Huron State Bank annex building renovations shown at open house

by Richard Lamb–Advance Editor

A rebirth of an historic building by Huron State Bank (HSB) brought a celebration last week on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Second Street in Rogers City. 

The restored building has three large meeting rooms on the first floor and two elegant, two-bedroom apartments on the second floor. The main floor could be used as an emergency site in the case HSB is hit by a situation where the main bank building had to close due to damages by natural disaster or fire. The board meetings will now be conducted in the new meeting room that faces Second Street. The apartments upstairs were constructed as a requirement from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to help with housing in the area. The apartments will include garage space in the adjacent building purchased from the Nautical City Festival. 

“We couldn’t have done it without all the stakeholders that we have here,” said Erik Nadolsky, HSB president and chief executive officer. “If it would not have been for all the stakeholders, the responsible thing to do would have been to bulldoze the building. But that is not what we wanted to do and we had to figure out a way to not make this a grass area or a parking lot.”

NADOLSKY SAID the project was made possible by MEDC, Michigan Land Bank, city of Rogers City tax abatements, and brownfield tax abatements.

The historic Malloy Building was constructed sometime before 1885 by Jack Wilk, according to the book “The Baby Boomer’s Guild to Rogers City,” written by Gerald Micketti, Mark Thompson and the late James Hopp. It housed many occupants in its long history including a German Lutheran School, a general store, a law office and later a clothing store. For most of its life, the building has been a residence.

HSB purchased the building from the Malloy family Malloy in 2017.

“The house has been used for many different things,” Brother Bob Malloy said. “There was a store here, more of a general store for boaters in the 1800s. It was also a pool hall, and my favorite identity is that it used to be an ice cream parlor.” 

Malloy’s grandfather, who died at a young age, left the building to his wife. 

“It was probably at that time that they divided the house into apartments. The back was one apartment with two rooms. Originally where a family lived they made it an apartment with a bathroom in between,” Malloy said. “They shared a bathroom.” 

He described his grandmother, who lived in the building for many years, as being very frugal.

“HER KITCHEN was in the basement and she used a kerosene stove with a spigot coming out of the wall for water. She lived very simply. When the building was put up it didn’t have electricity, but they put in bathrooms. The light bulb was only invented a year before she was born. All those changes had been coming through. She lived to see a man walk on the moon. She died at 97 and lived here most of her life,” Malloy said.

“She had a bell-shaped windup clock. She would go outside, look at the bank down the street to see what time it was, then come in and set the clock once a week. I loved to sit and listen to those stories about what it was like when they first moved in here. There were wooden sidewalks and the roads were all dirt.”

Nadolsky introduced HSB board members including Dale Bauer, Marv Beatty, Jeff Hopp, Darren Selden, Tom Sobeck, John Tierney, Jack Brewbaker and Lee Gapczynski.

The annex project is expected to generate a total capital investment of $1.4 million and create and maintain two full-time equivalent jobs with the support of a $579,000 Michigan Community Revitalization Program performance-based grant.

Additionally, the Rogers City Brownfield Redevelopment Authority received Michigan Strategic Funds approval of $101,453 in state tax capture for the reimbursement of brownfield activities at the site.

The city of Rogers City supported the project with the approval of a 10-year Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act exemption valued at $88,692 and has approved the local portion of the brownfield plan, valued at $160,381. The project has also received a $70,400 blight elimination program grant from the Presque Isle County Land Bank.