Residents in the Keweenaw will soon have a new big box grocery and retail store

HOUGHTON — The city council approved for the mayor to sign the closing documents and there’s a closing schedule for a couple of weeks from now.

Earlier this year the Houghton City Council approved an intent to purchase agreement with Meijer, allowing the retailer to perform it’s pre–site research and surveys with a specific location in mind.

“They’ve been working on site plans for the site. It’s a little over 20 acres, so there’s quite a bit of work to do as far as site planning, driveways, they’re working on that, I know they’re working with MDOT right now on how the driveways may or may not be oriented on the site, and they’ll have to go through site plan reviews. Then once the site plan review is done, the next step would be a building permit,”Eric Waara, Houghton City Manager.

That location is on the edge of the city limits bordering with Portage Township, in fact part of the parcel falls into the township limits, but the two municipalities were able to reach an zoning agreement that allows the city to assume zoning for the entire parcel under a State of Michigan 425 agreement.

“Portage Township, once they got through fact finding, and what not as far as the 425, of course they voted for it, the city voted for it, we’re both on board there, so that’s all settled as well,” Waara added.

While locals have mixed feelings about a new box store in town, rumors have surfaced that opening could be this year, but Warra says he’s not so sure about that, however breaking ground may not be all that far away.

“Realistically, looking at the magnitude of the construction, I don’t expect to see a store open in 2019, but that’s completely up to them, but probably within the next month or two they’ll be eligible to get building permits,” said Waara.

The total lot that the store and gas station will be built on is actually made up of three pieces of property, two of them are privately owned.

The city’s portion, the landlocked portion was sold for $200,000, less a couple thousand in closing costs which have to be devoured between the buyer and the seller.

Warra believes that the addition of a Meijer will be good for the city’s economic development.

Construction is always fun and more shopping choices in town will certainly be an addition to what we have to offer here in Houghton.