BY SCOTT SULLIVAN
EDITOR
The City of Fennville and Fennville Downtown Development Authority are seeking qualified proposals to buy and develop two downtown properties:
• 0.8 acres straddling space between Main and Fennville streets. Owned by the DDA alongside an adjacent parking lot, sellers hope the street frontage can be kept intact with parking accessible from the rear, via the public lot; and
• 0.375 acres sits on the corner of Fennville and Maple streets. Owned by the City, but currently leased by Huntington Bank for an ATM, the seller expects to relocate the ATM to other city-owned property in anticipation of development.
The two parcels have been a focus of attention for Fennville’s recently re-Activated Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, which worked with Opticos Design Inc. to envision a combined 26 residential units and 3,000 square feet of retail space across them.
The resulting visioning packet may be found at https://ecode360.com/FE6693/document/753170426.pdf . It was shared with developers on Lakeshore Advantage’s “Developer Tour” that stopped in Fennville earlier this month, and participants were given a tour of the sites.
While successful proposals will take inspiration from the visioning documents, the city expects developers to use their imagination regarding the sites as well.
Proposals should be submitted separately for each property, and developers need not submit proposals for both if they are only interested in one of the sites.
Successful proposals will lay out a plan to bring significant investment in “missing middle” residential options in downtown Fennville, as well as new retail space on Main Street.
“We can’t wait to see what proposals we’ll see over the next couple of months,” said DDA coordinator Micah Machiela. “We have already fielded inquiries from a couple interested parties who just happened to drive by and see this prime real estate on Main St.” says Micah Machiela, DDA Coordinator.
“It has been a long-term DDA goal to see these vacant downtown spaces activated,” added city administrator Katie Beemer. “With nearby public and private development, the time is right to see what could go there.”
Both properties are directly adjacent to the currently under-construction City Square Park being spearheaded by the DDA, which will bring a concert bandshell, splash pad, gas fireplace and outdoor seating to the heart of downtown.
The area is also seeing historic private and state investment with the recent announcement of the restoration of the Stevens Hotel, supported by a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
After submissions are received and the proposal deadlines included in the RFPs are reached, the DDA board and city commission will score them based on the scoring criteria included in the RFP, followed by interviews with top scorers.
A finalist will be selected and a letter of intent to award issued in November, followed by negotiations with the finalist to work out specific details of the sale and proposal.
For more information, interested parties should contact Machiela at mmachiela@fennville.gov.
