Teamwork with a ‘beautiful view’: Developers unveil completed Marine City Manor project

MARINE CITY — The former Thomas J. Geck building in the 400 block of South Water Street has a new name, and behind its redeveloped façade, a new purpose.

Marine City Manor, which includes three new commercial spaces on the ground level and six second-story condominiums, was unveiled to community and business leaders in the last week — both the latest addition to one couple’s local development footprint downtown, as well as what state and local officials referred to as a successful example of incentivizing financial programs.

Tom Vertin, who co-owns the property with Macomb County-based developer Chris LaBelle under Marine City Apartments LLC, attributed being able to take on the project to partnerships and teamwork.

“It needed to be a team because we had to keep supporting each other,” he said Monday.

After the property was purchased four years ago, the redevelopment push got big boosts from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and St. Clair County Brownfield Authority.

Weeks after demolition at the long-blighted structure began in 2022, however, part of its roof and upper structure collapsed, temporarily closing a nearby side street.

“I’m very, very happy with how it turned out," Vertin said. “We acquired this building — that’s probably where we had to support each other the most because you walk through the building … it was in really, really bad shape. The floors were sagging, the brick was falling off the front façade. There was holes in the wall. It was really on the edge of being condemned.”

Present at a ribbon cutting was host of local and state dignitaries, including Congresswoman Lisa McClain, state Sen. Dan Lauwers, several city and county officials, and Chuck Donaldson, a regional managing director for the MEDC.

“This is a great example where those of you who walked through the building saw what it looked like before. Now, we’re going to have new opportunities for retail, we’re going to have new residents living here — we’ve already got one — and it’s just a great example of a live, work, and play environment," Donaldson said. "What I really want to see is all the storefronts filled, I want to see the streets’ parking where you don’t have it on the street, I really want to see a big economic boom in this community that I think you guys are ripe for.”

LaBelle said he, too, was excited about the project.

“It’s a great project, a great transformation here. Beautiful views,” he said. “You don’t (often) get the opportunity to be involved with stuff that’s got such a beautiful view.”

What programs did Marine City utilize?

Marine City Apartments LLC received a $746,244 performance-based grant from the MEDC’s Michigan Strategic Fund in 2022 for what was reported as a $2.1 million investment.

A year prior, county and city officials OK’d the project’s brownfield plan — a mechanism that help determine how much in new taxes based on higher assessments of a property can be set aside temporarily as reimbursement on developments of properties involving some environmental cleanup or, such as at the former Geck building, deemed obsolete.

The manor’s 18-year plan included reimbursement to developers and the brownfield authority at $283,000, taxes collected for local jurisdictions at $198,967, and tax increment captures by the countywide brownfield revolving fund at $99,603.

Chris Pittiglio, director of the Marine City Area Chamber of Commerce, credited the Vertins, including Tom and his wife Kathy, among those whose vision for Marine City Manor, played “a key role in the progress of Marine City” — a nod to their other projects.

The couple, who operate the Riverbank Theatre nonprofit, were also behind the Inn on Water Street condo-hotel redevelopment — another project with MEDC and brownfield help that Kathy said is “going strong” after five years.

But all of it, she said, they couldn’t do on their own, signaling the importance of development incentives.

“The condos all sold. We sold them for like 350-400,000. Two of them just flipped for over half a million dollars. People want to be here. This is a great community to be in, and they want to be here,” Kathy Vertin said. “So, these programs work. We would never have done that project or this project because we’re business people, and we would’ve been upside down in the projects if we had to clean up that (the former gas station site) site (where the inn is) and do a complete environmental on our own. We would’ve been broke before we started.

“These programs, while some are skeptical about them, people will not take on buildings like this that are just dilapidated and falling into the ground if there’s no return. They’re just not going to do it.”

Marine City Commissioners Lisa Hendrick, Rita Roehrig, and Brian Ross were present during last Monday’s manor unveiling, and Hendrick and Ross, who were on the commission when the project began, recalled the impact of incentives.

Hendrick said the MEDC’s involvement was nothing new for downtown, citing other apartment redevelopments when John Gabor was city manager.

Not all of them would’ve had brownfield help, Ross said, adding, “I think that’s part of the bad sentiment is it’s the same people getting stuff. … In my mind, the auto dealer, cleaning up all that earth is something I don’t think anybody would’ve taken on, on their own. Here, I think this building would’ve been torn down.”

What is it like inside the redevelopment?

One of the retail spaces on the ground level of Marine City Manor is slated for an occupant, while two others, 1,200 and 600 square feet in size, remain available.

The condos upstairs range from 800 to 1,400 square feet with one and two bedrooms. Of the six, four remain available for rent or purchase.

“We’ll see what works,” Tom Vertin said. “We’ve got two of them rented right now.”

During a tour, Vertin took a few inquiries about the units. Front apartments in site of the St. Clair River could range in rent from $1,500 to $1,800. The others in the back of the building would be several hundred dollars lower. Garage parking in back was also available for those residing there.

The overall aesthetic of the interior was clean, white, and neutral-colored, and one available condo featured a loft-style layout with a room, side bathroom and ground-level street view that was accessible from the second story via a spiral staircase.

“It could be a bedroom. I’d say it’s a man cave. Or an office. You can come in off the back, your garage, and come right in. It just gave us more square,” Vertin said jokingly. “We had two of them like that, that we could do that. Grandma could stay there. It’s a spare room.”

When asked, Vertin said that could sell for $450,000.

Those interested in any space could contact realtor J.AA Bachler, listed as a future commercial tenant at the manor, at (810) 765-8895.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Developers unveil completed Marine City Manor