Furthest along is a 95-room TownPlace Suites by Marriott hotel at 200 S. Stephenson Ave., the former site of the long-shuttered and now demolished Timbers Motor Lodge. Started in spring 2022, the property is being developed by Marquette-based Veridea Group LLC, which is part of IMT Lodging LLC, owner/operator of the hotel.

That commercial real estate development and management group has built or renovated a number of properties, not just in the Upper Peninsula but as far away as western Montana. This, however, is its first in Iron Mountain.

“We’re very happy to be in Iron Mountain,” said Michele Thomas, director of commercial real estate development for Veridea, noting that local Dave Brule Jr. is part of the group. “We’re just looking forward to getting it open to the public.”

Although not required, the hotel is designed for extended stays, with each room having a kitchen, cook top and full refrigerator. “So it can be very good for families that are traveling,” Thomas said.

(Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo, file) The Kwik Trip chain is building two new stores in the area, this one at 1010 N. Stephenson Ave. in Iron Mountain and on Carpenter Avenue near Iron Mountain-Kingsford Credit Union. The La Crosse, Wis.-based company plans to have both completed no later than the end of October.

The 58,000-square-foot, four-level building also has a meeting room that can be reserved for conferences or special events, plus an outdoor patio with gas fire pit and grills.

Thomas estimated about 100 to 150 people have worked on the project so far. The hotel is expected to open later this summer.

While the downtown site differs from most other area hotels, the company considered it a good site, Thomas said. “People like to stay downtown, they like to be able to walk to locations,” she said.

On the south end of Stephenson Avenue, also U.S. 2, an ALDI grocery store is going up with opening scheduled for later this year. The store at 2025 S. Stephenson Ave. will be about 18,000 square feet and feature a range of products, including fresh meat and seafood, organic produce and pantry essentials, the company stated in a news release earlier this year.

ALDI Inc. has nearly 2,200 stores in 38 states, but its only other Upper Peninsula location is Escanaba. Its 81 Wisconsin sites, however, include Marinette and Rhinelander.

On its website, the company claims that in 1961 “the Albrecht Family founded the world’s first discount grocery store in Germany.” But the company touts that its “guiding principle” is “great quality should come with everyday low prices.”

Calls to the communications firm that represents the Germany-based company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Batavia, Ill., were not returned.

Work began earlier this spring on not one but two stores Kwik Trip is building locally as it expands further into the Upper Peninsula.

Though the La Crosse, Wis.-based convenience store and fueling station chain has almost 850 locations, only two for now can be found in the U.P., in Ironwood and Bessemer. The closest Kwik Trip to this area might be in Crivitz, Wis., opened in August 2021.

But the region has a customer base familiar with their brand, said John McHugh, director of public relations for Kwik Trip Inc. That’s not surprising, considering how widespread Kwik Trip is in its home state of Wisconsin to the south.

“We think there’s a lot of potential in that area,” McHugh said of the Upper Peninsula.

And Kwik Trip has ambitious goals, adding about 40 new stores a year, McHugh said. Most are in its core of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, where it goes by Kwik Star due to the Kwik Trip name being too similar to an existing chain in Iowa. But it has a presence in northern Illinois as well and plans to push into South Dakota in the coming year, McHugh said.

It also has the building process down to a science. When Kwik Trip acquired 2.8 acres of city property at 1010 N. Stephenson Ave. for $315,000 last fall, the development agreement called for the store to be finished by the end of 2024.

The company now intends to open the Iron Mountain store Oct. 5, barring any unexpected delays, and the Kingsford location on Carpenter Avenue near Iron Mountain-Kingsford Credit Union on Oct. 27.

These larger “third generation” stores — roughly 10,000 square feet, to provide extra space for the fresh foods and groceries — all follow the same design, so can be ready only about three months after the first shovel in the ground, McHugh said.

Kwik Trip began revising its original “legacy” floorplan in the mid-2000s to create room for more grocery-style items, such as produce and fruit, later adding fresh meat. In-store kitchens had to be enlarged for on-site prep work, such as fresh fried chicken added in 2019.

At the same time, the company began increasing its food processing and storage facilities in the La Crosse area for bakery, dairy, produce and meats. It buys locally as much as possible, such as milk and potatoes, McHugh said.

Each store gets daily deliveries when possible, McHugh added, to maintain that freshness.

The current version of Kwik Trip is “almost that mini-grocery-store experience,” he said.

Kwik Trip’s rise in more rural areas is deliberate, he said. The company sees a need in communities that might have lost the local “mom and pop” grocer, becoming a sort of “food desert” for fresh products.

Gundlach Champion of Iron Mountain is the contractor for a new regional cancer center in Iron Mountain, an extension of the Radiation Oncology Department at Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson. It will be on the east end of the campus near the Emergency Department entrance. Plans call for building a new 8,000-square-foot structure and remodeling 2,000 square feet of existing space.

“All aspects of cancer care will soon be under one roof in a new and fresh environment, emphasizing the comfort and care of our cancer patients,” said Amanda Shelast, MMC-D president.

The center will provide increased access to care, state-of-the-art treatment technology and improved amenities for patients, said Joe Rizzo, MMC-D director of public relations and business development.

The former Dickinson County Healthcare System joined MCHS in February 2022. As a Marshfield hospital, Dickinson can now participate in cancer trials and research, which hasn’t been offered in the past.

Plans for the center were announced at a March 27 meeting of the Dickinson County Board, where Shelast said the estimated cost is $10.6 million.

The cancer center may be finished by the end of May, according to Project Manager Peter Dupuis.

On Stephenson Avenue across from the Midtown Mall in Iron Mountain, Neuens Auto is building a new facility. An announcement is expected soon on the services to be offered.

“The city of Iron Mountain has been fortunate to see its economic development progress through a substantial number of redevelopment and new construction projects,” said Jordan Stanchina, city manager.

For developers considering future projects, Stanchina noted there are a number of incentives that Michigan makes available for municipalities to help facilitate growth. Programs used by the city include Community Development Block Grant Rental Rehabilitation, Commercial Rehabilitation Act, Community Revitalization, Industrial Facilities Tax Exemption and Brownfield Tax Increment Financing.

“Although not all of the projects require incentives, some of them do in order to make the project economically feasible,” Stanchina said. “Proposed projects are matched with the program that will maximize the available incentives.”

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com. Jim Anderson can be reached at ext. 226 or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.