Close the front door, step outside, now choose -- do you go to a show, a shop, a gallery, a restaurant or a beach? For tenants of the nearly finished
101 North Park in downtown Traverse City, all of these options are seconds away.
The five-level, 70,000 square-foot brick structure on the corner of Front and Park Streets looms over one of the busiest blocks in Traverse City. Tenants can view ships knifing through Grand Traverse Bay, swans skimming the Boardman River or shoppers meandering historic downtown.
By design, 101 North Park is a mixed-use facility, with an underground parking garage, street-level retail shops, offices on the second floor and residential condominiums on the top three levels -- including some rooftop penthouses.
But this was not always the case. For eight years, a phalanx of plywood barriers obscured an abandoned excavation. A giant hole. The dream project of former owner Roy Henderson had evaporated with the ephemeral economy. For many passersby, the unspoken thought was, "I hope this doesn't turn into another
Petoskey Pointe" -- a similar project 58 miles to the north that remains un-built four years after its groundbreaking, the victim of insufficient financing, now owned by PNC Bank.
So when local developer Thom Darga stepped in to purchase and develop the stalled Henderson project, a new game plan had been drawn. Both commercial and residential tenants would buy their units and be responsible for securing their own financing, thereby spreading the risk.
Traverse City's path to New Urbanism actually began ten years prior to 101 North Park, when an empty state asylum morphed into the
Village at Grand Traverse Commons. Although several blocks from downtown, the ongoing development embodies key elements of an urban lifestyle -- namely, the opportunity to live, work, shop and play within a few city blocks -- proved to be popular. So popular, in fact, that condos there fetch more than $300 per square foot.
Enter 101 North Park.
To gain governmental approval for the project, 101 North Park needed to fit the historical look of the area. The straight up-and-down lines, the ruddy brick and sand trim, the pane-style windows all work together to blend into the 1800s streetscape. Nudell Architects created the original design for Henderson in 2001 and continued on with Darga, overseeing the exterior design and structural elements and working in collaboration with Traverse City architect Michael Fitzhugh. Darga's wife, Becky, and son, Nick, pictured above, are also involved in the development.
Fitzhugh designed 101 North Park's interior spaces, and while he says the building is not currently green-certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (
LEED), the program "inspired our design and choice of materials."
Those design elements include on-site recycling bins and the use of UV-resistant, fully operational windows, which further enhance the existing heating, ventilating and air conditioning system. "The windows take advantage of bay breezes for natural cooling. It will make a huge difference in the summer," Fitzhugh says. Materials used in the project include low volatile organic compound paint and environmentally friendly recycled flooring. "Green materials are so much easier to find and purchase now," Fitzhugh says.
Even though 101 North Park is new to Traverse City, its residents are not.
"Most are local retirees who already owned Up North homes," says Lynne Moon, a Realtor with Real Estate One. "They range from ages 45 to 70. Now they want to be closer to shopping, restaurants and movies."
As of early June, more than half of the 16 residential spaces have been sold. Prices start at $390,000 and "go up from there," says Moon. Demand for housing at 101 North Park has been so great that the planned commercial third level was scrapped in favor of more residential space.
Not that the interest in commercial space is fading. By June, 80 percent of the available commercial space had been taken by the law firm of
Smith, Haughey, Rice and Roegge, including the entire second floor.
The question has been raised as to where employees of high-end downtown condo developments such as 101 North Park,
Midtown Centre and River's Edge can afford to live themselves? Not just the direct employees, but also the service workers supporting affiliated establishments such as coffee houses, restaurants, theaters, cleaners and parking garages?
According to Rob Bacigalupi, acting executive director of the
Downtown Development Authority, "there are a few places downtown that people like restaurant workers can afford to live. Places like the Milliken Building and the Whiting Hotel come to mind."
The Milliken Building at 202 East Front Street offers residential apartments starting at around $650 per month. Unfortunately, there are two "gotchas": The units have no windows and there is a waiting list.
The
New Whiting Hotel at 152 1/2 East Front Street has furnished rooms renting for between $400 and $500 per month, including utilities. The "gotchas" here? The rooms are single occupancy and no pets are allowed.
Overall, Bacigalupi likes the spin-offs from the 101 North Park development: "It brings jobs, and it helps bridge the gap between the 200 block and 300 block of Front Street by encouraging pedestrian traffic," he says.
"Most importantly," says Bacigalupi, "it (101 North Park) fills the hole."
Tom Tracey is a contributing writer who has written for Gannett Publications, MSN Small Business
and the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
He is a former staff writer for the nationally syndicated Kim Komando radio show.