Local Marine Services Company Eyes Viridian Property For New '50-Plus' Slip Marina

A new marina project could be in the cards for Leelanau County.

Earlier this month, Walstrom Marine, a long-running northern Michigan marine services enterprise, announced it had acquired the Virdian commercial office building at 13561 South West Bay Shore Drive (M-22) in Elmwood Township. Walstrom is “evaluating” the property for a variety of development options that “range from a full-scale marina with facilities to a mixed-use development with condominiums and a private marina.”

Tom Ervin, president of Walstrom Marine, tells The Ticker the company’s big goal is to address the shortage of available boat slips in the region. “Just about every marina in northern Michigan is full or very close to it, and most have a lengthy waitlist,” he notes.

Ervin isn’t exaggerating. Earlier this year, Edie Aylsworth, harbormaster for the Suttons Bay Marina, told Ticker sister publication the Traverse City Business News the marina had a 150-person waitlist for its 134 seasonal slips. Not to be outdone, the Duncan L. Clinch Marina in Traverse City had 416 people on the waitlist for its 71 seasonal slips as of this past winter, while Elk Rapids had 800 boaters waiting for an opening of one of its 160 seasonal slips. Per Harbormaster Mike Singleton, the person at the top of the Elk Rapids waitlist first put their name down in 2014.

All that scarcity is driving Walstrom Marine’s vision for a new marina in Elmwood Township. Based in Harbor Springs, Walstrom has been in business since 1946 and has played a role in building out the region’s marina network over the past 80 years.

“We built the marina in Harbor Springs, as well as a smaller marina in Cheboygan, and we still own and operate both,” Ervin says. “And then, in the last two years, we've acquired a 350-slip marina in Algonac, Michigan, called Algonac Harbor Club. So, we have a lot of experience in this space.” Walstrom also has multiple sales offices, yacht showrooms, service centers, and boat storage facilities across northern Michigan, including in Traverse City, Charlevoix, and Bay Harbor.

What Walstrom Marine does not have, at this juncture, is a Traverse City marina. The Viridian property, with its 634 feet of frontage along West Grand Traverse Bay, could be the place to build one – though Ervin stresses that Walstrom has “no finalized plans” just yet.

“We have some concepts that we're exploring, and we're trying to work with the community to make sure what we do is right,” Ervin says. “As a boat company, access to water is critical to our business, and Traverse City has exceptional demand for boat slips, with very little opportunity in that market to actually develop anything new. So, when this opportunity presented itself, we were immediately interested.”

Ervin says that “something with 50 to 50-plus slips would be the goal,” adding that everything will depend on permitting with local and state authorities. “We haven't started any of that permitting process yet, so I don't want to get too specific,” he says.

Beyond its West Bay frontage, the big asset is the 23,792-square-foot Viridian office building. Per a press release, the Viridian “remains open and will continue to operate as a commercial office building” for the foreseeable future. Long term, Ervin sees potential for a mixed-use development on the property, likely featuring condos and business spaces, but he’s unsure whether the existing building will be part of those plans.

“We are looking at all the options,” he says. “Can we repurpose that building? Or does it make more sense to bring it down? It’s a little bit of an older building, so it will be a difficult retrofit, probably. But we're working with some developers locally to take a look at those things, along with some architects.”

Ervin hopes to nail down the unknowns “by the end of this year or first quarter of 2026,” at which point Walstrom would be “prepared to present to the community and to the authorities for comment and approval.” Once a firm plan is in place, he estimates “a three-to-five-year buildout” for the project – a lengthy gestation he chalks up to the “complexity” of developing a marina.

“Anything you do in or near the water today is complex,” Ervin says. “We've enlisted the help of an expert company that has done a lot of waterfront development, particularly in the marina space. They have a lot of a lot of experience here in the state of Michigan, working with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. So, we’ll really be leaning on their expertise. And then this property, while beautiful, does have some other constraints around parking, setbacks, right-of-ways on M-22, and curb cuts. So, we have several other experts and consultants that we’ve retained who are helping us dig in on all of those things.”