City Considers Placemaking Project with New Downtown Hotel

Traverse City planning commissioners will review a proposed partnership for a pedestrian placemaking project with the developer of a new Marriott Tribute Portfolio hotel downtown at a special 6pm meeting tonight (Tuesday).

J.S. Capitol Group is building a new four-story, 110-room hotel called The Syndicate next to Hotel Indigo in the Warehouse District, along with an adjacent condo complex called TC Continental. The company also purchased the former Antiquities Warehouse building across Garland Street and plans to demolish the structure and construct a new building with ground-floor retail and upper-floor parking.

According to a memo from City Planning Director Shawn Winter, the city owns a vacant 25x100-foot parcel between The Syndicate and Hotel Indigo. The Marriott’s hotel design requires a ground-floor emergency exit onto that parcel. Guests exiting in an emergency would then need an ADA-compliant pathway leading to the right-of-way under fire code requirements.

“As staff has been working with the developer on this issue, the developer has proposed improving the entire lot for public access, which would improve non-motorized connectivity in this part of the city, add an element of placemaking, and benefit both adjacent businesses as the property is currently rather unsightly,” Winter wrote.

J.S. Capitol Group aims to install a six-foot-wide sidewalk between the two hotels from Grandview Parkway to Garland Steeet. Renderings show planned amenities to beautify the area as a public gathering space, including lights, benches, landscaping, and public art (pictured). Developers are requesting an easement to install the sidewalk on the city property.

While city commissioners will make the final decision, planning commissioners are asked to weigh in under the Michigan Planning Enabling Act, which requires such spaces to be reviewed by that board to determine if they’re consistent with the city’s master plan. “Although it does currently exist as public property, it has never been improved with intentionality for public purposes,” Winter wrote. He noted there is support in the master plan “for a combination of relatively high density supported by public uses in the Commercial Core,” referring to the district where the new hotel is located.

Winter tells The Ticker another reason to support the partnership is that it aligns with a planned city project. The city’s capital improvement plan (CIP) describes a project called the West End Pedestrian Way. It aims to create a pedestrian network on the west side of downtown – starting with the west side of the Open Space, continuing across Grandview Parkway (for now using the HAWK signal crossing), moving through Warehouse District pedestrian corridors next to the hotels and The Workshop Brewing Company, crossing the pedestrian bridge by J&S, and heading down the Pine Street sidewalk system to the Uptown development (near the curve as Pine Street heads toward Union). A new pedestrian bridge is eventually planned to be built over the Boardman-Ottaway River connecting Pine Street to Hannah Park. That bridge was supported by public input in the Lower Boardman Unified Plan, as well as the CIP.

The CIP envisions using the city’s Garland Street property as part of that network. “The project intends to incorporate human-scale placemaking elements such as benches, pedestrian lighting, trees, landscaping, and public art,” the CIP states. Winter says J.S. Capitol Group is essentially offering to pay for the pedestrian amenities the city planned to eventually undertake on that parcel, saving costs and “moving the needle” on implementing the network.

The CIP allocates $75,000 for planning work for the West End Pedestrian Way. Work was originally scheduled “for this current fiscal year, but because of a number of factors has been pushed out to next year,” Winter wrote. He flagged the CIP for planning commissioners to “highlight the city's intent to move forward with a project similar to what is being proposed.”

While the cost for a new bridge is still unknown, the planning process would help narrow down cost estimates and design options. Since parking is limited along the lakefront itself, the goal is to provide more walkable connections – such as from Central Neighborhood to the bay – that can help people “more easily access and enjoy their natural resources,” Winter says.

Meanwhile, other work is progressing on the J.S. Capitol Group development. The project was awarded $1 million in brownfield funding earlier this year for environmental clean-up work on two of the parcels. Bridget Hawks of Carve Hospitality, who is working with the development team, tells The Ticker that construction on The Syndicate “continues to move forward steadily.” The hotel was originally slated for a late 2026 opening but is now targeting the first quarter of 2027. “The primary schedule adjustment comes from recent steel and tariff impacts, and our transition to domestic suppliers has positioned us well for the remainder of the build,” Hawks says.

The TC Continental condo development is on track to break ground in mid-2026. “In the meantime, we’re using that parcel as laydown space to support ongoing hotel construction,” Hawks says. “The parking deck is planned to follow after that phase.”