Mary Stevens/Daily Mining Gazette The Ruppe Building on Calumet's 5th street.

CALUMET — Bring Back Calumet, a village rehabilitation team consisting of Main Street Calumet, the Houghton County Landbank Authority, and others, is working to restore the destroyed Ruppe Building on 5th Street.

The Ruppe Building, used to be a JC Penny. After it was acquired by a new owner, the building fell into a state of disrepair. The 17,000 square foot structure is quickly deteriorating, due to more a decade of water damage and lack of maintenance.

Now, it’s the target of Bring Back Calumet’s three-phase restoration plan. The wood-frame structure and its iconic facade was stabilized in the Winter of 2024, at a cost of $200,000. Next, it will get a permanent back wall, and part of the damaged rear section will be demolished to make parking. The front roof will also be replaced. Phase two is estimated to cost $500,000. Phase three involves finding an interested developer to finish the restoration, with the hope of creating eight long-term apartments and at least two commercial spaces.

“I think there’s always a little bit of a fine line between economically viable and historic preservation,” said Calumet Village Manager Megan Haselden, when asked if it would be more fiscally responsible to demolish the building. “It would not be made possible without the partnerships and potential funding from the public — but [Bring Back Calumet] is also probably going to be working with other organizations, like the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.”

“The sheer cost to demo this building and take it out of here is in the hundreds of thousands, so it’s a rock and a hard place.” said Sam Stonelake, a member of the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance. “It’s either you redevelop it, and the cost is the cost, or you demo it and try to move it out of here, and you’re still paying many hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The Ruppe Building’s current owner has invested more than $100,000 into its restoration, but doesn’t have the means to continue. According to Haselden, Calumet’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) will take over the building’s title, and act as a developer, with the goal of transitioning ownership to a developer who has the money to finish the project.

Haselden explained, though, that Calumet’s DDA doesn’t have the funding to completely finish the project on their own.

“Our DDA is very small, small budget, so it’s too big of a budget for us to undertake alone. Which is why they’re now kind of asking the public to contribute…” she said.

“I think what people should know is that if we are successful, this building will continue as sort of the pillar of the historic fabric and architecture in Calumet. And if we are not successful, we may lose that.” Haselden added. “We don’t want to have vacant spaces downtown. We want to lean into what we already have as opposed to just trying to create something new.”

To donate to the Ruppe Building restoration project, visit bit.ly/bbc-donate-KCF. To stay updated on volunteer opportunities with the Ruppe Building restoration, follow the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance on Facebook.