Major Expansion Coming to Historic Barns Park

A milestone $5 million-plus expansion will break ground next week at the Historic Barns Park at the Grand Traverse Commons, with Barn 206 – which sits vacant now next to the Cathedral Barn – to be modernized and transformed into a new Botanic Garden education center. Cathedral Barn improvements, a new two-story connecting tower that will join the two barns with common lobbies and universal elevator access, and water infrastructure upgrades are also planned for the property.

The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park and the Recreational Authority – the joint City of Traverse City and Garfield Township board that oversees the Historic Barns Park – will host a groundbreaking ceremony Friday, October 25 at 10am. Barn 206, commonly called the Historic Barn, was originally built in 1896 as a dairy barn for the former Traverse City State Hospital, with an addition constructed in 1914. The adjacent Cathedral Barn (Barn 204) was also built for farming purposes in 1932. The Cathedral Barn has since been renovated and is a popular venue for weddings, concerts, fundraisers, and other events.

But the Historic Barn has largely sat “unused and unimproved,” says Recreational Authority Executive Director Matt Cowall. While the Recreational Authority has made steady progress on interior environmental clean-up, the barn lacks electricity and other basic utilities and still retains much of its former dairy barn infrastructure. Different materials, floor levels, and ventilation systems were also used to build the original structure space and its later addition, creating a lack of cohesive space.

Thanks to over $3 million in Botanic Garden fundraising and $2.6 million to be bonded by the Recreational Authority (and paid off through its operating millage), a decades-long plan to modernize the Historic Barn is now becoming reality. Architect Ray Kendra of Environment Architects and construction contractor Eckler Building Solutions are overseeing the renovation project that begins next week, with the barn’s upper level to become the Botanic Garden’s new Debra J. Edson Family Education Center. The center will feature classroom and event space, a demonstration teaching kitchen, a gallery, and office space.

“This project marks a pivotal point in the growth of the Botanic Garden,” says Executive Director Matthew Ross. “We are creating community spaces that will expand and inspire learning, creativity, and connection. It’s an opportunity to honor the rich history of this site while creating new possibilities for future generations.” 

The project will also include new roofs for both barns, plus lighting improvements and a lower-level storage area in the Cathedral Barn. Another major component is a planned new two-story connecting tower between the Historic Barn and the Cathedral Barn. They were once joined by a hallway, but Cowall says that had to be demolished early on to separate the air spaces in the barns while environmental clean-up was underway. The new connector tower – developed in cooperation with Michigan’s State Historic Preservation Office to resemble a silo, a nod to the site’s agricultural history – will provide common lobbies and universal elevator access for both buildings.

Those improvements will provide a “big leap forward for universal access to the structures,” says Cowall, and could significantly broaden rental opportunities since the two barns could be jointly used for conferences and other large events going forward. Cowall says the Recreational Authority accordingly is “in the process of reinventing the rental paradigm” for the Historic Barns Park. Today users go through the Recreational Authority if they want to rent the Cathedral Barn and the Botanic Garden to rent other spaces on the property, but a “much more streamlined” process will be rolled out going forward with a “single point of contact for the site and more menu options available to use different spaces,” Cowall says.

While those rental streams should help the long-term sustainability of the Historic Barns Park and the entities that reside there, the construction will require a temporary pause in events. The Recreational Authority has blocked off November to March for Cathedral Barn work, Cowall says, meaning holiday parties and other events are mostly off the table this season. Construction is expected to last nine or so months, putting the expansion on track for a late summer or early fall completion in 2025.

That timeline has accelerated another long-gestating project. Water pressure has long been an issue at Grand Traverse Commons and is a particular challenge when it comes to bringing new projects online. “The water pressure at our end of the campus has always been low,” Cowall explained at a September Grand Traverse County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (BRA) meeting. “It’s a stub end of the water main. It’s not looped to anything, so the entire development history of the Historic Barns Park has dealt with low municipal water pressure. We’re served by that city system, but it’s not engineered in a way that allows for a lot of extra development.”

Without upgrades, the existing water infrastructure would not be adequate to serve the modernized Historic Barn. That could result in an exciting new buildout that’s completed but “in mothballs because you can’t get occupancy because water can’t get up to the second floor and flush the toilets,” Cowall told the BRA board. “So this is a problem.” That has put a ticking clock on getting water improvements done as soon as possible so they’re ready in tandem with the building construction. “Every day counts,” Cowall said, particularly because the construction project also has time-sensitive funding sources attached.

With the Commons covered by a brownfield plan, BRA board members voted unanimously to approve allocating $54,300 from the BRA’s administrative fund to cover design and engineering services with Hubbell, Roth & Clark for water system improvements that will create a higher pressure district at the Commons. BRA Executive Director Anne Jamieson-Urena said $875,000 has also been earmarked in brownfield funding for the construction of the improvements themselves, with future phases of additional upgrades possible. The initial project will be “collectively beneficial for servicing the entire property,” she said. Cowall says that the BRA’s support means he’s hopeful the water system project and the Historic Barns Park expansion will “marry up” and be completed on similar timelines next year.