There are a lot of new and exciting updates and improvements happening all throughout Downtown Alpena this year. We figured it was about time to make a blog post to highlight some of the things that are going to be happening with the community!

The Sanctuary Cinema is under way! It has been a while since Alpena has had a cinema to go and enjoy watching movies in, but this one will be even better than the ones that we had before! They have started construction on this building (the old Royal Knight cinema across from Downtown Scoops) and they hope to have it done in the next couple of years. They plan to have the big, comfy chairs like the cinemas in other cities, and some of the best projectors that you can imagine. We are excited to have the addition of a movie theater back in Downtown Alpena!

There are some new apartments going in above Bob’s Bullpen and the Yarn Shop. These will create five new apartments for new people coming to Alpena. These will be completed this year  and will be open for rental as soon as they are completed!

State Theater is on its way to restoration as a historical site. It is being restored to what it once was as the Maltz Opera House. This includes restoring the inside as well as the outside of the building and working in the historic archives to bring it back as it used to be. We are excited to have this historic building as an iconic and key part of our downtown. You can view photos of the renovation so far and view updates here.

The Vaughn Building and the Old Antique Mall are being renovated and turned into four different spaces! The plans for these buildings are to have commercial space on the first and second floors for new businesses. These new spaces will liven up that section of Second Ave and we are excited for the community to get to enjoy them in the next few years!

Recently a group of private developers received a grant from the State to add a new building to the lot where Habitat for Humanity used to be located on Chisholm St. This new building will consist of 15 residential apartments on the top floor of the building and five commercial spaces in the bottom area of the building. There are hopes to put a daycare center in one of the commercial spaces on the bottom floor of this building. This project has a timeline of completion by 2026.

The project of redoing Culligan Plaza has been put on hold and a new survey is out for the community to have the opportunity to share opinions and design ideas for the plaza reconstruction. That survey link can be found here. The hope for this project is that it will be completed next year.

The Downtown Development Authority was recently awarded a grant for the Fresh Waves project for 2023! This grant award allows us to have our project be bigger and better than ever! With these funds, we will hope to have artists paint murals in the alleyway spots and possibly in other locations as well. This is the biggest grant award that we have ever received for this project and we are so excited to continue beautifying Downtown Alpena!

All of these awesome projects go to show that Downtown Alpena is a very special place to be. Our community is amazing and always supportive of creating a bigger and better location for new projects and ideas to be shared in our amazing little town.