[Velvet_Highground]

Very nice looking development, not something I would have expected to see here. Though I suppose with the NW coast seeing an increase in year round and seasonal residents it helps to change perspectives on what’s possible.

Was reading an interesting article about higher end developments that have been completed in UP cities, Houghton has really been poppin. The one that really caught my eye is the redevelopment of the former Houghton National Bank building in Marquette, one of the city’s iconic if not the iconic landmark glad to see it getting done.

Upscale new lodgings aim for the high end in the Upper Peninsula

One vault leads to another, and the second is the Vault Marquette, an ambitious renovation and expansion project for the Savings Bank Building on downtown Front Street, on an entire city block overlooking Lake Superior.

The bank was founded in 1890 by Nathan Kaufman, a merchant and speculator in mines, with the landmark seven-story building, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, built in 1892 at the then-astronomical price of $174,000.



The Savings Bank Building has two basements. The lower basement will house a spa, with the basement above it housing what is being termed a speakeasy, the door to which will be an existing ornate vault door.

Barry Polzin, a Marquette-based architect who was honored on May 16 with a lifetime achievement award by the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, is the Juliens’ architect.

The all-woman Detroit-based Parini Interior Design Studio has been hired to do interior design on the hotel. The company has worked with such hotel brands as Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Loews and Hyatt.

Phase two of the project will build a parking deck for 200 vehicles, three retail spaces and 32 apartments.

Phase three will involve building another hotel, of five stories and 62 rooms, on the eastern end of the property. It will also have an event space for 180.

Polzin will be the architect there, too.

Jen Julien says the Vault Marquette should open early in 2027, with the following phases taking several years. The total cost of all three phases is expected to be upwards of $50 million.

For the Vault, the Juliens were awarded a $4.6 million revitalization and placemaking grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.; a brownfield development grant of $495,000 from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy; and a brownfield development grant of $9.2 million from the Marquette City Council.
Jen Julien said the project got a large loan for the project from the Escanaba-based Upper Peninsula State Bank but declined to say how much.

She also said they are looking to expand the Vault concept to other U.P. cities she declined to name. Sault Ste. Marie, a major tourist attraction because of the Soo Locks, would seem to be an obvious choice.