What’s today’s headline? We have plenty of options.
Tourists are still clogging our streets, homeless are still living on our streets, residents are complaining about our streets, and now cameras are watching us on our streets.
With that, here’s the headline… The Upfront Building is Finally Changing Hands!
Wait… I think I’ve heard this before. Since Upfront & Company closed some 14 years ago we’ve been periodically teased with rumors of new ownership at the once popular nightspot. However, the last time I looked, the doors were still locked.
To be clear, the bar, restaurant, and banquet space are just one part of the entire facility. Storefronts and office space, in addition to the Upfront & Company area, are a big part of what goes along with the purchase.
It was just three weeks ago when we learned of a well-heeled local businessman who gave the building a serious look, but decided the numbers didn’t work.
Now… unless we’re being led down the same dead-end street of honest intentions unfulfilled, a deal is apparently in the works.
Cautiously Optimistic
Though the place has been on the market for years, at a number of different price points, it wasn’t until this week that an actual realtor met with the actual owners and an actual buyer and they came up with an actual purchase agreement.
Dave Mingay, of RE/MAX 1st Realty, listed the place on July 26th and one month later, on August 26th, he got two interested parties together and identified one mutual goal… a change in ownership. Okay, we have a pretty good idea who the sellers are. I believe it’s an estate thing, with some mix and match of family members and corporate interests, which were headed up by the late owner of the Upfront building, Rhys Mussman.
Who? It’s the first W!
More important though… who is buying it? Hoping to get a name, all I got from Mingay was, “Local buyers.” Well, I like the local part.
Ownership coming out of Indiana, seemingly without much interest in the area, didn’t end well. Mussman was in and out of town, but didn’t show much urgency to either reopen Upfront, or sell the property.
I understand new ownership’s desire to keep their identity under wraps, at least until they’re handed the keys. First reports of the sale indicated it was officially pending. According to Mingay, that means there is “an accepted purchase agreement with contingencies.”
Pushing Mingay, because I’ve been duped and disappointed before, and not totally buying into “officially pending,” I asked for a definitive answer… “Is it a done deal?” His reply… “It’s never a done deal, until it closes with the title company.”
Because I’m always hopeful, and usually a little naïve, I’m going to trust what I’ve heard, and start to picture the return of Upfront, or whatever the new owners are going to call it.
Stock the Bar and Start the Music
Wait… are we even sure they plan on bringing the place back to life? They could always turn it into more office space, or another hotel, or condos, right?
“The new owners plan to bring the Upfront portion of the building back to life,” Mingay says. “Their goal is to reopen the banquet hall as soon as they are able to. The restaurant and bar to follow in the near future.”
Music to my ears. Which might be another part of the revival down there. The Upfront stage and dance floor were a great venue for local and regional bands. A return to anything like that would be a real boon to downtown.
Citing my own personal history with Upfront, having done a television show there from 2010 until 2012 when it closed, I previously used Word on the Street to write an open letter to owner Mussman, imploring him to bring back Upfront, or find someone who would.
And now, just four short years later, my efforts are about to pay off. At least, that’s how I’m going to remember it.
The Missing Piece?
Mingay is just as optimistic as I am. “Everyone is very excited about the Upfront, and it’s going to be huge for Marquette County and the entire Upper Peninsula. With all of the tourists coming into the area, it’s going to be great for all of the businesses downtown. They will all feed off of each other, even the restaurants, I believe.”
I couldn’t agree more.
The Other Words
Now, being the responsible journalist I claim to be, let me touch on the issues mentioned in the first paragraph.
• Yes… if traffic is any indication, it looks like tourist season is still going strong, at least through the Labor Day Weekend. And that tourist tax that has been suggested? The city is looking into it.
• Our homeless issue is unchanged, in that it’s still a festering problem for the community… including the homeless. A recent Facebook post about it elicited hundreds of comments, none of which offered a reasonable solution. To be continued…
• The people who live on the 500 through 800 blocks of West Magnetic, the Magnetic Mafia, or whatever they call themselves, are still wondering why College Avenue through the old hospital property is still closed. Traffic that would normally have taken College is now using Magnetic, causing residents to grumble about the added pressure on their quiet street. The city is holding off on doing anything to improve College, and actually make it usable, until development plans for the property have been better defined.
• Finally, the word on the street, not mine, is there’s a Flock camera downtown recording our every move and interpreting our intentions, just in case they’re nefarious.
I reached out to the city and received the following response: “The City of Marquette does not own or operate a Flock/ALPR camera, nor are we engaged with any kind of contract for those services. This is not something the City is interested in pursuing, and any contract would need to be brought before the City Commission and approved at a public meeting.”
Apparently the camera in question, at the corner of West Washington and Third Street has been in place for more than 12 years and serves as a standard surveillance camera for monitoring the downtown area. It does not have license plate reader capabilities and is not used to collect or track vehicle information.
You know, I’m starting to think random social media might not be the best source of accurate information. Maybe that should be the headline.