R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Shown is the building at 201 N. Lincoln Rd., formerly Hudson’s Classic Grill, where The Fire Station Cannabis Co. is working towards opening a marijuana retailer. The City of Escanaba Planning Commission recently approved TFS’s site plan to add a new ingress from 1st Avenue (seen near the right side of this image) with the condition that the Lincoln Road egress be one-way.

ESCANABA — Work may begin soon on the site that used to belong to Hudson’s Classic Grill, which ceased operations and sold their property in October 2022. Plans have been moving forward to open the 11th location of The Fire Station (TFS), a marijuana retailer.

The property is now owned by S&W Real Estate, a sister company to The Fire Station LLC (formerly The Flower Plant and The Fire Station Cannabis Co.). Both are based in Marquette.

The building that used to house Hudson’s at 201 N. Lincoln Rd. has hung in a purgatorial state since the property changed hands two-and-a-half years ago, with little visible development. However, after several hiccups along the way, a new site plan from TFS was conditionally approved by the City of Escanaba Planning Commission on May 8.

Back in November of 2022, during a public hearing about TFS’s special land use permit application for the property, pushback arose from the community and commercial neighbors. DP Management — which operates the Delta Plaza Mall — was concerned that they might lose the company Hobby Lobby as a tenant if a cannabis dispensary opened, said DP President Brian Reilly.

Hobby Lobby sent a letter to the city stating that their stores only “operate in first-class centers” and that the chain opposed marijuana, which they considered lower-class, in their neighborhood.

“When a landlord or city allows a second- or third-class operator into a center, the overall quality of tenants starts to decline as national operators move to stronger markets,” wrote Hobby Lobby VP of Real Estate Randy Childers.

At the time, no dispensaries yet existed in Escanaba besides the Lume on tribal land.

Delays surrounding work on the former Hudson’s at the corner of North Lincoln Road and 1st Avenue North were largely because of parking lot and access constraints. The only entry access point to Hudson’s was from the mall parking lot. The owner of Hudson’s had at one point possessed a license to access the restaurant lot by way of the mall lot, but it expired. The Fire Station had hoped to secure an easement from the Delta Plaza Mall, but the two were unable to reach an agreement.

Additionally, a concern held by the city was that traffic, particularly on Lincoln Road, might be negatively impacted.

A traffic impact study was conducted by a firm called Fishbeck in early 2023. They suggested two possible routes forward that they calculated would not cause problems on Lincoln Road. Their first suggestion was for a one-way, one-lane traffic pattern, with a new ingress point on 1st Avenue North. A second suggestion was for one access point from Lincoln Road to accommodate both incoming and outgoing traffic, but MDOT would not support such a plan, according to a May 2023 email from Daniel Kari, manager of the Crystal Falls Transportation Service Center.

In July of 2023, the Fire Station had gained approval from the City of Escanaba for its site plan and special land use permit. However, those expired due to inactivity.

“We experienced some unexpected delays and changes in our Menominee retail store building project that required our full attention, causing our Escanaba building project timeline to be extended,” wrote The Fire Station to the City of Escanaba in April 2025. “We have completed our building project in Menominee and have now shifted our efforts to completing renovations to this building.”

At its May 8, 2025 meeting, the City of Escanaba Planning Commission approved a new Special Land Use permit for the property and conditionally approved the new site plan, which contains a design like the one proposed in Fishbeck’s first scenario: the plan includes a new ingress (entry) to be constructed on 1st Avenue North; it would promote clockwise, one-way traffic, with the egress (exit) onto Lincoln Road. The Planning Commission approved the plan with the stipulation that a curb cut be made to the egress so that traffic departing the dispensary can only turn right.

The footprint of the building is to be like that of the old Hudson’s; an earlier site plan that had been approved would have required the building to be smaller.

Since traffic congestion had been a concern earlier, Fire Station Co-CEO Stosh Wasik addressed it during a hearing on May 8. He believes that traffic has decreased at marijuana establishments, especially as more have opened closer to the Wisconsin border.

Wasik and his brother-in-law, Logan Stauber, are jointly CEOs and owners of TFS. Wasik’s name is on most of the paperwork for TFS, while Stauber is listed as the resident agent for S & W Real Estate LLC with the State of Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

TFS has 10 other locations, all in the U.P.: Hannahville, Houghton, Iron River, Ironwood, Ishpeming, Marquette, Menominee, Munising, Negaunee and Sault Ste. Marie. The company has been praised by industry publications as a good employer, offering its workers flexibility and providing full benefits.

When asked about construction in Escanaba, Chief Marketing Officer Kelsey Potes for TFS declined to comment on the site plan.

“We appreciate the community’s continued interest in the property. While we don’t have any updates to share at this time regarding a renovation timeline, we are actively working through various steps and conducting our due diligence to determine the best path forward,” Potes wrote.

During previous appearances before the city, Wasik and Licensing & Compliance Associate Lauren Spoehr had expressed that TFS wished to be a good neighbor.