Officials celebrate start of Cherry Street overhaul

MOUNT CLEMENS — City, county, state and federal officials gathered at the Macomb Place fountain stage on May 10 to kick off the long-awaited renovation of Mount Clemens’ commercial core.

“I’ve worked here for going on 30 years now, and I’ve walked these streets, and I’ve watched them slowly become in disrepair and wanted so, so badly to revitalize this downtown,” City Manager Gregg Shipman said to begin the May 10 festivities. “I never thought I would live to see it because, quite honestly, we shouldn’t be doing this because the money just wasn’t there.”

Approved earlier that week by the Mount Clemens City Commission at a cost of $5.5 million, the Downtown Revitalization Project will see Macomb Place and the Cherry Street Mall become further pedestrianized with curbs being removed, traffic calming obstacles placed down and retractable bollards installed where Macomb Place intersects with Walnut and Pine streets.

“You look behind you and you see these 8-inch, 10-inch curbs; we’re raising that all up,” said Kyle Seidel, lead project engineer from the engineering firm Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick. “It’s going to be a plaza down here. It’s going to be super pedestrian-friendly and we’re super-duper excited.”

Shipman began the celebration by remarking about the city’s lack of funds for a full-scale overhaul of the downtown and declaring Mayor Laura Kropp the person most responsible for making the project a reality. As Shipman told the gathered crowd, Kropp aimed to find a way to improve the prospects of city businesses and renovate the downtown area amidst the economic environment of the then-raging COVID-19 pandemic.

“We all said she’s crazy; we said this woman has got to be crazy to think that during all this, this can happen,” Shipman said. “But she believed in it, and she got the DDA to believe in it, and in November of 2021 they commissioned a rendering of what this could look like. And then they got the City Commission to believe in it, and then we got the MEDC to believe in it. And pretty soon we were coming close to $300 million and this dream started to become more of a reality.”

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation provided a $813,000 grant, the city’s Downtown Development Authority provided $200,000 and $1.5 million came from the city itself, including $334,000 from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation. U.S. Representative John James, R-Shelby Township, was able to bring $3.5 million in federal funding to the project, making the total amount of project funding $6.05 million.

“The $3.5 million belongs to the people of Mount Clemens, and money is best spent closest to the people who have made it,” James said. “I strongly believe good things happen in the middle, and this is how this happened: a bunch of people putting partisanship aside and putting pragmatism forward to take care of people in our communities and to give them their money back.”

Kropp’s telling of the project’s founding differed slightly from Shipman’s. The project was initially trying to find a solution to flooding at the Cherry Street Mall, but even those far from the business of government and commerce could tell the area needed more than drainage improvements.

“I have a vivid memory of walking down Macomb Place, holding the hands of both of my boys because they were little enough to hold my hands still, on a sunny afternoon,” Kropp said. “I remember Miles, my youngest, looking up at me and saying ‘Mama, they need to fix this.’ And I said, ‘Miles, you’re not wrong.’ We really need to fix this, and the time is now.”

Seidel told people the project will be completed within the year, a timeline that Kropp echoed with a plea to residents to pardon the coming dust and continue supporting local businesses.

“During this project we will be closing Macomb Place, making it inconvenient to get to the businesses of this area,” Kropp said. “Please help me in making sure all of these businesses are here for our ribbon cutting ceremony by eating out at the restaurants and shopping at all of our stores located in this area. I know I can count on our community to support these businesses during this construction.”

Support for local businesses was high among speakers. State Rep. Denise Mentzer, D-Mount Clemens, a former city commissioner, gave shout-outs to Ardis Music, Deep Cuts Barbershop, Weirdsville Records, Paperback Writers Bookstore and other businesses of the Macomb Place-Cherry Street area.

“These are the people that make the city of Mount Clemens great,” Mentzer said. “It’s not me, it’s not John James; it’s these guys who believe in the city who are here for it always … This is what makes the difference in Mount Clemens. It is the people who live and work here and have stuck this out through good times and bad.”

Excitement, bordering on shock, for the project was common among local speakers. Multiple people said they did not expect the project to happen in their lifetimes.

“I’m going to get emotional because I’ve been in this job for 24 years, dreaming and believing and wanting so much more for our downtown, and finally we got a team together that had a dream, too,” Mount Clemens DDA Coordinator Michelle Weiss said. “Dreams do come true, and teamwork makes that happen. It’s not one or two people.”

The Downtown Revitalization Project is only one of the major undertakings Mount Clemens residents can expect to plan around this year. A project to replace parts of the city’s underground water infrastructure is underway ahead of its planned entrance into the Great Lakes Water Authority while demolition of the old Manchester Mount Clemens Motel is expected this fall.