Biehl to expand Harbor Town Marine with waterfront purchase

MARINETTE - Mike Biehl, owner of MJB Industries in Marinette, plans to welcome larger pleasure boats to Marinette when he completes a multimillion-dollar expansion of Harbor Town Marine at Menekaunee Harbor, he said.

Biehl received Marinette City Common Council’s approval last week to purchase a portion of the city’s waterfront park land at Menekaunee Harbor for $100,000, a commitment he wanted before purchasing Harbor Town Marine from Michael and Barbara Frenzel of Menominee, Mich. The parcel, described in an appraisal as 550 feet of waterfront, includes the area where Harbor Town Marine operates a boat launch through a lease agreement with the city.

After much discussion, the Common Council agreed to sell to Biehl the area it had leased to Harbor Town Marine for years. Biehl said he wanted to control the existing launch well and build a larger launch well near the existing one to accommodate larger boats. He also plans to install two more docks, with room for 30 boat slips, and “to run a proper marina,” Biehl said.

Biehl will control much more than the parcel the Common Council has agreed to sell to him for $100,000 if the purchase of Harbor Town Marine goes through as expected. He has a purchase agreement to buy adjacent Harbor Town Marine Inc. for $2.5 million, including the business and the real estate, he said. “It’s going to be a fantastic deal,” Biehl said. “People will have more recreational things to do.”

Eight council members attended the Special Meeting. Liz Mikutowski was absent, Council President Dorothy Kowalski said. The Council voted five to three in favor of the Menekaunee Harbor parcel sale to Biehl, with Tom Karban, Doug Oitzinger and Keller voting against the resolution, Kowalski said. Those voting in support of the transaction included Kowalski, Jeffrey Skorik, Mike Wolfe, Debbie Klegin and Rick Polzin.

At an earlier October Common Council meeting, City Clerk Lana Bero read 11 letters sent to the city about the waterfront property sale, and all were in favor of the sale, according to minutes from the meeting. The minutes also indicated 19 members of the public spoke about the property transaction, including 13 who spoke in support and six who opposed or expressed concerns about it.

Some of the opposition among council members stemmed from the fact the Council didn’t set out to sell the parcel. “It wasn’t something we planned to sell and put on the market,” said Kowalski, who voted in favor of the sale. Biehl approached the council with his proposal to buy the city-owned land containing the boat launch it had been leasing to Harbor Town.

“I like that it will be an improvement for the Menekaunee area and an improvement for the whole city,” Kowalski said. “It will be a marina now. We’ll be able to have people come here from Sturgeon Bay and Door County and get a little traffic by boat,” she said. With more permanent slips, a mechanic and boat storage, the harbor expansion will help the community, Kowalski said. She believes it will also create jobs and more business for local restaurants.

“I saw no downside to this project. None,” she said. “We were very supportive of selling. We didn’t have other bids. You don’t turn down development.”
Keller said he opposed the sale of the city-owned parcel to Biehl because he didn’t think the city should give up its rights to the waterfront property at the price discussed. The city could be on the hook for sidewalk repairs to Menekaunee Harbor after Biehl adds a second boat launch well and makes other changes, he said.

Keller also said he doubts Menekaunee will attract the kind of crowds Door County does during peak summer months. At time, cars carrying tourists are bumper to bumper on the narrow two-lane roads winding through the towns of Door County, and parking is an issue.

“For the new owner to do what he wants to do, he’ll be tearing the sidewalk out and will have to reconnect with the walkway,” Keller said. “I’m not sure how well clarified that is in the agreement,” he added. The walkway should be expanded to 10 feet to accommodate biking, he said. “It should be discussed further.” Biehl said he had agreed to give the city a 15-foot-wide easement for a walkway running straight through the property.

The recreational area at Menekaunee Harbor shouldn’t be all about the marina, according to Keller. “That’s the problem. It started out at 30 or 35, now it’s more like 50, and where are you going to limit this? Let’s say the harbor is five acres and you’re using up two. Now you’re taking it away from other recreation possibly,” he said.

Marinette Mayor Steve Genisot said the city will continue to own most of the green space at Menekaunee Harbor, on both sides of the parcel Biehl is purchasing. The city also owns the pavilion, Genisot said.

Keller said the Frenzels have owned the property adjacent to Menekaunee Harbor since 1993, and the city leased them the waterfront parcel where they operated the boat launch. Before then, the Harbor Town property was owned by M&M Boxing, which made containers, he said. Keller said he didn’t see a reason for the city to stop leasing the property. “In my opinion, the city would have been further ahead with a lease agreement. The portion we’re selling might seem insignificant, because it’s just a small sliver on the water’s edge, but that’s what makes it valuable – for that connection.”

Biehl also plans to expand the boat storage and the services Harbor Town Marine provides, Genisot said.

“There’s a major need for service and storage and things of the sort,” Biehl said. “There is a need and we’re going to try to fulfill 100 percent the need to the best of our abilities.”

With several retail properties and a parking lot near the harbor, Biehl has an interest in seeing the harbor area grow, but so does the city, he said. “I wanted to buy it for a dollar because I knew it was going to help the city bring in tourism and taxes. I was hoping the city would have an understanding because it was a good thing,” Biehl said.

Besides negotiating the price upward to $100,000, the Common Council asked Biehl to meet certain provisions and benchmarks, Genisot said. The public sidewalks must continue to provide public access, so the public will be able to walk through the area Biehl owns and so the view remains unobstructed.

Biehl’s first offer of $1 for the parcel was based on his belief that it has limited value to anyone else. This didn’t sit well with several Council members, who thought the market value an appraiser provided of $3,000 to $5,000 was already too low.

After several rounds of negotiations with the Common Council, Biehl upped the amount he was willing to pay to $100,000 for the parcel. He also provided a commitment to invest half a million dollars in the project over the next two years, Biehl said.

The money the city receives from the deal will remain within the Menekaunee Harbor area, Genisot said. “The city owns all the property around the harbor. We own both sides of the harbor and all the way to Red Arrow Park.”

Appraiser Tony Pardee said the appraisal considered the parcel’s limited size, restrictions imposed by the city’s setback regulations, the required sidewalk easement and its zoning as a recreational site.

“Who in the open market is going to look at a property like this? Only the adjacent property owner because they have a true vested interest,” said Pardee, owner and certified general appraiser at Pardee Appraisal Services LLC in Peshtigo. “It has a very, very limited market availability to the general public. That’s where we find parcels like this are gifted to adjacent property owners to stimulate business growth. It increases their business,” Pardee said.

The 15-foot easement the city asked for also hinders development, reducing the value of the property, according to Pardee. “You have this easement. You have this parcel with anyone being able to walk through,” he said. “You’re going to have a concrete sidewalk going through the whole thing, so it’s going to impact what you can do to site improvements here,” Pardee said.

Common Council members debated whether to sell the property at all. “There’s only so much water frontage. Once you sell it, it’s gone,” said Council Member Tom Karban, who opposed the sale of city property.

“The reason I didn’t want to see the sale go through is because it’s a park. Typically municipalities don’t sell parks, although it’s not in our ordinance,” Karban said. “The City of Menominee owns a harbor, and they lease it,” he said.
The Common Council didn’t review Biehl’s development plans for Harbor Town Marine, according to Karban. “Supposedly he’s going to invest $2 million. He didn’t want to do it if he had to lease. He convinced a lot of people on the council to get that done,” Karban said.

Biehl told a reporter he agreed to put at least $500,000 into taxable use within the next two years. “It’s going to be way, way more than that in the next two years,” he said. “If I was going to do everything in total that I would like to do in one year, it would be multi, multi millions,” he said.

“I really hope it works out,” Karban said, “I wasn’t against the development. I didn’t want to see it sold. I would have been more than happy to lease it to him. He could have still developed it.”

Council Member Doug Oitzinger also questioned the appraised value. In a note he emailed to council members prior to last week’s council meeting, he said, the appraisal “is basically unusable because the appraisal methodology employed is detached from the current and intended use.” Oitzinger said the appraisal didn’t address the existing improvements on the leased land.

Considering the parcel was generating $7,000 a year in lease revenue for the city and the lease was expected to run for another 19 years, for a potential $150,000 for the city, several council members thought the appraisal should have been higher.

“For a water frontage property appraisal to be $3,000 to $5,000 for 550 feet along the river, I did think that was very low,” Karban said. “We ended up selling it for $100,000, so I still think that (appraisal) was undervalued.”

Even with the boat launch in place, “The city couldn’t operate a marina there. Looking at the setback requirement and what boaters look for in a marina, if it wasn’t used in conjunction with the adjacent property, it would have no room for a boathouse or equipment parking,” Pardee said. Harbor Town Marine has boat storage adjacent to the parcel.

Asked if the city considered purchasing Harbor Town Marine, Genisot said, “The city wasn’t going to buy the marina.” The city will retain ownership of the pavilion at the harbor, Genisot said.