Developer picked for Grand Haven ‘gateway’ Chinook Pier

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — The city of Grand Haven has settled on a developer to rebuild the Chinook Pier shopping area, with the plans incorporating features that community members said they wanted.

CopperRock Construction was selected by the Grand Haven City Council to give new life to a stretch of its iconic boardwalk along the Grand River, dormant since the previous Chinook Pier building was demolished in 2020 because of mold.

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with them and construct something special on this really unique site,” senior construction and development specialist Greg Taylor said.

Stretching along N. Harbor Drive/Jackson Street from the Pere Marquette steam engine to the splash pad, the redevelopment project will feature retail space for 12 small vendors, one larger destination retail location and a number of other community amenities like space for the beloved fish cleaning station and the Grand Haven and Spring Lake farmers markets .

“It is just great that we are able to move forward now and have the farmers market vendors’ opinions really taken into account,” farmers market supervisor Abigail Wittkopp said. “They clearly care about the community and what this redevelopment will mean, not just for the market, but for the entire redevelopment of Chinook.”

The significance of the site to the community is not lost on Grand Rapids-based CopperRock.

“This being a gateway site, it’s going to be one of the first things you see when you enter grand haven,” Taylor said. “So we want to have high-quality development there constructed with the best possible materials and practices that can stand the test of time.”

CopperRock’s selection brings an end to a meticulous proposal process led by city council that whittled a list of developers down to two candidates . The last hurdle was gathering community notes and incorporating them into their final proposals.

“We enjoy that type of structure. One of the things the city really wants is to bring year-round activity to that part of town,” Taylor said.

The amended design moved and incorporated the Chinook mini-golf course, added more active green space for community use like fire pits and picnic tables, and reoriented the buildings to preserve a view of the waterfront.

Pre-construction activities are expected to begin this month. If all goes according to plan, ground will be broken in June.

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