MUSKEGON, Mich. — Major moves tonight on the lakeshore...
13 ON YOUR SIDE was given a sneak peak of the progress at Adelaide Pointe, the sprawling marina and condo development under construction in Muskegon.
Dredging required to lay the ground work wrapped up earlier this year.
More heavy lifting this week as workers excavate tons of soil, carting loads back and forth on dump trucks, and generally, clearing away the old to make room for all new foundations, both real and figurative.
While down along the shoreline, crews float sections of docking into place –pieces of the expansive network of boat slips set to serve as the centerpiece of the sprawling, self-described ‘marina community.’
That work is expected to continue into the spring ahead of a projected May opening.
“It is surreal,” Adelaide Pointe Developer Ryan Leestma mused. “It's just like, I have no idea how I got here.”
We met Leestma in a conference room tucked into the ground floor of the complex’s half-finished office space, carved out of the historic brick factory building, a garage, that’s occupied the site as long as anyone can remember.
“You can't build something like this… a mixture of old school, natural materials, new tech,” he explained, lightly tapping the surface of the conference table just out of frame. “Even this table comes from logs that we pulled out of the lake.”
“If you think about it, that's what we're doing here across the entire board.”
Creative reuse and the timber Leestma referenced, will, after all, serve as the stars of the show.
“Mass timber is a brand new technology… that’s never been used around here,” he related.
Mass timber beams, produced using laminated timber panels, are both environmentally friendly and stronger than even steel.
He credits wife Dr. Emily Leestma for pioneering the technique’s applications at scale. Dr. Leestma was also responsible for proposing the addition of a hotel on site, set to utilize the same mass timber technology.
“She always figures it out and always gets the job done,” he explained. “She's the real deal, you know? Without her that wouldn't have happened.”
Developers have long touted the project’s green credentials, citing efforts to reseed native marine vegetation within the broader push to rehabilitate the contaminated former industrial site upon which it will sit.
When work is complete, the sprawling 40-acre Adelaide Pointe complex will include the following, according to Leestma:
- Up to 400 housing units
- 125 hotel rooms
- 500-thousand square feet of ‘mancave’-style spaces and vehicle storage
- 2 restaurants
- Event center
- Boat dealership
- Shared office space
- 3 parks
- 169 boat slips (capable of accommodating boats in excess of 40’
- 300 rack slips (capable of accommodating boats 45’ and smaller)
- 35 transient slips
“Two and a half years ago, this place was a complete pile,” Leestma laughed. “There's a dry Marina going up. We're building man caves, and I go, how in the heck did I get myself here?”
With the board rooms, public hearings and planning sessions that defined those early days at last giving way to the builders, the heavy machinery and the sounds of work underway, it affords the developer a rare moment of quiet reflection.
“We have our job because we need to make a living… But we also have to choose those things that have an impact far beyond making money,” Leestma noted. “This project… it's given people that live in Michigan, and especially West Michigan, an entirely different perspective on who we are as a town and what we can be.”
Dozens of the site’s condominiums and in excess of 70 of its boat slips had already been purchased or reserved at the time of publication, Leestma said.
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