CALUMET — In addition to presentations by Joe Miller and Morten Haugland during the April 20 Meet the Developers public meeting, Mike Maas and his wife, Rhonda, who own properties in the 300 block of Fifth Street and also on Sixth Street displayed their projects. Maases operate a Denver, Colorado-based masonry restoration business, Building Restoration Specialties. In Calumet, they own two adjoining properties, known as the Kirby building and the Quello Block.

Maas said that the roof of the three-story Quello building leaked so badly that plants were growing inside. The roof of the Kirby building had failed, with half of it falling into the basement.

Maas said the Quello building required all three floors to be shored up. While the masonry was “pretty darned good,” the entire roof was removed, the masonry on the tops of the walls was rebuilt or repaired, as necessary. They installed all new laminate beams and joists and a complete new roof system.

The Kirby building, he said, needed to be completely gutted, a wooden addition on the rear of the building, which was not original, was removed. The back wall of the building was rebuilt (single-story attached structure, will be a conference room).

Maas said that when the renovations of these two buildings is complete, the Quello Block will be a 17-room hotel, which will include a bar, restaurant and conference center. The facility will be equipped with an elevator located in the rear of the building.

An additional building, formerly a market later converted to apartments, located at 312 Sixth St., now owned by Maas and his family, will be converted back to a retail space, with apartments upstairs.

Maas said that the work on the Quello building has, until now, been out-of-pocket. Because of budgets and material costs, he is pursuing grant funding from the state historical foundation.

The fourth presenter, Nathan McParlan, owner of The Frozen Farms Company, located at 320 Fifth St., also owns 322 and 324 Fifth St., the former John’s Restaurant.

He has been remodeling both the Frozen Farms building and also 324 out-of-pocket.

McParlan said he has been working with Jeff Ratcliffe, executive director of Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance to secure a grant for 322 Fifth Street, and will begin work on the structure sometime during the first week of May. The building, he said, will be completely gutted, converted to retail space on the main floor and two apartments on the second floor.

The third presenter was Jim Flood, who owns part of the Nelson-Schroeder Block, on the corner of Oak and Seventh streets.

Flood has working for years on his part of the building, which has included jacking up the building. The east side of the building, he said, was 22 inches lower than the west side.

“It was literally sinking into the earth and falling over,” he said, “but it was a beautiful building in my mind, in a beautiful part of town.”

He rebuilt a large section of the foundation, which had rotted out from having snow plowed up against it for years. He has spent several years cleaning it out, replacing posts and installing 44 house jacks. Eventually, the building loosened, rebounded and was he was able to jack up the east side the 22 inches to bring it level with the west side. He then built crib work from the basement to the second floor. Currently, he said, his only plans for the building are to stabilize it.