One of downtown Traverse City’s largest buildings has new owners, and The Ticker has the inside story behind how it came together – and how it is likely the first domino that could eventually transform the downtown retail scene.

The 40,000 square foot Chase Bank building at the corner of Front and Park Streets has been sold to a small group of local investors led by Miller Investment Company and developer Jerry Snowden.

Originally built by National Bank & Trust, the building had been owned since the late 1990s by the Napleton Group of Westmont, Ill. The owners have largely been absent landlords, visiting Traverse City only occasionally and making few building improvements over the years. Current tenants (which include Chase Bank, the National Cherry Festival, Events North, and others) say local ownership is a welcomed change. The building is 60 percent occupied.

The buyers hope the partnership between Kelly Miller, his sons Adam and Chad, and Jerry Snowden will be a perfect match for this particular investment. In 2005, the Millers purchased and rehabbed Bayview Office Center at Grandview Parkway and M-72, a building of the “same vintage” as the 1970-built Chase building. Snowden, with experience in commercial and retail development in and around Traverse City, developed 125 Park Street, which overlooks the Chase building (“I’ve been interested in and looking at that building literally – for years,” Snowden says).

The new owners will invest in interior and exterior improvements.

“It’s pretty tired,” says Snowden, “and it hasn’t been kept up the way we keep our buildings up. One of our first tasks is to clean it up and shine it up before we begin renovation.”

But the key to the investment – and potentially to the future of retail on that end of Front Street – lies outside the actual building. The purchase includes five total parcels:
 -- the building itself and the parking behind it
 -- the “pass through” courtyard between the building and Cali’s Cottons
 -- Chase Bank’s drive-through on State Street
 -- a parking lot adjacent to the drive-through
 -- a parking lot across State Street between The Brownstones and the Running Wise & Ford law firm

The Millers and Snowden are considering all options, even creating their own word in the process.

“We think it’s fun to say there’s lots of ‘optionality’ to this project,” says Snowden, adding that whatever happens to the building and lots “will be market driven. The plan will include land sales, build-to-suits, and renovation.”

Kelly Miller says that plan will “have to be filtered out within 60 days or so, since any one option can trigger something that can make the next thing either happen or not happen.”

Two of the most likely outcomes appear to be:
 -- a new building in the pass through space, one that could connect to and utilize some of the existing stairwells and elevators of the Chase building
 -- expansion of or changes to the street level of the Chase building to provide more first-floor, Front Street retail spaces

Both options would create several new, potentially larger spaces for larger retailers, with office space above, though new buildings on the other parcels could change downtown even more.

The hope is that huge pent-up demand for downtown retail space – coupled with a rebounded economy, local ownership, and a superior location – will be a formula for significant growth in that area.

“It’s close to the courts, close to the beach, across from the State Theatre, very close to the parking deck, and to restaurants,” says Snowden, while Adam Miller puts a finer point on the location, noting, “We think that corner is the new ‘Main and Main’ for Traverse City.”