Lofts at Lumber Square

The Grain Train Exists To Be a Community Leader that Embodies Responsible Business Practices with a Focus on Long-term Success. A part of how we measure that success is our ability to contribute to the community. 

It is no secret that housing is a crisis in our community and beyond. In 2023, a Housing Needs Assessment conducted by Housing North concluded that Emmet County is in need of 865 rentals that cost their tenants less than $1,665 per month. 

One effort to address this need is The Lofts At Lumber Square project being constructed on Emmet Street in Petoskey. We saw this as a future for Petoskey that we wanted to contribute to, and so we did. Last week we were invited by the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation to a Progress Party to hear all about what is happening with this development. We thought you might like an update. 

As we were meeting at Elder Piper, the new brewery on Baxter St., some of the 2,000 custom-built walls for this project were being delivered and put up. D.J. Jones, Executive Director of the Community Foundation, walked us through some of the details for the project:

• Lofts at Lumber Square will have 60 apartments, housing roughly 165+ people. 
• The tagline for this project is "Because those who work here should be able to live here."
• The hope is that this housing will help those working in the area be able to stay, and those looking to join our community will have an opportunity to do so—including health care workers, teachers, retail and other service workers.

D.J. was quick to acknowledge that these apartments will fill immediately and are just one part in solving this crisis. He shared the astounding fact that 99.7% of rentals in the area are filled. For those saying it feels nearly impossible to find a rental, they are not imagining it.

This is an over 18-million-dollar project with multiple funding sources. The Foundation is doing a push for a final $1 million in donations to come in for the project. There has already been $2,700,000 in gifts and pledges. The Foundation says "For every philanthropic dollar donated to this project, more than three dollars from grants and low-interest loans are unlocked."

Though the exact date of The Lofts opening is a moving target, the community can expect to see these home available by winter of 2026. Rent is expected to be $1,150 to $1,500 per unit. 

Concern for Community is one of the seven Cooperative Principles the Grain Train operates under. We also have a Focused End of being a Model Workplace. For us, that means looking out for the community our customers and staff are a part of. We are excited to see this project getting closer to fruition and look forward to the good that it will do. We thought you might like to know the "why" behind this project, too. Until next time, see you at the stores.