By Scott Sullivan
Editor
The Grant Collection is on a buying spree. Owners Brian and Candice Grant, whose luxury event venues started with Holland’s Port 393 in 2020, saw opportunities near their own Saugatuck home and started stacking them up.
Port 393
The then $2-million, 6,500-square-foot gala center bills itself as “Holland’s favorite lake view venue. A spacious, modern event space with waterfront views, ideal for corporate galas, company celebrations and large-scale networking events where atmosphere makes an impact.” Perfect for 75-125 guests. You have multi-level space and rooftop bar to boot.
Ivy House
The Commercial Record reported Jan. 13, 2022 the Grants had bought the 7-acre former Bloomin’ on Blue Star garden center at 3291 Blue Star Hwy. Guests could “experience sprawling gardens, a greenhouse and a new 7,000 square-foot event building with outdoor patios.
“Ivy House will be an amazing asset to the Saugatuck area,” said then Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) director Lisa Mize.
“This gorgeous, sprawling space is such an elegant and unique venue for weddings and special events as it truly showcases the seasonal beauty of our area,” Mize said.
“Candice and I have a daughter in Saugatuck Public Schools and really enjoy the area,” Brian Grant told The Commercial Record. “Our idea was an event center here would complement, not compete, with our Holland venture.”
Red Barn: New Play Space
Indeed, more were coming. Northeast of I-196 Exit 41. the historic Red Barn Theater on 3 acres at 3,657 63rd St., Laketown Township, was once more for sale after a brief stint as Guardian Brewing.
Guardian owners Kim Collins, a former Indiana University rugby player turned brewer, and business partner Kate Bishop thought a pub with yurt rentals would be just the thing, especially since it came with the 12,672-square-foot former playhouse, built in 1900 as a barn, then converted by imaginative people into a host for summer shows, plus a 6,000-square-foot steel building constructed in 2004, a far more practical use for what they first had in mind.
The old barn — last used for a local production of “The Wizard of Oz” as written by L. Frank Baum of Holland before being made into the 1939 movie — largely went dark thereafter as unrehab-able, if such a word exists.
The yellow brick road ended with Guardian taking last calls here in 2024 and the Grants adding it to their “Collection” with a Jan. 14, 2025 roll-out of what they call the Emerson Lounge, “a more intimate, darker, swankier” venue, said Candice.
It boasted new 18-foot windows, a custom bar, vintage leather furniture, a new coat of dark green paint, chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains — all inspired by the couple exploring Kentucky bourbon trails and finding a big brass moose named Emerson — maybe after the 1802-1882 minister, poet, abolitionist, lecturer and philosopher thought of as founder of transcendentalism which inspired Henry David Thoreau among other notables, or not — which/who they hung above the fireplace and posed together under that winter day.
“We’re using the Guardian’s restaurant space for events, its beer-brewing rooms for storage for all three venues,” Candice said of the newer pole barn.
And the barn? “It has an incredible history,” Candice said. “We hope to restore it, but into what I can’t tell you yet.”
Into rubble, it turned out and perhaps more useful space, between the lounge and across 63rd Street, the 100+-year-old Belvedere Estate and Gardens.
But First …
In February the Grants made another addition to their collection, forming a new partnership with Isabel’s Market & Eater, 310 Blue Star Hwy., Douglas, to transform the property into a new catering business/concept, Heritage Social and Coastal Reserve.
HS is billed “a premier Saugatuck/Douglas event space designed for unity and connection — perfect for intimate gatherings, corporate events and meetings in a refined, welcoming setting. With CR, “our dedicated team of planners and culinary professional sees 5-star service as the minimum. Every guest is greeted as though we are cooking for you at our home.
That building has a history as well, opening as the Mi-Ro casual eating restaurant and featuring a horse sculpture hoisted high above the sign.
Frank LeBaron bought and transformed it into the Blue Moon Bar & Grille, acclaimed by some for its food and service but leaving behind it a trail of creditors.
In 2011 Chicago partners Jim Petzing and Randy Wolf bought and transformed it into Zing Eat/Drink, a 70-seat restaurant and 40-seat martini lounge with flamboyant décor including a chartreuse and electric blue baby grand piano for Zing’s showtune cocktail hours.
It also boasted outdoor patio areas for dining and imbibing.
Petzing, who lived in one of two residential suites upstairs, was elected president of the now-defunct Saugatuck-Douglas Area Business Association, locked horns (as had LeBaron) with Douglas city hall, ran for city council himself, lost and decided to clear town to cut his/their losses.
Up next in 2020, then business partners Elizabeth Estes, Mary Fechtig, Garnet Lewis and Vicki Lepior bought and transformed 301 Blue Star into a restaurant, event space, banquet hall, café, bakery and catering business they called Isabel’s after Elizabeth Graham, a Douglas schoolteacher who planted a seed in the community in the 1950s through a financial gift to Douglas United Church of Christ.
The women billed it as “a ‘must visit’ destination for quality products, personal service and unique culinary and catering experiences that highlight and celebrate our local community.”
After that foursome ruptured, the Grants formed a partnership with remaining owners Estes and Fechtig to transition the property into “a new catering concept” featuring:
- Heritage Social, billed as “an intimate venue for celebrations, curated events and weddings on Michigan’s west coast; and
- Coastal Reserve, offering private catering for West Michigan’s most discerning hosts — led by an award-winning culinary team.”
Belvedere
The Belvedere, a 10-room, 9,200-square-foot boutique hotel at 3656 63rd St., boasts 10 rooms “manicured Italian gardens, ornamental European interior and private picturesque views — a ‘mini-Versailles of stone, ivy and iron tucked amidst the Michigan pines” and was now up for sale, as if Kismet.
The Grants added it to their growing portfolio this St. Patrick’s Day, planning, per Crain’s Grand Rapids, a $1 million transformation from bed-and-breakfast into another private iconic party place.
Their past successes have shown the market here is still growing.
Charmed
Then there are Winston’s Bar Service and Charm Décor House, both natural spin-offs, providing “premium, tailored and full-service event solutions.
Winston’s specializes in mobile bartending, signature cocktails and curated bar experiences, for paid clients only. The Grant team wheels up your choice of bar contents based on a tier system.
- Tier 1 offers options of one domestic draft beer, three wines and four house liquors with bartending for four hours at $26 per person, five hours $29, six hours $32 and seven hours $35.
Tier 2 gets you one domestic draft beer option, another for craft beer, four wines and four call liquors at $32 per person for four hours up to $44 for a seven-hour bash. - Top Tier 3 gives you the same domestic draft and craft beer options, five wines and five premium liquors ranging from $38 per person for four hours to $53 each if you’ve made it for seven hours.
A minimum one bartender ($25 per hour) is needed for each 75 attendees. Guest under 21 get unlimited soft drink bars for $8 each. Added coffee service is available at $2 per total guest count. At least 4-hour packages required.
Charm Décor House —
“West Michigan’s Premier Décor Rental Service: Discover the Magic” — offers “an elegant collection of wedding and event décor designed to elevate every celebration.
“With over five years of experience and nearly 1,000 beautifully-styled events, we specialize in creating unforgettable atmospheres through thoughtfully-curated décor and seamless service.
“We offer full-service delivery and setup within 60 miles of Saugatuck,” Charm’s website says.
In Sum
The Graham Collection is more than a step up from college kids renting big homes in residential neighborhoods up the hill for booze and more bashes over a summer weekend, then — for better or often worse — returning.
With iconic sites reimagined, refreshed and catering to more-upscale crowds as, appear in CVB branding, the Belvedere is one more jewel in the necklace.
This is Saugatuck-Douglas. Creative minds flourish here.
