“They will take away this eyesore and make it look beautiful.”
A new development project, hoping to bring new people and new businesses to downtown Ludington.
The development which includes apartment units and space for commercial businesses will fill a vacant area on Ludington Avenue.
Ludington interim city manager, Steve Brock, says they will start demolishing the existing buildings on September 10.
“Two buildings, one along Ludington Avenue, first floor will be about 13-14 thousand square feet of commercial. That will kind of extend the commercial strip through this vacant area here and on top of that will be residential,” said Brock.
Bob Jacobson of L.C Companies is the developer and his plans call for two to four story buildings with apartments on the top three floors and commercial space available to rent on the first floor.
There will be 30 apartment units in each building and more than 100 parking spots.
“Housing study was done and just about any market you go into you see a lack of good quality and affordable housing. That’s what’s being built here so we’re appreciative of that and the commercial space is a nice desirable thing to have,” said Brock.
The housing will have apartments for people 55 and older and will have apartments for families.
“Part of the funding for this project comes from the sale of tax credits and there’s been some ups and downs in that market. The developer had to wait for the market to be right to get those tax credits sold,” said Brock.
Chad Miller lives in Ludington and thinks the plan is a good idea.
“It would really boost the economy. I think more people would come downtown, be downtown, do the shopping, small shopping, and businesses and stuff like that. It would really help us out,” said Miller.
With the destruction of the vacant buildings, that also means the murals will be destroyed that have been a tourist picture stop. Brock says the developer plans to make room for a new mural.
“The only thing that’s going to miss out is a lot of people do the murals so hopefully they’ll do something on the back of them, keep that little niche,” said Miller.
Construction will take a year to complete.
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