After years in the planning and approval phases, two adjacent developments destined to transform the Warehouse District will soon break ground, and another just down the street is scheduled to begin construction in the spring.

Meanwhile, the developer of a long-vacant parcel just across the river is scrapping plans for a mixed-use complex and pursuing plans for a luxury hotel.

The Ticker caught up with the developers behind these properties to find out what’s next.

The Syndicate and TC Continental

Rochester-based J.S. Capitol Group, headed by developer Jeff Schmitz, will hold a formal groundbreaking celebration on Friday for two Grandview Parkway properties immediately east of Hotel Indigo, which Schmitz developed several years ago.

The properties are a four-story hotel dubbed The Syndicate and an adjacent condo complex called TC Continental.

“We’re really pumped to get going,” Schmitz tells The Ticker. “We’re waiting on our foundation permit and hoping to get started any day here.”

The Syndicate will be a Marriott Tribute hotel with 110 rooms, including double queen and king units and executive suites. It will feature a ground floor restaurant, spa and fitness center, banquet room, and three board rooms. Like the neighboring Indigo, it will have a rooftop bar space.

One thing stripped from the original plans is underground parking. Crews encountered major contamination issues (including a cyanide plume) while working on Indigo, and Schmitz doesn’t want to take chances with another dig.

“The costs were just so prohibitive going back into the ground after what we went through at the Indigo, all the challenges we had in the contaminated soil,” Schmitz says. “We had some nasty stuff.”

Instead, J.S. Capitol recently bought the former Antiquities Warehouse building across Garland Street and will convert it into a building with retail on the ground floor and parking above, Schmitz says.

TC Continental, which will share a first-floor wall with The Syndicate, will have 15 condo units ranging from 1,200 to 3,000 square feet and are expected to be priced around $1,000 per square foot, Schmitz says. Four of the 15 are already sold.

Schmitz expects the hotel to be open in about 18 months, with the condos ready for move-in in 24 months.

The Godfrey

Though the name may change, what’s now called the Godfrey is a mixed-use development planned for the vacant lot along Hall Street next to the BATA transfer station. After a series of delays tied to the building’s height and other matters, the development team is ready to start building in the spring of 2025.

The project is being developed by Innovo, the downstate group that built the Breakwater complex between the river and the Traverse City Tourism building.

The development will include ground floor retail/restaurant space along with 127 apartment units. A portion of these will be earmarked for affordable/workforce housing, Innovo principal Trae Allman tells The Ticker, though the exact percentage remains to be determined. The city last year approved a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement for Godfrey and Breakwater.

PILOT agreements allow developers to pay a percentage of rental income to the city instead of traditional taxes to offset the costs associated with offering below-market housing.

The development’s roof will come in at under 60 feet after a long-running and thoroughly publicized debate (and eventual legal dispute) over building heights in Traverse City. A citizens group sued the city in 2021, claiming the project violated a 2016 charter amendment that required all buildings over 60 feet to be subject to a vote of the public.

A local judge sided with the citizens group and ruled that all features of a building, including parapets, mechanical features and more, must be under 60 feet (some features of the Godfrey’s initial design were over that height).

The Michigan Court of Appeals later reversed that ruling, stating the charter amendment did not expressly address how to measure the height of a building. The city’s position had been that the height should be measured from the ground to the roof alone, excluding other features, which is a common method of measuring building height. When the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear the case, the Court of Appeals ruling stood.

Still, because the initial design had a rooftop that was a bit higher than 60 feet, the development team reworked plans to bring the rooftop under that height (While the legal process was unfolding, Innovo did in fact put their initial higher rooftop plans on the ballot in 2022; city voters rejected the project).

Considering the process to get to this point, the development team is feeling ready to get shovels in the ground.

“We’re very excited to get going on this,” Allman says. “The project will be very similar to what we originally conceived.”

Jay Zelenock represented the citizens’ group in the lawsuit. He tells The Ticker the “pro-democracy goals were all vindicated” in the legal process, regardless of the outcome.

“The charter amendment was not to stop development, it was to give people a voice,” he says. “That voice was upheld, because ultimately the Godfrey building was put to a vote and the proposal to exceed 60 feet was rejected by voters.”

124 West Front

Across the river sits a “hole in the ground” next to the Record-Eagle that’s been there for nearly 20 years since Grand Traverse Auto, which occupied the site for decades, was demolished.

After initially pursuing plans for a mixed-use development that would have both market rate and affordable/workforce housing units, developer Jeff Smoke of Great Lakes Capital is now pursuing plans for a luxury hotel at the site.

Smoke, who was also behind the West End Lofts building just down and across the street along the river, says the team’s inability to secure a variety of local and state incentives led to the change in plans.

“It’s very challenging to build (affordable) housing development without a true offset,” Smoke tells The Ticker. “I think it was over four years that we tried to make it work, but the numbers just didn’t pencil out.”

A hotel is much better use for the riverfront property anyway, Smoke believes.

“The land is so expensive up there, a hotel is a better product for super high-valued land,” he says. “We also think there’s a real need in the market for a premium, boutique hotel.”

Smoke says many of the details – including the hotel’s brand, configuration and more – still need to be finalized. But it will capitalize on its riverfront location, he says, likely with a riverwalk and other features.

 Picutured: A rendering of The Syndicate.