Businesses For Sale, Food Trucks In Solon Township, And Other Leelanau Business News

Fall tends to be a quieter time of year for Leelanau County business news, but that’s not the case this year. November has seen multiple businesses in the county hitting the market, alongside other notable tidbits and new developments. The Leelanau Ticker has the latest.

Now on the market…

Want to own a motel? How about one of Leelanau’s longest-running convenience stores? Both options are on the table thanks to recent listings in the local real estate market.

The Foothills Motel & Café, located between Maple City and Glen Arbor, is on the market for an asking price of $1.5 million. The listing includes the business and its 5.9 acres of land and 4,957 square feet of building space, which consists of the the 720-square-foot café and the eight-room boutique motel.

The motel dates back to the 1950s, when original owner Roland Foote built a cabin on the shores of Glen Lake from a do-it-yourself cabin kit he’d bought through the Montgomery Ward catalog. Foote started renting out the cabin, and soon, he’d made enough money from the venture to buy more land and more cabin kits, which he built out into an eight-unit roadside motel. You can read more about the history of the motel and café in this Leelanau Ticker article from 2022.

Also newly for sale is Barrels & Barrels, the long-running liquor and convenience store on M-22 near Suttons Bay. The $999,000 listing includes the business and the real estate – a 3,187-square-foot building on 1.65 acres – as well as all furniture, fixtures, and equipment and the store’s existing liquor and lottery licenses. Through their real estate agent Kevin Query of Manitou Commercial Real Estate, the business owners declined to comment on their decision to sell.

Finally, Alan and Debra Campbell, the former owners of the Leelanau Enterprise, announced earlier this month that they plan on “selling the buildings that continue to house the county’s weekly newspaper.” According to a press release from Schaub Team Realty, which is representing the listing, the Campbells bought the Enterprise in 1997, then moved the paper three years later to newly-built offices at 7200 E Duck Lake Road in Lake Leelanau. The Enterprise has continued to operate at that property ever since, even after the Campbells sold the paper in 2018.

The listing includes a pair of commercial buildings totaling 7,396 square feet, as well as two acres of land. It does not include the business, and the listing notes that the primary 4,840-square-foot building “is currently leased to the Leelanau Enterprise through October 2028.” The second building “offers flexible potential and is primarily used for storage, with approximately half utilized by the tenant with current lease.” The asking price is $1,185,000.

Solon Township considers food truck ordinance

Food trucks could be on the way to Solon Township. Early next month, the township’s planning commission will hold a public hearing for a new ordinance, which would “establish rules, regulations, and penalties for the permitted activity and use of temporary mobile food truck servicing units.” As written, the ordinance would focus on the “temporary” side of that equation, rather than allowing “any of these types of mobile apparatuses to become a permanent establishment or to be permanently placed or located within the township.”

Specific rules would vary depending on zoning districts. In business districts, for instance, business owners would be able to obtain food truck permits “for no more than four consecutive days in a calendar week.” In residential and agricultural districts, meanwhile, food trucks would only be permitted “in conjunction with a private event such as a wedding, graduation, family reunion, a non-profit fundraiser or other similar event,” and could “not be open to the general public at any time.”

The full Solon Township draft food truck ordinance can be reviewed here. The planning commission’s public hearing on the matter is scheduled for 6pm on Tuesday, December 9 at Solon Township Hall.

In other Leelanau business news…

>Black Star Farms was recognized earlier this month as the 2025 Business of the Year by the Leelanau Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. According to a press release announcing the news, the Leelanau Chamber “selects a business based on a variety of considerations, including community contributions, ongoing growth and innovation, opportunities for professional development, and recognized excellence in guest services.” Previous winners include ShareCare of Leelanau (2024), Crystal River Outfitters Recreational District (2023), and Hansen Foods of Suttons Bay (2022).

>Currysome, the Indian food takeout brand from Lake Leelanau’s NJ’s Grocery, is officially back in stock at local stores. NJ’s Grocery has been closed since a fire damaged the store on June 10, but the market announced later that month that Indian Spice in Cadillac – a restaurant that spun out of the NJ’s Grocery kitchen – would start offering takeout delivery to NJ’s. Then, in July, NJ’s announced that multiple other grocery stores in Leelanau County would be carrying Currysome and its “fully cooked, refrigerated Indian meals.” NJ’s paused the service after Labor Day, but announced on November 12 that it was coming back, “starting with Hansen Foods in Suttons Bay, followed by Leland Mercantile.”

NJ’s Grocery also recently posted on Facebook that it has “already passed initial inspections” and is “now only waiting on health department and liquor department” approval to reopen the store.

>The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) announced its latest round of Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program earlier this month. Leelanau’s Lakeview Hill Organic Farm netted $100,000 “for processing local farmers’ produce into value added products.” Lakeview Hill also got a $50,000 grant from MDARD this summer to grow its farm market operation.

>It’s officially igloo season at Hop Lot in Suttons Bay. As of last Friday, the popular restaurant and beer garden is taking reservations for its outdoor wintertime dining stations. Per Hop Lot, igloos must be reserved in advance and each reservation is a 90-minute slot.

>Hallstedt Homestead Cherries, as part of the expansion of its Red Truck Orchards cherry vinegar brand, announced earlier this month that the vinegar will now be carried at all Tom’s Food Markets.

>The Folded Leaf in Cedar, which has been raising money and collecting donated goods to address food insecurity in Leelanau County, announced last week that it had “spent $10,000 on food and essential grocery items for 67 local families in need” in a single day, “along with a $4,000 food bill for food ingredients to cook each family a Thanksgiving meal.” The store has so far raised almost $11,000 through a GoFundMe campaign, which owner Rachel Zemanek started in response to this fall’s federal government shutdown and an ensuing pause in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits.