CADILLAC — Cadillac city leaders and state officials toured the ongoing construction of Cadillac Lofts Phase 2 Friday. The project is adding 50 apartment units to the downtown area to address a local housing shortage.
The redevelopment is part of a brownfield program through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), which transforms blighted or contaminated properties into community assets.
The state agency invested $1 million into the project to revitalize a site that was once home to a grocery store and other small businesses before falling into disrepair.
Phil Roos, director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, participated in the tour and highlighted the national and local need for more residential options.
“We have a housing shortage, across the country and certainly here,” Roos said. “And we’ve had all the kind of community infrastructure created, but no place for people to live.”
Roos added that bringing residents into the downtown area strengthens neighborhoods and supports the local economy.
Once Phase 2 is complete, the mixed-use building will feature a total of 92 apartment rentals. The facility currently offers 42 units and commercial space that were completed during Phase 1, which opened in 2021.
Cadillac City Manager Marcus Peccia said the expansion will double the capacity for rentals in the heart of the city.
“This is going to bring attainable units online and in our downtown core, which is huge for the city,” Peccia said.
The property was formerly a blighted area that Peccia described as an eye-sore before the redevelopment began.
In previous decades, the site hosted a grocery store, dry cleaners and a photography studio. By the time the project started, most of those businesses had closed.
“This was a blighted area... back in its heyday, there used to be a vibrant grocery store and and dry cleaners and pizza shop,” Peccia said.
He noted the project has been in development since before the pandemic.
The state investment is intended to spur further private development in the region. Roos explained that the brownfield program typically leverages significant private funding alongside state grants.
“We typically are with this program for every dollar and state money that goes into it, it generates on the average, $45 in private investment,” Roos said.
He noted that the work combines environmental protection with economic benefits such as job creation.
Similiar redevelopment efforts are currently active across Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, including projects in Traverse City and Marquette. Roos said there is a high demand for this type of work in rural areas. “Pretty much everywhere you look, there’s a lot in sort of cities within rural Michigan, which I think is a big unmet need there,” Roos said.
Following the tour of the construction site, stakeholders held a roundtable discussion to evaluate the project’s progress and the collaboration between state and local leaders.
Roos said the meeting was a chance to learn from the Cadillac project to inform future efforts. “What we’re really trying to learn is what worked well on this,” Roos said. “What things could we improve?”
City officials are aiming to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the project hopefully by the summer.