A new mixed-use development – and the return of the Georgina’s restaurant brand – is bound for a piece of prime downtown real estate at 531 West Front Street. The Ticker has the scoop on this new project and on several other high-profile pieces of property news in Traverse City.

531 West Front Street is currently home to a single-story structure that previously housed several restaurant concepts spearheaded by chef and restauranteur Anthony Craig. Craig says his plan is to redevelop that property into a four-story mixed-use development, with two commercial spaces on the ground floor and 12 residential condos on the upper levels. Craig is working with realtor Sam Flamont and Flamont’s Mitten Real Estate Group to pre-sell the residential units. In the meantime, he plans to get back into the restaurant business this summer by opening an establishment inside the existing space. Once construction begins, he’ll temporarily close the restaurant, with plans to reopen again once the project is complete.

The residential part of the development is called Docena, and is touted in listings as “the ultimate in Downtown Luxury.” According to Flamont, the condo complex will offer 12 units ranging in size from 1,300 to 1,600 square feet, all with three-bedroom, two-bathroom floorplans. The property will also include a rooftop deck that will be accessible to all residents. The units are being sold as long-term residential housing, and Flamont notes that Airbnbs or other short-term rentals will be prohibited in the building.

Per Craig, the ground floor will have two 1,500 or 1,600-square-foot commercial units, one of which will house the next iteration of Georgina’s/Little G’s and the other of which “will be available for any business that wants to rent that space.”

With construction unlikely to start on the project until the end of the year at the earliest, Craig plans to reboot his restaurant career this summer in the existing Little G's space – even though he acknowledges that he’ll have to close for nine months when the building needs to be torn down and redeveloped. He tells The Ticker that several former Georgina’s employees will be coming back to work for him again, and says he’s aiming to reopen “god willing, by the end of this month.”

Docena’s upper floor residential units, meanwhile, are currently listed for sale on The Mitten Real Estate Group website; they are priced at $1.15 million apiece.

Craig is best known locally as the founder and owner of the Georgina’s brand, having established that restaurant and its fusion of Latin and Asian dishes in 2013 at 439 East Front Street – the space occupied today by Zest Plant-Based Kitchen. Georgina’s grew rapidly, becoming one of TC’s buzziest restaurants and quickly moving to a larger space at 236 East Front Street – the former home of Phil’s on Front and Ciao Bella – in the spring of 2014.

The ensuing years proved tumultuous for Craig. In 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Georgina’s, alleging Craig had violated federal law by sexually harassing female employees and firing an employee who complained about the harassment. While Craig and his attorneys denied the allegations – including in past interviews with The Ticker ­­– Georgina’s ultimately settled the EEOC lawsuit in 2021, agreeing to pay $200,000 in punitive and compensatory damages and back wages.

The pandemic brought about another rocky patch. Craig permanently closed Georgina’s at 236 East Front Street in May 2020, citing high rent costs and massive potential losses from COVID impacts. He rebranded the business as Little G’s and soon reopened at the smaller 531 West Front Street space, which had previously been home to another restaurant of his: Da Bu-Shi Factory, and closed a few months later. Little G’s operated in that space through December 2020.

While announced as a temporary closure, the shutdown ultimately proved permanent. 

Craig says health issues prompted him to close (and not reopen) during COVID. Since Georgina’s had also closed its second location in Grand Rapids – an expansion of the business that launched in January 2018 and closed that October – the Little G’s closure meant the apparent end of the once-popular restaurant brand.

Now Craig is ready for a fresh start at 531 West Front Street. The project, he says, has been in the works for a long time – to the point where the original plan was for construction to start and finish last year. Difficulties with contractors led Craig to hire a different builder, which in turn pushed back the project timeline. Now Craig expects construction will begin sometime next year; he estimates a nine-month buildout.

Other property and real estate developments

Beyond Docena, The Mitten Group has several other housing projects in the works or recently completed in and around Traverse City. Last week, the agency announced that it had finished renovations at the former Shadowland Motel, located at 121 Munson Avenue. Seven of the 24 units are set aside for workforce housing through an agreement that Flamont struck with Eric Nittolo, proprietor of Nittolo’s in Lake Leelanau. The other 17 units will be short-term rentals.

Also in the Mitten portfolio is Wildflower Acres, a new housing subdivision that Flamont is developing off Rusch Road (as originally reported by The Ticker in 2021). “We broke ground [on that project] and have roads in, gravel going down soon, then blacktop, and then foundations by the end of the month,” Flamont says. Mitten will build 35 homes as part of the project’s first phase, with the subdivision planned to ultimately include 127 houses total. Flamont expects the first 6-8 homes will be finished this year.

Outside of The Mitten Group’s galaxy, three prime residential parcels recently hit the market on Bay Street. The plots in question – 1111, 1123, and 1133 Bay Street – are located at the corner of Bay and Ramsdell, across Ramsdell from Traverse Bay United Methodist Church. All three parcels are listed for sale together, for the total price of $1,950,000, but each parcel is zoned for one single-family home. The property description touts the listing as “a rare opportunity to own THREE one-of-a-kind lots with stunning water views in the heart of Traverse City.”