ESCANABA — While it may seem quiet on Escanaba’s shore, developers are still working to bring a bustling four-story hotel and condominiums to the area of the old Delta County Jail and Chamber of Commerce building.

According to Jared Drown, of the Terrace Bay Hotel — which is working to build a four-story, 80-room hotel on the site of the former jail — much of the delay in demolishing the jail and breaking ground on the hotel is related to a utility issue for the neighboring Delta County Courthouse. While the jail itself is not operational, a boiler system, chiller system and generators are still operating in the building and providing heat, air conditioning and additional power to the courthouse.

“The county is working this summer on doing a utility addition on the courthouse, and so we’re hoping that’ll be done by the fall, and best case scenario if they’re kind of done early, we’d be able to tear the jail down this fall or in the spring,” said Drown.

Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young could not be reached for comment on the status of the utility project. However, a service agreement between the county and HVAC Company Trane Technologies was tabled at the June 6 county board of commissioners meeting as the county required additional information. The issue did not appear on the June 20 board agenda.

“If we weren’t able to start tearing down until the spring, worst case scenario, we wouldn’t be able to start building until the spring of 2025. It seems kind of like the … fall of 2024 scenario is most likely, as long as the county kind of is able to relocate those utilities,” said Drown.

In addition to the heating and cooling units and generators being located in the jail itself, the connections to the courthouse run underground in an area that is within the footprint of the planned hotel.

While the utility issue is a unique problem for a developer to have, it’s something the Terrace Bay Hotel has known about since shortly after bidding on the project to redevelop the jail site.

“That was kind of the agreement that we had with (the county). We bought the building from them, but of course, they obviously asked we wait to do anything until they get the utilities out of that building and into the new one,” said Drown.

While waiting for the county, the Terrace Bay Hotel has been checking other boxes on its list of development tasks, including working to meet the environmental requirements of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, commonly known as “EGLE.”

“That other part of it is kind of the regulatory process because it’s a brownfield site. I mean we’ve probably had 10 meetings with EGLE already,” said Drown.

Beyond making sure the lake is protected as development looks forward, the Terrace Bay Hotel is working with EGLE to get asbestos and lead remediation plans in place, to develop a plan for the removal of contaminated soil, and to plan for a vapor barrier — if one is needed — to keep vapors from the soil from entering the soon-to-be constructed building.

With the current timeline for the project, the Hampton by Hilton hotel is expected to be open in 2025, a year after ground is broken for construction.

“We really hope that we can get that, you know, especially with the Billerud project likely to start happening in 2025. That would be ideal,” said Drown.

Matt Sviland, of Swanne, Inc., the developer for condominiums planned at the neighboring site of the former Delta County Chamber of Commerce building, has a similar timeline for the housing project.

“We’re hoping to break ground next spring,” said Sviland.

The housing project includes two condominium buildings and a mixed-use building. Sviland expects the first condominium building to be completed in the summer of 2025, and ground to be broken on the second building in 2025. The second building is set to be completed in the summer of 2026.