Though Walmart has nixed plans to build a new store in Kalkaska, there’s more development on the way to the village, including a potential new industrial park and redevelopment of a historic building.

In 2014, Walmart announced plans to open a 128,000 square-foot building with a garden center, pharmacy and gas station on US-131 near the intersection of Nash Road and County Road 612. Earlier this year, however, the company abandoned the plans and said the store would not be built.  

Now that parcel is being pursued for the development of an industrial park. “It would be a great thing,” says Cash Cook, director of Kalkaska’s Downtown Development Authority, noting that the parcel’s size has also grown from the 20 acres Walmart was considering to 47 acres. “They will update us as things develop,” he adds of the developers.

One of the village’s most prominent buildings is also anticipated to undergo a facelift from new owners. Village President Jeff Sieting has sold his namesake Hotel Sieting to a downstate development group.

“I wasn’t looking to sell it,” says Sieting. When he got a call asking him to give a tour to some visitors from downstate, he was happy to do so. Partway through the tour, they asked him if he was interested in selling. “I threw out a figure” and didn’t think anything more of it, he says.

Sieting later received a call from Cook to meet him at the Village office, at which time he says Cook slid an envelope across to him, containing a full price purchase agreement and a deposit check.

Sieting adds that the new owners plan to restore and refurbish the historic building. “They want to have suites and a tap room, even the bowling alley in the basement,” Sieting says.

Cook points to several reasons he’s bullish on Kalkaska, which he uses one word to summarize. “Logistics,” he says. Those reasons include the appeal of a small community where real estate is affordable, the fact Kalkaska has a hospital and an airport, natural gas, water and sewer, and freight rail lines. He also notes Kalkaska sits at the intersection of a major north-south federal highway and an east-west state highway.

“It’s at a crossroads. From Kalkaska you can get to virtually everywhere in 45 minutes or less – Cadillac, Gaylord, Grayling, Petoskey, Traverse City," Cook says.

And one of those roads is about to get a facelift. Work is now underway west of Kalkaska to widen the shoulders of M-72 from Baggs Road to McNulty Hill Road. The work is being done in advance of next year’s planned complete reconstruction of M-72 from Kalkaska to the Kalkaska/Grand Traverse county line. 

James Lake, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Transportation, says the work will help to alleviate traffic buildups during next year’s work. Widening the road will allow for traffic shifts, meaning two-way traffic while the road is being completely rebuilt. “That section of roadway has reached the end of its service life,” says Lake.

He says MDOT has not yet selected a contractor so no firm timetable has been set, but that getting the widening done now means reconstruction work could begin as soon as April.