Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette — Three companies will present their ideas for developments on the parcels now occupied by Houghton’s large parking deck on Lakeshore Drive during the City Council meeting on Aug. 14.

HOUGHTON — What will replace Houghton’s big parking deck?

Three developers will present their visions to the Houghton City Council at its Aug. 14 meeting. The proposals are available online at cityofhoughton.com.

The project is connected to the city’s plan to create a new town square-style pier between the Portage Lake District Library and the Lakeshore Center, as well as a split-level parking structure. The proposals cover development on two parcels on Lakeshore Drive between Quincy Street and Huron Street, most of which is taken up by the large parking deck.

“Given the opportunity here and the scope and breadth of what some of these are looking at, this is important for the future of the city,” said City Manager Eric Waara. “This is going to help set our course for the next many decades.”

Houghton set four standard criteria developers had to meet. The development has to be an appropriate fit for Houghton, maintain access to existing businesses on Shelden Avenue and Lakeshore Drive, match or increase parking in the area and fill a need in the community.

Three developers submitted proposals: Julien Properties, Moyle Real Estate and the Veridea Group of Marquette. A city committee reviewed the proposals to make sure they fit the bill.

“Any of these would represent a monumental step forward for downtown,” Waara said.

Julien Properties’ proposal includes a 12,000-square-foot commercial space for a potential grocery store; 10,000 feet of office space, a 120-room hotel, waterfront residences and almost 470 parking spaces. A coffee shop with an adjacent public pocket park would overlook the waterfront.

Proposed investment in the project is about $37 million. Construction would be broken into phases. The hotel, mixed-use, parking and first residence building would be finished in late 2022. The second residence building would be complete in 2023.

Moyle Real Estate’s proposal includes a mixed-use hotel building with a restaurant and cafe on the ground floor. The second and third floors would have 70 guest rooms between them, as well as convention and conference space. It would have 385 public parking spaces, as now, with an additional 120 spaces for hotel use.

Moyle estimated development costs at around $21.2 million. The hotel would be projected to open in the summer of 2021.

Among the features in Veridea’s proposal are a six- to seven-story urban hotel with between 80 to 110 rooms, a restaurant on the ground floor and three to four stories of residential space with 72 to 96 units. A pedestrian connection across Lakeshore Drive on Dodge Street leads to a landscaped outdoor plaza above the parking. Vehicles would be able to cross Lakeshore Drive at Pewabic Street to the parking podium.

Its three-story parking structure would have 275 to 325 public spaces, 125 to 175 hotel spaces and 60 public spaces for parallel parking on each side of the street.

Total investment would be about $50 million. Hotel and parking construction would finish in December 2021. Residential would be finished in May 2022.

The City Council will make the final decision. Waara said the presentations will allow them to learn more about the project than they could get from only reading the proposals.

After the presentations, the council can ask questions.

“The council can either decide right then and there that night, given that you’ve been able to read all the proposals ahead of time, or say ‘We’d like to reconvene at such-and-such a date to make a decision,'” Waara said.