Escanaba Breaks Ground on New Marketplace

A project long in the planning began to become reality today in Escanaba. The corner of 15th Street and Ludington is about to undergo some drastic changes.

Escanaba city officials and business leaders came together to break ground on Escanaba's new marketplace.

"It's a watershed moment for our downtown." said Downtown Development Authority Executive Director, Ed Legault. "We're actually having our groundbreaking ceremony for the Escanaba marketplace. This is a project that has been going on for several years.""

Construction officially began on Monday and is expected to finish some time in September.

The new marketplace will be an 8000 square foot, pavilion style structure featuring a catering kitchen, space for the farmer's market, restrooms, a stage and even a playground.

The site used to be a car lot and those in charge of planning say the area is well suited for what they have planned.

"The site really, really works perfect for this whole setup. The marketplace building itself, the pocket performance area, the parking lot that is already there. This was really an ideal site for the project." said the marketplace's architect, Barry Polzin.

The total cost for the project is about $1,200,000 with about 50% of the funding coming from grants and the other portion being paid for by the D.D.A.

One of the main goals of the project is to continue to reinvigorate the downtown area.

"These kinds of projects are always a great catalyst for more improvement. They become a focus and that creates more activity and you see the other businesses respond with investments." says Polzin.

Escanaba's Mayor, Marc Tall, commented on the question he is most often asked regarding the new marketplace.

"Lately all I hear is "When is it going to get started?" and today it got started."