By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Chicago builder Johnny Walker — after nine years as a self-employed real estate investor focusing on evolving assets, per his LinkedIn website page — and his family fell in love, as many do, with Saugatuck.
“My wife was in corporate there and we’d saved a lot of money, so she bought a place for our family (sons now ages 5 and 4) so we could stretch out and enjoy it here.”
He built a “large luxury for home for us” plus five others similarly-situated estates spread and hollows at 6199 Allegan Road, just north of the Kalamazoo River, calling the compound Blackbarn Ridge.
Among evolving assets he developed specifically in the Windy City were multi-family residential properties, seemingly fitting perfectly with what Saugatuck Township respondents called critically-needed affordable (or “attainable” given costs of living here) housing.
This, township leaders’ thinking goes, will attract more and younger families, appeal to down-sizing seniors whose children have moved on, anyone so eager to live in Saugatuck they will work and aspire to live here.
“I know of only two township homes now under construction priced at $1.4 million and $4 million,” Walker says.
Compared to that, the $600,000 to $900,000 price tags for one of 40 condos he and partners propose for 19.3 acres (two state-protected wetlands, hence unbuildable) northeast of the year-old roundabout built at Blue Star Highway and Allegan Road, may not be “affordable” to most but “attainable” by those who work, save and invest their money wisely.
With a group doing business as Cider Cove, Walker plans a 3-building apartment community also called Cider Cove on 3.55 vacant acres at 612 Glenview Drive in Fennville. The name is an homage to the area’s fruit farming prowess.
Cider Cove, per Crain’s, a Grand Rapids business publication, won Fennville Planning Commission approval Sept. 9 last year for its $5 million Phase One, with 24 one- and two-bedroom units fronting Glenview Drive.
Subsequent phases of the estimated $15 million project will add an additional two buildings with 24 units each. “We expect to break ground on that within two or three weeks,” he told The Commercial Record.
Subsequent phases of the estimated $15 million project will add an additional two buildings with 24 units each. Income-based government-subsidized rent will make those “affordable” Walker says.
Back in his home township, the developer has paired with Holland DeHaan Homes owner/president Doug DeHaan dba Tangram Development LCC proposing what they call the Enclave within site of roundabout center sculpture, the township’s first-ever piece of public art, the 11-foot-tall yellow steel “Canary in a Coalmine,” discussed at length in last week’s part one story “What the Canary saw.”
A tangram is a Chinese puzzle made of seven (a non-prime whole number that is divisible only by itself or one) flat polygrams, or tans, which must be put together to form one shape with no overlaps.
Tangrams are said to test players’ ability to use logic, spatial reasoning and creativity — not unlike Rubik’s cubes, to solve problems. A good brain exercise which, in fact, can have many outcomes.
Say you’re Saugatuck Township, told by respondents in a March 2025 survey most favored more at-least attainable housing opportunities for current and future residents/aspirants.
After all, its lone Commercial strip, north-south Blue Star Highway boasting the last and only bridge east of the I-196 expressway, is going and growing like gangbusters. Tick them off:
- Immediately southwest of Saugatuck I-196 Exit 41 owner Larry Sybesma is clearing land behind the recently renovated Shell station and his now for-sale Lakeshore Gun and Tackle shop at 6398 Blue Star.
- Spectators Bar & Grille, just west at 6432 Blue has been bought from founders Pat Paquette, an ex-Miami Dolphin tackle with knees to show it, and Clare Ray by Melissa Moorer, who recently seized the opportunity to rehab the short-lived Christo’s Roadhouse, 2935 Blue Star, just northwest of Douglas/Ganges Exit 36.
Moorer plans to rename it The Woodshed after the former Ye Olde Woodshed Bar, a watering hole holding local memories later briefly made into Jojo’s Americana Supper Club, now gone too.
As such, Moorer Capital Management LLC will be able to bookend Blue Star between I-196 interchanges. - From Spectators south beyond Saugatuck Dune Rides sporting a new billboard sign this spring are east-lying North Shores of Saugatuck LLC parcels builder Scott Bosgraaf is piece-by-piece developing.
Saugatuck Township March 17 OK’d him renovating now 2-year’s defunct Pine Trail Camps cabins on 4.3 of the more than 20 riverfront acres scooped up last summer by Holland recycling magnate Jeff Padnos.
The plot sits atop spectacular 50-foot bluffs overlooking the Kalamazoo River flowing northwest into the mouth of Lake Michigan, so state land constraints to protect the sensitive site are strict, but wooded land remains for Bosgraaf’s cabins-turned condos.
They too lie contiguous to what local preservationists call “the Wild Coast of Saugatuck,” purchased by Padnos from the estate of billionaire Aubrey McClendon … it’s a long story told, and sometimes embellished on many times, most recently in The Commercial Record just two weeks ago. - Dust clouds rolling next door south on the east back to the Blue Star corridor belong to Saugatuck Lodging LLC’s 29.24-acre campsite for Saugatuck Lodging LLC’s 76 prefab cabins and a clubhouse due as soon as next summer for completion, with a possible 26-site phase two to come should the township acquire sewage capacity to supply it.
Saugatuck Lodging bought the parcel from realtor Chad Van Horn after California-based Autocamp — which in 2022 proposed a 112-suite Airstream campground on it — backed out. - Keep going. Up next is the now-for-sale Saugatuck Mini Golf on a small lot at 3460 Blue Star across from the township hall at 3461 Blue Star, this season undergoing exterior renovations to go with interior ones three years ago. Hold that thought.
- The township board Sept. 10 OK’d Koetje Builders LLC’s and Exxel Engineering’s joint PUD ask to build 30 more condos on 8.97 acres south of 135th Avenue 700 feet east of Blue Star.
Neighbors again raised the cry increased traffic at the 5-way Blue Star/135th Avenue/65th Street corner, confusing especially to tourists most (but not all) want to welcome, straining existing infrastructure they depend on, traffic noise, exhaust, runoff into streams, the air, trashing the environment whose remnants years later our children and children’s children must gasp upon to live. That is the trade-off and legacy we will leave them?
What’s yadda-yadda to the most-jaded planning commissions still seduces friends of the stalwart Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance parroting the 2005 Tri-Community Master Plan’s caution “inappropriate” development will destroy the “goose that laid the golden egg will be dead.” Who then decides what is appropriate? Tough job, as truth has consequences either way.
Retreat sponsors — who like Tangram are working with Grand Rapids-based Exxel Engineering planners, engineers and land surveyors — have quality of life in mind for their residents as well. Expressed goals are for the Retreat to provide adequate land for safe streets and parking (Have the grandkids visit!), pickleball courts where residents can have fun, commingle and stay fit. Walking and biking paths will be there, plus Blue Star Gym, 6432 Blue Star, is in near reach too.
At the Nov. 18, 2024 township
In November 2024 the township planning commission heard Tangram’s ask for consideration of a proposed Planned Unit Development rezoning for its already well-underway Enclave project, still a preliminary ask to sense to test the waters, so to speak, and refine details based on members’ feedback. Exxel’s Robb Lamar joined Walker were told as expected to come back with firmer details.
They came back Jan. 19 only to see that night’s meeting scrubbed when meeting room thermostats dipped into the 40°s. On Feb. 26 Tangram was able to make its latest up-to-date presentation.
The body’s St. Patrick’s Day meeting agenda placed Tangram at the end but was cut short to eight minutes after the busy session ran beyond the two-hour time limit. First up were debating both Bosgraaf’s Pine Trail PUD ask plus a special land use request from applicant Brian Timmer and Driesenga & Associates founder Dan Driesenga — who has engineering offices in Holland, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Ypsilanti —
dba Wooden Iron, LLC.
Those partners asked extract minerals as well as provide waste management and recycling north off 134th Avenue and 63rd Street, east of the expressway on a former landfill shared by neighbor governments near the now year-old Saugatuck Wilds Nature Preserve and township Tails ‘n’ Trails Dog Park.
On this ask PC members said “Heel,” but Wooden Iron retains options for its I-1 Industrial-zoned stake here.
Bosgraaf’s sequential asks too are still far from over. A special meeting was just set Monday for May 26 to weigh North Shore’s latest: a special land use to build a private marina to serve its five cabins metamorphosized into condos.
“We got eight minutes at the end March 17,” recalls Walker, “but were sole item on the PC agenda April 21.”
The township braced for the expected Earth Day eve planning showdown telling prospective crowds in advance that the hall’s east back parking lot was now largely mud topped by construction equipment. It’s email to recipients advised that alternate would be available at the Best Western Hotel south across Clearbrook Drive. and the old mini mall housing a Dollar General plus yoga, dance and fitness studios at 3465 Blue Star next door north.
The question, as first asked Jan. 19 by project opponent Nick Cappelletti’s lawyer Kyle Konwinski of the Grand Rapids law firm Varnum, the only such boasting
remained its name in large yellow letters spanning the length of its penthouse suite offices on the 15th floor of the Bridgewater Place overlooking downtown, was applicants’ “failure to establish ownership or authority.
“The ordinance,” wrote Konwinski, “expressly limits who may submit an application. “It must be by (i) the owner of the subject property, (ii) a purchaser under a sale or option to purchase, or (iii) an agent authorized in writing by the owner.
Last week’s Part 1 led asking “Who’s the money behind” the Enclave proposal. Clues may or may not be scattered already between that and this installment. Motives and incentives lie all around.
To be continued
EAt the Nov. 18, 2024 township
In November 2024 the township planning commission heard Tangram’s ask for consideration of a proposed Planned Unit Development rezoning for its already well-underway Enclave project, still a preliminary ask to sense to test the waters, so to speak, and refine details based on members’ feedback. Exxel’s Robb Lamar joined Walker were told as expected to come back with firmer details.
They came back Jan. 19 only to see that night’s meeting scrubbed when meeting room thermostats dipped into the 40°s. On Feb. 26 Tangram was able to make its latest up-to-date presentation.
The body’s St. Patrick’s Day meeting agenda placed Tangram at the end but was cut short to eight minutes after the busy session ran beyond the two-hour time limit. First up were debating both Bosgraaf’s Pine Trail PUD ask plus a special land use request from applicant Brian Timmer and Driesenga & Associates founder Dan Driesenga — who has engineering offices in Holland, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Ypsilanti —
dba Wooden Iron, LLC.
Those partners asked extract minerals as well as provide waste management and recycling north off 134th Avenue and 63rd Street, east of the expressway on a former landfill shared by neighbor governments near the now year-old Saugatuck Wilds Nature Preserve and township Tails ‘n’ Trails Dog Park.
On this ask PC members said “Heel,” but Wooden Iron retains options for its I-1 Industrial-zoned stake here.
Bosgraaf’s sequential asks too are still far from over. A special meeting was just set Monday for May 26 to weigh North Shore’s latest: a special land use to build a private marina to serve its five cabins metamorphosized into condos.
“We got eight minutes at the end March 17,” recalls Walker, “but were sole item on the PC agenda April 21.”
The township braced for the expected Earth Day eve planning showdown telling prospective crowds in advance that the hall’s east back parking lot was now largely mud topped by construction equipment. It’s email to recipients advised that alternate would be available at the Best Western Hotel south across Clearbrook Drive. and the old mini mall housing a Dollar General plus yoga, dance and fitness studios at 3465 Blue Star next door north.
The question, as first asked Jan. 19 by project opponent Nick Cappelletti’s lawyer Kyle Konwinski of the Grand Rapids law firm Varnum, the only such boasting
remained its name in large yellow letters spanning the length of its penthouse suite offices on the 15th floor of the Bridgewater Place overlooking downtown, was applicants’ “failure to establish ownership or authority.
“The ordinance,” wrote Konwinski, “expressly limits who may submit an application. “It must be by (i) the owner of the subject property, (ii) a purchaser under a sale or option to purchase, or (iii) an agent authorized in writing by the owner.
Last week’s Part 1 led asking “Who’s the money behind” the Enclave proposal. Clues may or may not be scattered already between that and this installment. Motives and incentives lie all around.
To be continued
