Historic Citadel building in downtown Port Huron listed for sale
A prominent building at the north end of Port Huron’s Main Street — with theater and commercial space and upstairs lofts — has been put up for sale by the family who last redeveloped it several years ago.
The Citadel building at 309 Huron Ave. is listed with Kramer Commercial Realty at a price of $1.2 million, as of earlier this month.
Korissa Wilkins, a broker for the real estate company, said she’s garnered plenty of inquiries into the historic property, but no formal deal was yet in the works.
“It’s a terrific mixed-use building. The restoration the Witts did was phenomenal,” she said. Dave and Georgina Witt purchased the site in 2015 and it was among a host of properties the couple and other members of their family helped redevelop throughout the 2010s.
“You’ve got the Enter Stage Right theater tenant in there that has been terrific for the last six years,” Wilkins said. “There’s a couple other commercial spaces, which is the financial institution (Primerica) and also the Red Kettle Coffee (Roasters), that they’ve really enjoyed having onsite as tenants."
“Then, there’s six additional lofts there on site. It’s just a unique property that stands out in downtown. It could be a great opportunity for an investor,” she said.
Wilkins said existing leases would be honored as part of the process.
Built in 1903, a variety of businesses utilized space on the site. It operated as the Salvation Army Citadel until the site's founding namesake moved to Court Street in the mid-1960s. It bloomed in the 1970s into the Citadel Mall and underwent a facelift for its centennial 19 years ago.
Under the Witts, newly renovated lofts debuted in 2016, and Enter Stage Right began to host productions on the Citadel Stage around the same time.
Dave Witt died in 2020. According to his obituary, he purchased his first building in Port Huron in 2007, renovating loft and retail spaces in 10 buildings in the years that followed.
“They’ve done a lot of restoration and a lot of terrific projects downtown, breathing life back into buildings," Wilkins said.
More on the Witts' presence downtown
Dave and Georgina's son Steve Witt and his wife Michelle also played a role in many landmark projects downtown, including through the couple’s Sanctum Contracting. As of last week, the website and listed phone number for the construction business were no longer in service.
In an email Friday, Michelle Witt declined to address personal details for the family but said, “Their main focus was to bring vitality back to the downtown, not to be long-term landlords. With that being said, Bens 314 Lofts was sold in May, and the Citadel Lofts were next on the list.”
She didn’t indicate if any other properties the family helped redevelop would be sold.
The Bens 314 lofts building farther south on Huron Avenue, which the Witts purchased in 2012, was sold in May. . The buyer is listed as RSS Investments LLC, whose state-registered agent is Robert Barnes and taxpayer address is Barnes' law firm in Lexington.
Barnes, also listed as the successor trustee for a revocable trust agreement in a land contract for the property, declined to confirm plans or details when reached by the Times Herald on Friday.
According to the St. Clair County register of deeds, mixed-use properties still owned by entities associated with a Witt family member include the Black River Harbor Place under Arashi LLC in the 500 block of Quay Street, the McKeough, Malmok, and Tecumseh buildings at 215, 221 and 231 Huron Ave., and Midtown Lofts at 411 Grand River Ave.
“The Witt family spearheaded the revitalization of multiple downtown properties because they believed there was a bright future for downtown,” Michelle Witt wrote Friday. “They had a dream of what downtown could become, even before others felt the same way. They went into each venture with aspirations larger than the previous project.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Historic Citadel building in downtown Port Huron listed for sale
