MUSKEGON, Mich. — For more than one hundred years, Windward Pointe was once the site of the Sappi Paper Mill before it closed in 2009. Since then, the 122-acre plot along Muskegon Lake has laid barren.
That, however, could soon change.
"Parkland Properties is under contract to potentially purchase the former Sappi fine paper products site," Muskegon's Director of Development Services Jake Eckholm said.
"They're proposing an adaptive reuse of that site for mixed use residential and commercial development," Eckholm said.
Parkland Properties has announced it is in the process of purchasing the site from its current owners, a group of local investors known as Pure Muskegon.
Parkland Properties, the same group that also purchased the former Shaw-Walker building in Muskegon last December, plans for the site to feature homes, apartments, a marina, retail and public amenities.
It would be a major shift for an area that hasn't been accessible to the public.
"It's got something for almost everyone from a housing standpoint - everything from multifamily to multi-unit condo to single family housing," Eckholm said. "So, I think folks will have an opportunity to ask those questions and hear straight from the developer [Thursday] evening. So, it'll be an impactful project if it moves forward."
The city worked with Parkland Properties to schedule a public engagement session for Thursday evening to help the group get input from and answer questions for the community.
While the purchase is between two private groups, Eckholm said partnering for the event was necessary, given the value of the site to the local community.
"This is an important site, this is a generational site," Eckholm said. "We were a heavily industrialized shoreline for a long time. We only have one opportunity to sort of put it back together now that a lot of those legacy industrial uses are gone."
As those involved look toward next steps, Eckholm said it will take time before the former indusrtial site will be all that investors and city residents hope it can be.
"It's got several different modes of contamination, and unfortunately, is not remediated at this point," Eckholm said. "And so, people need to understand that this is not an easy greenfield lakefront residential development. This is going to be a long-term and multi-phase project in order to adequately clean it up to make it safe and enjoyable for the public and any potential residents."
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