In bustling Marquette, tensions grow amid $1M condos, influx of new residents

• Marquette is booming but experiencing growing pains as people from around the nation discover it
• Housing costs are growing fast in the Upper Peninsula’s largest city, prompting worries about affordability
• Residents are trying to balance the success of the city with keeping its outdoor, rural culture.

MARQUETTE —  For decades, coal and petroleum tanks hugged the Lake Superior shoreline just outside downtown. Today, they’re long gone, replaced by condominiums, a few of which cost $1 million.

In the past few years, residents of Chicago, Arizona and Texas have moved to this mining city of 21,000 residents, bringing higher incomes, expensive tastes and helping to explode the cost of homes.

One of the city’s best-known attractions, the famous Black Rocks, is so popular — and crowded — that tourism officials stopped promoting the cliff jumps out of safety fears.

“I've heard it said that we're the Traverse City of the north,” Bryan LaChapell, owner of Touch of Finland store near Marquette, told Bridge Michigan. 

It’s not a compliment. 

“That makes us local people cringe,” he added.

Those who haven’t been to the Upper Peninsula’s largest city in a few years could be in for a shock if they come today. Full of coffee shops, breweries and bike shops, the city has become a haven for upwardly mobile outdoor enthusiasts.

In many ways, that makes it a success story in a state whose population crisis is so dire that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer formed a task force to recommend ways to retain residents and attract new ones. But others fear Marquette is a cautionary tale as well, especially for rural lakeshore communities facing exploding property values and developments that threaten their small-town charm.

“More people are moving to rural areas, particularly rural areas with a lot of outdoor recreation,” said Sarah Lucas, director of Michigan’s Office for Rural Prosperity who had served as CEO of the economic development group Lake Superior Community Partnership.

“People start to become concerned that with more growth and more development, if it’s not managed properly, they might lose those things that they cherish,” she added.

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Housing values have jumped 43% since the start of the pandemic, with two-bedroom homes in the city selling for upwards of $400,000, nearly eight times the median household income.

“That was the biggest (increase) we've seen, maybe since the mining booms here in the 1960s and 70s,” said Fran Sevegney, broker at RE/MAX 1st Realty in Marquette.

More change is coming fast.

Developers are demolishing the city’s old hospital and plan to build more homes. Northern Michigan University plans to build an Arts & Athletics District in the heart of campus, expanding existing buildings, according to the latest strategic plan. 

Consultants that worked on a new master plan for the city anticipate more shoreline construction of condos. Marquette County officials are so concerned about rising prices pushing out longtime residents that they commissioned a housing study. Released this year, the study found the city could support 830 new homes for sale and rent each year through 2030.

“Marquette is booming,” said Jesse Renfors, an owner at Provisions MQT coffee shop in a newer building on the shore who said he’s proud of his hometown’s success. “We definitely feel it.”

Acknowledging concerns, he said he hopes the city’s relatively remote location — 300 miles from Milwaukee and 455 from Detroit — “keeps the bumpers in place to make sure that we don’t go too far.”

‘Everything we want’

How much has Marquette changed? Newcomers are rooting for the Detroit Lions. Closer to Wisconsin than the Mackinac Bridge, the city for generations has been considered Green Bay Packers country.

“A couple of years ago, people started complaining because the Lions games are not televised up here,” Rick Vickstrom told Bridge Michigan while sitting on a park bench on the Lake Superior shore. 

“I’ll bet you in 10 years, there'll be more Lions fans,” he added.

He is something of a newcomer himself. Vickstrom grew up in Ishpeming and met Anita, his wife, in graduate school in Montana. After 30 years of living near Chicago, the pair wanted to retire to a home in the mountains.

Colorado was the first pick, but too expensive. Just before the pandemic, the active couple chose Marquette.

“Other than the hills being a little bit smaller here, this offers pretty much everything we want,” Vickstrom said.

He and other residents say the recreation is unparalleled, and the chance to bike, hike, snowshoe, ski and more just minutes from home drew them to the city. 

“There’s definitely a momentum here,” Marty Fittante, CEO of InvestUP economic development group said, noting that Marquette is increasingly known outside of the region.

While residents and real estate agents say the city is rapidly growing, the US Census Bureau estimates less dramatic changes: A population increase of about 2.3% to about 21,079 since 2020. 

In contrast, Michigan’s population has declined 0.4% over that time.

Marquette “is a melting pot” thanks to people coming from bigger cities for NMU, high-tech jobs, and retirement. said Christopher Germain, an NMU grad who fulfilled a long goal in 2022 when he moved back to Marquette to lead the Lake Superior Community Partnership economic development office. 

Unlike Michigan, which is losing residents to other states, Marquette is a migration destination, according to Census and IRS data: Since 2022, dozens have come from Phoenix and greater Chicago, along with metro Detroit and Grand Rapids.

The out-of-state newcomers are 40% wealthier than their Michigan counterparts, data shows, contributing to a city that is already younger and more educated than the state as a whole. Nearly half of residents, 46%, have a bachelor degree, compared to 31% statewide. And the percentage of residents 25 to 34 has grown to 15% from 11% in one decade.

Those changes have prompted a slogan on social media and bumper stickers in town: “Don’t Traverse City My Marquette.”

The phrase evokes the down-side of growth: escalating home costs, near constant construction, traffic snarls, headaches from short-term rental condos, development of lakefront property and a general feeling that small town charm is eroding.

“We're never going to have those same mistakes,” vowed Germain. “We’re not going to privatize our waterfront.”

But some critics fear that Marquette is near a tipping point.

City and regional economic groups are considering possible next steps to manage more people: Suggestions include bus service to the beaches to manage crowds; limiting zoning for hotels; maybe even starting a city income tax.  The city already has limited short-term rentals to 250, building a wait-list that keeps growing. 

A master plan survey found 80% of residents view protecting Lake Superior public access and views as their top priority, as controversy has followed recent developments of higher-end condos, apartments and a hotel near the water.

“The lake is one of the big things here, and we love the views,” said resident Jayden Harvey, 20. Lakeside development “does kind of take away from it all.”

‘This is a crisis in the UP’

Marquette’s newest condos under construction are just a short bicycle ride away from the famed Black Rocks at Presque Isle Park.

Even with the average price around $750,000 — and pre-construction pricing for some models topping $800,000 — sales at Residences at North Harbor are ahead of schedule, said Sevegney, the real estate agent.

When contractors in mid-September were finishing the concrete slab for the first set of 98 units, four were already under contract. 

He said it’s “realistic that we'll have them sold as they're being built.”

Marquette’s housing shortage is due in part to the rising costs of existing homes, but also pricey new construction. 

Two-bedroom apartments in newer buildings cost $2,400 per month. Many of the 26-unit Gaines Rock Townhomes south of town sold for over $500,000. A bit north, some recent condos deals topped $1 million. 

Fittante of InvestUP said about 200 homes in Marquette County have a market value of at least $1 million, based on recent tax data. 

That doesn’t surprise Joseph Baker, an owner at Iron Golem Games shop on the edge of downtown. He’s commuting from more-affordable Ishpeming. Local jobs aren’t likely supporting homes in typical workers’ price ranges, he said. 

“I see a lot of people who are moving or moving up here because of a remote job or retirement,” he said, “not to work here.”

Still, significant new construction could be tough. Building sites are ready at Hemlock Park, a 26-home neighborhood taking shape in trees on the southern edge of Marquette. Eventually, 80 apartments will be built, too. 

Developer Robert Mahaney of Veridea Group said the homes are envisioned as a move-up home, maybe a family’s second, which “is missing in Marquette.”

They’ll cost just over $500,000. Buyers’ current homes, in turn, will feed the starter home market. 

But that’s only if a buyer can actually find a builder who isn’t booked through next year, Mahaney added. And that’s after dealing with rising material costs. Construction costs per square foot are about $400, twice the state’s average and rivaling cities like Grand Rapids. 

“I’m going to wake up one of these days and say, ‘I’ve had enough,’” Mahaney said, describing the frustration of trying to fill the voids in Marquette’s housing market. 

“This is a crisis in the UP,” he said. “Our lack of housing is affecting our economy. It’s affecting companies’ ability to grow.”

Today’s decisions over Marquette’s future is not a battle for the city’s soul, Jamie Houghton, CFO of Upper Peninsula Health Plan in Marquette, told Bridge. 

The fight is to keep its character and job stability, even as already bountiful recreation expands, housing is built and hotels increase capacity. 

“They truly believe we can bring more people to see this gem,” said Houghton of the city.  “But that we can do it in a way that shows people what we're all about and allows people to enjoy that without losing it.”

Newcomers, Germain said, should be trusted in addition to welcomed.

“People move up here because they want to,” Germain said. “They're not moving up here to change it.”