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Inside Muskegon’s plan to transform its port, downtown waterfront

Posted By: mlive on September 23, 2026.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

Carrying a load of food products, a large freighter sails past the lighthouse and through the Muskegon channel. Down by the water’s edge, not far from the downtown traffic circle, a crowd hangs out at the Third Street Wharf. People stroll along the lake, enjoying the untapped waterfront like never before. That’s all part of a long-term vision for an expanded Port of Muskegon and improved downtown connectivity to Muskegon Lake.

Nine months after Muskegon approved a controversial waterfront land swap, the city and Mart Dock are now seeking nearly $30 million in federal funding for a port project. Officials say the project could move industrial shipping away from downtown, expand Great Lakes freight opportunities and open more of Muskegon Lake’s waterfront to the public, while overall strengthening West Michigan’s economy.

A federal grant application obtained by MLive/Muskegon Chronicle via a Freedom of Information Act request revealed the most detailed vision of the long-term waterfront plan. The hope is to turn Fisherman’s Landing Campground into a modern freight terminal, while opening more of Muskegon Lake’s downtown waterfront to public use.

In time, city and business leaders plan to build a stronger port at Fisherman’s Landing, expand shipping opportunities, create economic growth, increase public access downtown and overall make better use of the Muskegon Lake’s waterfront. Muskegon and Mart Dock are asking for more than $29 million in grant funding through the Port Infrastructure Development Program. The total project is expected to cost $37.15 million.

Muskegon has “underutilized” and “untapped” maritime potential, said Chuck Canestraight, president of Port City Marine Companies, which owns Mart Dock.

The project – deemed locally as Muskegon’s “land swap” – was approved last December and entails the addition of 4,000 more feet of public access to Muskegon Lake. It will also turn a long-vacant parcel on Muskegon Lake into a green space with retail and community activity, modeled after places like Navy Pier in Chicago. The entire project, combining all industry sectors involved, is expected to create more than 300 jobs, generate $41 million in annual sales and $14 million in wages.

It’s expected to take over 25 years, officials have said, with the community not seeing physical changes for at least two to five years.

“We want to operate an important marine terminal to keep Muskegon and West Michigan relevant,” Canestraight said. “We want to develop the lakefront and use Muskegon Lake in a way that is very communal with the citizens.

“We don’t want to block out Muskegon.”

Historically and economically, Muskegon is sitting in a unique position, said Rachel Gorman, president & CEO of the Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s such a unique opportunity that residents in West Michigan are going to have to access this waterfront like we’ve never had before,” Gorman said. “When you look at other waterfront communities that have an amazing waterfront, but for them, some of it’s already been dominated by industry and business, some of it is already claimed by homes and residential, so what we have in Muskegon is really special.”

Aging infrastructure, limited room for expansion and the inability to accommodate larger freighters and future freight opportunities were among the reasons Muskegon made the case for a new port terminal.

Construction is proposed to begin in 2029 at Fisherman’s Landing, with operations beginning around 2030. The port, where it exists now, conflicts with downtown uses such as tourism, recreation, museums, marinas, housing and public waterfront access, according to the grant application. A larger marine terminal would enable stronger connections between Great Lakes shipping, inland river barge systems, the Illinois River, the Mississippi River basin and cross-lake freight routes to Wisconsin.

“We can address some important businesses that we don’t currently do and join into the movement of materials that will help West Michigan agriculture and West Michigan infrastructure,” Canestraight said.

Mart Dock’s Waterfront Marine zoning label doesn’t allow it to expand operations and also calls for a future waterfront use. Moving operations to a location away from downtown would allow for those new connections and products to ship.

“Nothing in that Waterfront Marine would have allowed us by choice to expand or invest in the kind of business that we would have liked to there,” Canestraight said. “And we respected the underlying goals of not just city officials, but those running those entities. We discussed before chambers of commerce and business development tanks they didn’t really want to see that downtown, and prior administrations and mayors really didn’t want to see that down there.”

Despite that, Canestraight said business leaders wanted to stay in Muskegon to make both business opportunities and public waterfront desires flourish. Agriculture and infrastructure are the primary shipping opportunities.

“West Michigan’s a high growth, heavy food, heavy agriculture producing area,” Canestraight said. “I don’t think anyone expects that to shrink off. That seems to be the future.”

The potential development of the Third Street Wharf, the retail and community space along the water, would allow for additional cruise ship activity on Muskegon Lake. Gorman said not only are cruise line companies interested in launching Great Lakes Cruise ships, but are building boats specifically for the Great Lakes and to dock in Muskegon.

“These are international cruise lines marketing our community all over the world, and they’re coming here,” Gorman said. “Growth here for the cruise ships means more growth in general for tourism dollars, and it’s more access for people to learn about Muskegon, see our community, vacation here, spend their dollars here, and for some of them, even consider relocating here, which is really, really exciting.”

Having operated on Muskegon Lake for almost a century, Canestraight’s company has a vested interest to continue doing so, he said. Port City Marine Companies continues to have a maritime operating interest on the Great Lakes.

“We want to expand our maritime operations,” Canestraight said. “We want to expand our terminal operations.”

He said it was intentional that a profit-sharing mechanism was built into the land swap agreement, collecting a portion of funds made for grants to be distributed by the city.

“Long term, there’ll be a corporation set up to share in their resources,” Canestraight said. “If we build the terminal, if the business is successful – which we would expect it to be – and generally only pursue business that have the chances to be successful, we would share that back through that profit-sharing corporation, and that might provide some evidence 10 or 15 years down the road of a good, thoughtful decision back in 2025.”

Where things stand right now

Mart Dock is now leasing with an option to purchase most of Fisherman’s Landing, a city-owned park at 501 E. Western Ave. on Muskegon Lake. The rest of the park will continue to operate with a boat launch, fishing areas and parking. The plan is for port operations currently near downtown to move farther east to the park site, where the campground is currently.

Muskegon and Mart Dock are in the process of buying the neighboring 52-acre Verplank property, two-thirds of which will be for port operations.

There are future plans to create a nature preserve there and boardwalks for visitors to walk along the water in the city’s portion. The city will also take ownership of a portion of Third Street Wharf, a long-vacant parcel on Muskegon Lake next to where Mart Dock currently operates. The port company will still own most of the property, with plans for a future retail and community activity on the water.

Canestraight has handled industrial operations for Sand Products Corp. for more than 25 years. That company operates three vessels that move Portland cement. He also manages the industrial commerce that occurs at West Michigan Dock and Market including materials, storage contracts or vessels being moored there. He does that in concert with the local manager, who is Max McKee.

Muskegon Lake no longer an ‘area of concern’

For the last three decades, Canestraight said he and other county leaders and residents have championed waterfront development and better connectivity, especially as the lake was getting cleaned up.

“I transitioned across a few administrations pushing the same agenda, admittedly to see the big picture, see the important economic connectivity and get it to a point to get where everyone understood, ‘Hey, we could do both of these,’” Canestraight said. “We can do them in an important way that lets one progress while the other one is evolving, because you don’t want one to get in the way of the other. And we think we’ve finally unlocked that with the December 2025 development agreement with the city.”

The Port Infrastructure Development Program is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. The competitive program awards grants to “projects that improve the safety, efficiency or reliability of the movement of goods into, out of, around or within a port,” according to USDOT.

Specifically, the application asked for $29.7 million in federal funding for a total project cost of $37.15 million. Muskegon city officials declined and deferred comment to Mart Dock on what the port operator has planned for its portions of the Fisherman’s Landing property.