By James Windell
When Eric Rothner was just a child, his parents brought him to South Haven every summer.
“As a boy, my brothers and I practically lived on the beach and along Lake Michigan,” Eric Rothner says. “We’d fish off the North Side Pier for hours and ride our bikes all over town like we owned the place. Some of my sweetest memories are going to the Michigan Theater every week and then heading to Holly’s for waffles piled high with blueberries and whipped cream. Those moments are etched in my heart—they were pure joy.”
Rothner’s Chicago business interests center on healthcare facilities, property management, and real estate ventures, many of which are tied to nursing homes and senior living operations. He is also, according to Harold Katz, his CPA and trusted business advisor, who was also interviewed, a philanthropist. Katz points out that Rothner and his wife bought a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Highland Park, Illinois, had it restored and then donated it to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
After Rothner married, he and his wife bought a house in South Haven. He wanted to make sure his children and grandchildren got to enjoy South Haven as well. The successful businessman whose primary home is in Chicago built four homes for his children on the north side of the city within walking distance of the Lake Michigan beach.
“I’ve invested millions of dollars in South Haven,” Rothner said recently in an interview in his home on North Shore Drive. “I love this community and want to do good here.”
Rothner has seven children, four daughters and three sons. “They are the greatest gifts of my life,” he said. “I built homes for my children here because I wanted them to feel what I felt growing up – the freedom, the happiness, the warmth of summer in South Haven. I wanted them to walk the same beaches, ride the same streets, and build the same kind of memories that shaped who I am. This place gave me so much, and I wanted to pass that on to them.”
About four years ago when he saw that the property at 120 Baseline Road was for sale, he envisioned a community of homes so that other people could live in South Haven and share his love of the City.
He and Harold Katz explained their proposal for the community they would like to build on the seven and a half-acre property just east of North Shore Drive. They said it would be 24 manufactured homes, each with five bedrooms and three baths. Each house would be about 2300 square feet. The houses would be permanent houses which could not be moved or relocated. It is anticipated that the cost of each house would be about $500,000. “It would be a secure, gated community, with parks, pickleball courts and swimming pools,” Katz emphasized.
Rothner and Katz are well aware of the controversy their proposal has generated. However, they say that they hired top-notch architects and engineering firms to help make sure that the housing development would be feasible and would comply with all the regulations and ordinances of the City of South Haven.
“We met with the Zoning Administrator and the City Manager,” Katz said. “We explained the project to them, and they said that it looked good and they didn’t see a problem.”
However, opponents of the project began to surface when they indicated their desire to request that the property be rezoned from RMI (Multifamily Residential) to Manufactured Housing.
The property at 120 Baseline Road once was the site of a nursing home and care facility that was first constructed in 1976 and expanded several times over the decades. Called Countryside Nursing, the facility ceased operations several years ago and had been sitting vacant when Rothner bought it.
South Haven’s 2018 Master Plan suggests that manufactured housing should remain in the City, but it was determined that the previous South Haven Zoning Ordinance conflicted with case law by only allowing manufactured housing as a special land use in the multifamily district. A special manufactured housing community (MHC) zone now exists because of a new Zoning Ordinance that passed after Rothner bought the property. In order to build his proposed community, both the Planning Commission and the City Council would need to approve a rezoning application. That’s where the opposition to the proposed manufactured housing community comes into play.
“It’s all because of Mary Hosley,” Rothner said. “She is against it for some reason.”
Both Rothner and Katz said that there are misperceptions of the proposed community and that there is false information being circulated.
“For instance,” Katz said, “they talk about it being a mobile home park which will attract trailer trash to live in the houses. Nothing could be further from the truth. These will be permanent homes, and they will be purchased by people who want to live in South Haven.”
Katz and Rothner also spoke about the argument that Countryside Estates, as a manufactured housing community, would generate fewer taxes for the City.
“That’s not our fault,” Katz said. “That’s the Michigan law. We didn’t set out to find a way of depriving the City of taxes. The people who will own these houses will be upper income people who would already own homes in South Haven if there were homes available.”
Rothner said that he wants a chance to tell his side of the story so that people understand that he has had a life-long commitment to South Haven and he only wants what’s best for the City.
“I’m not someone from the outside who is going to build inferior houses and then leave,” says Rothner.
His commitment to South Haven includes his membership at the First Hebrew Congregation. “Over the years, the First Hebrew Congregation has become like family to me. Every Saturday morning in the summer—rain, shine, hot, cold—you’ll find me, my extended family, and our guests walking to services.
“Supporting the synagogue has always come from the heart. I’ve tried to help however I can – financially, by providing refreshments after services, and by helping create social gatherings and activities that bring people together. It’s a place of community, tradition, and belonging, and I’m honored to be a part of it. Through our Countryside Estates development on Baseline Road, and the influx of new members for the synagogue, we are planning to continue that tradition.”
Katz is very generous in his admiration for Eric Rothner. “It has been one of the greatest privileges of my career to serve as his CPA and trusted advisor,” Katz said, “and to stand with him as a partner in the Countryside Estates Development and in several other ventures that reflect his vision and values. I am truly honored to work alongside someone as special, generous, and extraordinary as Mr. Rothner.”
