned by Petoskey Land and Cattle Co., have been empty for more than a year after repeated code violations. The building had a stop work order placed on its windows in October 2024, and that was followed by an order to vacate by Nov. 15, 2024.
“Not much going on there,” Horn told council during their May 7 meeting. “I did reach out to the county building official for any updates. He submitted a letter to the building owner back in February asking for additional detail. I confirmed with him that he’s not heard anything back from the building owner. So I have passed that information on to our city attorney and she will be responding accordingly to try to spur some additional action on that site.”
In September, council approved new ordinances that allow the city to operate an enforcement agency to ensure buildings are maintained and following international building code and also to regulate building vacancies.
Del Rey Apartments
A project to turn the former Hotel Del Rey, located at 424 Emmet St., into nine workforce apartments is nearly complete.
Listings are available now for the new Del Rey Apartments.
“They are accepting applications currently,” Horn said. “That project is wrapping up. That’s nine units there on the corner of Emmet and Michigan.”
Former J.C. Penney
The historic J.C. Penney building at the corner of Mitchell and Howard streets closed in October 2020.
First opened in 1926, it was Petoskey’s last remaining traditional department store. Now, its future includes luxury condo units.
Construction work at the property has been visible for months. Condos, named Petoskey Skyboxes, are taking shape on the second floor while the first floor is intended to be retail.
“I did reach out to the owners there,” Horn said. “Got a quick response back that progress continues on that site. You can all see kind of what they’ve been doing. There’s still a significant amount of work remaining. I asked for an expected completion date. I did not get a response back, but from what I’ve been told, it will likely be another year before that project wraps up completely. There’s still a significant amount of work to do in the interior.”
Leo’s renovation
The former Leo’s Neighborhood Tavern, 434 E. Mitchell St., is set to be rehabilitated into a mixed-use building featuring eight residential units, a restaurant and a speakeasy.
“I touched base with the building owner today,” Horn said. “All his financing has been completed. Historical tax credits have been granted. They are in a very good position financially for the project to move forward. All their demo is complete. They’ve started some interior walls going up for that project.”
— Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: What’s the status of downtown Petoskey building projects?
Reporting by Jillian Fellows, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
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