On Friday, Traverse City business and education leaders broke ground on the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center at Discovery Pier in Elmwood Township, which they hope will attract the "blue tech" sector to northern Michigan.
"Blue technology" is a relatively new term, but leaders of this project want Traverse City to be its hub.
"Think of it simply as, how do you apply technology to water?" said NMC President Nick Nissley. "And specifically, how do you create water-based or technology-based solutions to help preserve, protect, enhance this big, blue, beautiful body of water that we all love so much?"
"We want to be the Woods Hole for the Great Lakes," he said, referencing the famous oceanographic research institute on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
The $29 million project is a collaboration between Northwestern Michigan College, Discovery Pier, the startup incubator 20Fathoms, Traverse Connect and various other business and technology groups in the Grand Traverse region.
Plans for a new building
The building will have classrooms, labs, office space and conference rooms. For science research, there will be a "wet/tech bay space" with tanks of Grand Traverse Bay water.
The hope is to attract businesses and researchers from all over the country who work with water — and specifically, Great Lakes freshwater. Warren Call, CEO of Traverse Connect, listed Traverse City-based PFAS testing startup Wave Lumina as an example of the kind of company they hope to foster.
NMC leaders also hope the center will support student-led research and business ideas.
"[Students] boat-pooled over here from the Great Lakes campus, actually docking out at the Discovery Pier and coming in [to the site]" said Nissley in his speech. "You couldn't ask for a better role modeling of what we hope is going to happen here."
He said this center will be "driving the next stage of our region's economic transformation, and positioning northern Michigan as the epicenter of fresh water innovation."
Combining public and private sector funding
The project was awarded $15 million in state money from the DNR, which was American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding from the pandemic.
It also received a $1 million dollar brownfield grant from EGLE after the site was found to have some contamination.
"The previous uses included boat storage and repair and auto repair, some manufacturing of turbines, and, frankly, even urban fill that was brought in over the years to raise the grade along the lakefront," said EGLE's Carrie Geyer. "All of those things resulted in contaminants that included petroleum, chlorinated solvents, metals, a variety of things."
The bulk of the rest of the funding for the project came from the private sector — like business organizations and family foundations. They are still seeking $2 million dollars, and Discovery Pier CEO Matt McDonough made an appeal to the audience at the event to fill that gap.
About 140 people were in the audience at the groundbreaking, including State Representative John Roth and representatives from Michigan Tech and Michigan State.
Building a 'blue economy'
Warren Call, CEO of Traverse Connect, said the project will be a "robust economic ecosystem that's much more than just a building. It fosters innovation, investment and job creation in advanced sectors."
He listed some examples of what kinds of research and business will be possible at the center: "marine technology, bathymetry, sonar and mapping ... water quality testing, sampling and remediation," in addition to invasive species management and "of course, advanced mobility, marine surface and submersible vehicles, uncrewed aerial and marine systems and autonomous technology."
He mentioned engineering and geospatial analysis company NV5 as the center's potential first tenant, a global firm that has various federal defense and intelligence contracts, including with the U.S. Army and Navy.
The building is slated to open in spring 2027.
