New Tasting Room, City Budget, Traverse Connect/Brown Bridge/DDA Contracts on Commission Agenda

Traverse City commissioners will vote tonight (Monday) on approving a liquor license for a planned new tasting room on West Front Street from Petoskey’s High Five Spirits. Commissioners will also hold a public hearing on the city’s proposed 2024-25 budget and vote on contracts with Traverse Connect for economic development services and the Grand Traverse Conservation District to manage Brown Bridge Quiet Area, as well as terminating an agreement with the TC Downtown Development Authority for parking services.

Tasting Room
Commissioners will consider approving a liquor license application from brothers Michael and Adam Kazanowski to open a new tasting room at 309 West Front Street – the West End Lofts building next to Barrio Tacos (pictured).

The Kazanowskis, owners and founders of High Five Spirits and Gypsy Vodka, are seeking approval for a tasting room license and entertainment and Sunday sales permits. According to the duo’s application, High Five Spirits “is set to add to Traverse City’s spirits scene with the opening of a sleek tasting room on Front Street. The modern, inviting space will showcase High Five’s signature small-batch bourbons, innovative gins, and vodka, offering patrons an immersive experience in the art of distillation.”

The Kazanowskis, who could not be reached for comment, said in their application they planned to offer a “blend of urban sophistication and natural beauty” in the tasting room, becoming a “hub for spirit enthusiasts” and “providing a curated selection of finely crafted libations in the heart of Traverse City’s vibrant downtown.” The High Five Spirits tasting room in Petoskey offers spirit tastings, bottle sales, live music, food vendors, and a seasonally rotating cocktail menu, according to the company’s website.

City commissioners will also vote tonight on approving several updated permits related to Kayak, Bike & Brew’s tasting room at 436 West Front Street. The space offers a place for Kayak, Bike & Brew guests and tour attendees to “relax after a tour” and “grab a beverage,” according to the application. The tasting room produces and serves all its own spirits. This is the third year Kayak, Bike & Brew has operated in the space, according to owner Troy Daily.

City Budget
City commissioners will hold a public hearing tonight on the proposed 2024-25 budgets for the city, Traverse City Light & Power, and Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The city’s general fund is expected to have $23,614,700 in revenues in the next fiscal year – which starts July 1 and runs through June 30 – and $24,574,700 in expenditures.

The largest part of the city’s budget at 40 percent goes toward public safety, including police and fire. Spending in both departments is expected to increase, with City Manager Liz Vogel recommending adding a new social worker and community police officer to the police department to bolster the city’s response to homelessness. The fire department, meanwhile, is in the process of transitioning to become the city’s primary ambulance provider. That move – supported by a voter-approved millage last fall – will require building out the fire department by adding nine new full-time firefighters and one full-time EMS administrator over time.

The department is also adding two new ambulances, with the budget allocating $700,000 for those costs. That’s one of numerous capital outlays recommended in the coming year, with others including $1.78 million to continue state-required work on a water line replacement project, which centers on fixing connections to lead goosenecks. A combination of state loan and grant funding is helping to cover that multi-year project. The budget also includes $1.2 million to address the Division Street water main from Fourteenth Street to the city limits, $380,000 to purchase six patrol-ready police vehicles, $215,000 for a parks master plan, and $332,000 for paving the alley north of Front Street between Peninsula and Garfield, as a few other examples of capital outlay projects. Slight increases in both Traverse City Light & Power and city water rates are also expected in the coming year.

After tonight’s public hearing, commissioners are set to formally approve the city, Traverse City Light & Power, and DDA 2024-25 budgets at their June 3 meeting.

Contracts
Commissioners will vote tonight to approve a three-year renewed contract with Traverse Connect for economic development services. The most recent contract was $50,000 annually; Traverse Connect is proposing to increase that to $52,500 for 2024, with three percent increases in 2025 and 2026. The contract is paid out of the city’s economic development fund. According to Traverse Connect’s Warren Call, the organization will provide services including “leading regional economic development strategy, providing business expansion services, managing talent attraction, and implementing business attraction programs, as well as supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, community development, and infrastructure development.”

Commissioners will also vote to approve a $50,000 contract with the Grand Traverse Conservation District for continued management of the Brown Bridge Quiet Area. The current agreement is set to expire next month and would be extended through June 2025. Vogel noted that the Brown Bridge Quiet Area is set to expand by 528 acres thanks to a $2.3 million state grant and city voter approval to tap into the city’s Brown Bridge Trust Fund to provide a $746,245 match. Because of that expansion, “there will be a need in the future to develop an updated management and maintenance plan," Vogel wrote.

Finally, after DDA board members voted Friday to “mutually” terminate an agreement for the DDA to manage parking services on behalf of the city, commissioners will vote tonight to approve the same termination. The vote will clear the way for the city to take back over parking after three decades of DDA management. Though that transition will likely time, both the DDA and city have planned for the move in their 2024-25 budgets.