MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — One West Michigan community is working to reach new heights now with some extra help.
Troy Bell, Muskegon Heights city manager, says it’s time to change the perception that the city has high crime and a lack of downtown destinations and it starts with a plan.
When you walk down Broadway Ave. near downtown, you see boarded up windows, parking lots with overgrown weeds, and buildings surrounded by chain link fencing.
But what many see as a rundown corridor, city leaders and a group of residents see as the stage for a downtown renaissance.
"I see open thriving businesses, I see cafes, I see tables and chairs on the sidewalk, I see park cars lining the road, and I see people out enjoying this wonderful space that is Muskegon Heights,” Bell said.
The city has fallen on tough times. Bell attributes it in part to the 2008 recession and a lack of reinvestment in the city after several businesses closed up shop.
Fast forward almost 15 years and the city now has $20 million worth of funding on the table and a vision to push the perception of what the city can be.
“Well, you have to start somewhere, and that's what this plan does,” Greater Muskegon Economic Development Community Development Strategist Cathy Brubaker-Clarke said.
Cathy has experienced the rags to riches change in a community. She was part of the revival to Muskegon’s downtown over the past decade making the dilapidated parts of the city a destination again.
She says Muskegon Heights is actually in a better place to see progress.
"The buildings are there for the most part, the structures are there,” Cathy Brubaker-Clarke said, “and it's been able to take what we have and make those improvements and show people that it can be done.”
The plan is called "Reaching New Muskegon Heights". For nearly two years, the city went straight to residents getting input on what they want to see in the city’s future and what would bring them downtown.
A big aspect is reinventing the Strand Theater, a once vibrant staple that has been closed for 30 years now.
“When I look at the vision of a theater, I see a restaurant retail space, I see the potential of having office space on the second floor, maybe a makerspace,'' Bell said.
He also sees several floors of living space above as well. Next door, Rowan Park, already getting a facelift with a statue commemorating the city’s rich marching band history and laying the groundwork for festival space and splash pads.
It’s a start Bell hopes will bring momentum and traffic back to Broadway and the city center.
“Now that people have the permission to dream again, you'll see the wonderful creativity come out in our community,” Bell said.
Outside of investment money, the city has secured nearly $100 thousand dollars in grant money from the FDA and applied for another grant worth a quarter million dollars.
