New Owners & New Plans for the Northport Inn

The Leelanau Ticker reports that the Northport Inn has new owners with new plans:

The landmark inn and commercial space on the corner of Waukazoo and Nagonaba in Northport has sold for $900K to 50/50 partners Steve and Carrie Ball of Old Mission Peninsula and Lynden and Meghann Johncock of Elmwood Township. The couples have designs on restoring the original 1902 brick façade of the 9,260 square-foot building and growing it as a hub for lodging, dining and imbibing, live entertainment, and gatherings.

The Johncocks are partners/operators at Williams & Bay in Maple City. The Balls own Michigan Gutters and several northern Michigan vacation properties; Steve Ball also serves as captain of the Traverse City Fire Department. The deal to purchase Northport Inn from an Ohio investor has been in progress since a duck hunting trip Ball and Johncock took last spring. The two recognized a surge in investment in the rural beachside hamlet and they identified immediate room for growth in the inn/commercial property, which was listed for $1.2M.

The upper floor will remain a nine-room inn. Down the line, the interior will be renovated in a West Coast style befitting a beach town, and they will immediately add tech upgrades to streamline booking and boost occupancy.

The new owners will continue to work with the current first floor tenants Northport Fitness, owned by Jeanette Egeler, who also manages the inn, and The Union, where chefs Eric Allchin and Paul Carlson offer an event space, community suppers, and by-appointment tastings for both Northport’s Baia Estate wines and Idyll Farms cheese.

Says Ball, “With The Union, we want to give them the resources to make that thrive, and more of a full-time, consistent gathering place.” Johncock says of recent conversations with Allchin and Carlson, “The real estate office in the building is now vacant, and they are very interested in taking over that space, too. Eric and Paul are all about supporting local and we are all about investing with them.”

Read on for lots more in the Ticker!