Freshwater Research & Innovation Center On Track for Spring 2027 Opening

Matt McDonough is thrilled to watch it all come together.  

The “it” in this instance is the Freshwater Research & Innovation Center, which over the past several months has steadily taken shape in Elmwood Township along M-22 across from Discovery Pier.

The $29 million, 38,000 square foot facility is on track to be ready for tenants by March of 2027, with a public ribbon cutting sometime in April. Crews broke ground in September of 2025 after years of planning and earlier work on Discovery Pier to set the stage for a comprehensive freshwater campus.

“Things are moving along, and I’m feeling pretty good,” McDonough, CEO of Discovery Pier, tells The Ticker. We’re really excited to have this vision come together.”

The new center is a joint venture of Discovery Pier and Northwestern Michigan College with support from Traverse Connect, Michigan Technological University and 20Fathoms. It’s intended to serve as the “epicenter of water innovation by connecting education, research, industry and community for sustainable growth in the blue tech sector.”

Construction has been uneventful so far, McDonough says. It started with a lot of work underground to provide adequate support over waterlogged and unstable soil, he says.

“Underneath this giant building are 191 concrete piles that go down into the good dirt to support it,” he says. “And they’re big – 50 feet long with rebar reinforcement – because the geotech assessment said we had a lot of compromised soils in the area.”

The finished facility will have a variety of spaces dedicated to research, development, and actual building and commercialization of various technologies to study, protect and work in freshwater ecosystems. Areas of focus include autonomous and remote systems, AI, acoustic and observation platforms, water quality technologies and sustainable marine mobility.

“There's a local company that’s working to infuse copper into netting, and rope and cabling, because it inhibits algae growth at a molecular level,” McDonough says, providing an example of one potential tenant. “There’s tremendous applications with aquaculture, the fishing industry and the shipping industry.”

High-end, fully loaded lab space is available for research and development, along with dedicated maker spaces for construction. There is also ample testing space, complete with water piped in from the bay under M-22 for use in various tests or procedures that require real lake water in a controlled environment.

“They’re the first labs that are being developed in our region specifically to help better understand and address the threats facing our region’s most prominent resource,” McDonough says.

The facility will also include classroom, office and public/exhibition space.

As of now, the facility is now about 50 percent full in terms of committed laboratory and other tenants, McDonough says. Some have had to back out due to recent federal funding challenges.

“We're shooting for 70 percent occupancy by this time next year,” he says. “It’s going to be dynamic space. Some will be long-term tenants; some will be shorter-term tenants or partners that will use the space or the facilities.”

Partner 20Fathoms is also working to recruit new startups to the space. 

In other related developments, Discovery Pier was awarded a $375,000 Michigan Maritime Innovation Grant to help establish new blue tech research, workforce training and technology commercialization capabilities at the Freshwater Research & Innovation Center. That grant funded a fully electric research vessel and a professional-grade remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

“The vessel will serve as an on-water research, training and technology-testing platform, giving students, researchers and companies direct access to Grand Traverse Bay and other Great Lakes environments” project spokeswoman Marivi Bryant says. “Together the vessel and ROV will give NMC Marine Technology students hands-on experience with electric propulsion, underwater inspection, ROV operations and other emerging maritime technologies.”

Those excited about the Freshwater Research & Innovation Center. should reach out to McDonough at Discovery Pier and sign up to be a docent.

“We've got a roughly 3,000 square foot public exhibit space, and we’ll have blue tech on display so that people can understand what it is, what it does, and why it's important. We’re hoping to have a nice reception area that we can staff with volunteer docents. So if there's folks in the community that want to be involved, that's a great way. And you don't have to be an expert in any of this. We'll train you.”

Photo: McDonough at the facility last week.