Adelaide Pointe: a new development model

by Greg Weykamp
For most developers in the United States, the path to success when building on the waterfront has been focused on securing a prime parcel and immediately setting about creating an exclusive, fenced off private enclave behind gates and guardhouses.

Value creation was based on limiting access and manufactured scarcity, with little thought or only lip service to environmental protection and long term sustainability. For Ryan and Emily Leestma, the visionary owners behind Adelaide Pointe, an entirely new approach that flipped the traditional development model on its head was the only path they ever considered.
The City of Muskegon was once a very wealthy community of lumber barons providing much of the timber used to rebuild Chicago after the great fire. Located along the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan, Muskegon Lake is a large inland water body that is still home to commercial shipping, along with interstate ferry services and world class recreational boating. After the lumber mills came paper mills and steel foundries, and a local economy based largely on industry while the rest of the West Michigan shoreline communities shifted to tourism and recreation.
Sustainable community
The Adelaide Pointe project is located on a 29.7 acre (12ha) site that was formerly home to a steel foundry, munitions plant and warehousing facilities. Over many decades, the steel foundry dumped hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of used foundry sand into the lake, creating a peninsula that will soon become home to over 400 units of mixed-use residential, hotel and retail uses, alongside a new 270-berth marina protected by a 980ft (300m) breakwater.
While permitting a project of this scale would have been relatively easy decades ago, today there is a much greater focus on protecting public trust waters that requires much greater care and creativity in order to complete the entitlement process. With a passion for the environment and a deep love of Muskegon Lake, the Leestmas decided to build the most sustainable waterfront community they could imagine, and share it with as many people as possible.
Open waterfront
Rather than putting up gates, they began the project by taking down fences and inviting the nearby Nims neighbourhood residents to enjoy the waterfront. In partnership with the City of Muskegon, this new waterfront community will make every inch of the waterfront open to the public forever under permanent dedicated public use easements, resulting in 1 mile (1.6km) of new public trails and over 2.5 acres (1ha) of new public waterfront park space.
The breakwater includes an access trail and fishing overlooks to support deep water fishing for the public, and a peninsula of City land with a derelict marina facility that has been behind fences for decades will soon be cleaned up and opened to the public at the developer’s expense. In addition to public trails and open space, Adelaide Pointe aims to make boating on Muskegon Lake accessible for everyone in the community regardless of income by offering affordable paddle craft rentals, boat rentals, boat clubs and dry rack storage on site.
Soft shorelines
While traditional shoreline treatments for lake environments with 3.4ft (1m) wave heights rely heavily on armouring, the Adelaide Pointe project has committed to utilising soft shorelines wherever possible. As a result, over 82% of the shoreline will be a native wetland restoration very carefully designed by fisheries and wetlands biologists. Creation of the marina basin will require dredging of over 2,300,000 ft³ (65,000m³) of foundry sands and 353,000ft³ (10,000m³) of contaminated organic sediments.
While dredging at this scale would usually be a significant environmental impact, in this case the removal of the foundry spoils will expose the original lakebed, which has been proven to greatly improve aquatic habitat. The dredged sand materials will be used to raise the site to final grades, and organic materials amended where possible and reused in the parks and landscape areas. Where stone armouring is absolutely necessary, as in the breakwater, the traditional quarried limestone armour stone will be covered with a layer of native Michigan fieldstone below the water in order to provide much better habitat value for invertebrates and native plant and fish species. When complete, the interior shore of the Adelaide Pointe marina basin will be a fully restored native wetland protected by a conservation easement forever.
Natural materials
Moving inland, the development proposes a series of six storey, high density multi-family and mixed use structures organised in a walkable neighbourhood connected to the nearby downtown and Lake Michigan beaches by a regional trail network. Surface parking is intentionally limited, with the majority of parking below structure, creating a waterfront district where residents and visitors leave their cars behind as soon as possible.
All of the buildings will be constructed using mass timber, a method that relies entirely on laminated wood structural panels, posts and beams for all components. This makes every structure far less carbon intensive, with significantly reduced steel and concrete than typical buildings. The lighter weight of the buildings requires much lighter foundations, resulting in significant savings, faster construction, and a more sustainable structure that harks back to the historic lumber mill uses on the site. Continuing the use of native plant materials throughout, each building will incorporate intensive green roof systems focused on habitat creation for pollinators and migratory bird species.
Green energy
As the Leestmas also own a commercial solar business, Adelaide Pointe will incorporate extensive use of solar energy generation throughout the project. All new and existing structures will incorporate rooftop solar, and the 10ft (3m) wide waterfront trail system will have solar panels in the pavement. The marina will be constructed using a locally manufactured floating timber dock system with solar panels mounted to the walking surface of the main piers, offsetting a significant percentage of the marina’s electrical use.
As early adopters of electric vehicles, it made sense to the developers to install over 20 Level 2 Destination EV chargers, a Level 3 DC fast charger, and EV charging capacity at each residential parking space in the development. Looking towards the future of electric boating, the marina will offer high speed chargers for electric boats on the water today, and design the marina electrical system to allow for in-slip charging in the future.
Widespread support
As you might imagine, this very unconventional approach to sustainable and accessible waterfront development has garnered broad community support, including unanimous city planning approvals and the support of local environmental organisations such as the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership. Customers have also responded positively, with the first 50-unit residential building securing enough buyers to commence construction in only a few months, the first commercial/retail structure fully leased, and roughly 20% of the marina berths leased even before construction has begun. The idea of living and working in an environmentally sound yet vibrantly active and connected waterfront is clearly attractive to many buyers.
Another major benefit resulting from the focus on community access, public waterfronts and environmental stewardship is significant funding support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of Michigan and local brownfield remediation TIF funds. By working together with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the City of Muskegon, Adelaide Pointe is a model public private partnership and a great example of commercial success based on doing the right thing for the environment and the community.
Gregory Weykamp is president of Edgewater Resources, LLC, specialists in delivering real-world solutions for complex coastal and waterfront projects. Edgewater acted as consultant for the Adelaide Pointe project.
www.edgewaterresources.com