Into the Blue: Waters excite entrepreneurs, visitors
Call them entrepreneurs, business people or dreamers — there are people in Port Huron and the Blue Water Area who are marketing the area on their own and bringing people here to spend money and drive the economy.
James Freed, Port Huron's city manager, said those people, both in the public and private sector, are essential to what he sees as the city's economic recovery.
"If you look at what's being done in Port Huron, it's all being driven by entrepreneurs and business people," Freed said.
"That's what sets Port Huron apart, and that's why people are investing dollars here. You have civic engagement from our people.
"That makes you want to be part of that community."
THE ENTHUSIASM IN Ben Donsky's voice is palpable.
A senior planner for Biederman Redevelopment Ventures Corp., he's sitting in an office in New York City looking at a Google Earth view of Port Huron.
And he likes what he sees.
He and his co-workers are wrapping up a project for the city of Buffalo, redeveloping a park where the Erie Canal dumps into Lake Erie, and "my sense is you guys are starting well ahead of where Buffalo started."
The company Donsky works for has no interest in Port Huron — he wouldn't have known where it was without looking at a map — but he likes its location with two rivers, its public spaces and parks and its waterfront.
The challenge, he said, is getting people down to that waterfront to use it.
"What we did in Buffalo is program the waterfront, not just with maritime uses," he said. "Concessionaires doing kayaks, canoes, paddleboarding, waterbikes — which is really popular for people who may be not as comfortable with the water.
"We combine them with hundreds of landside programs and events," he said. "Probably the biggest single attraction that has brought people down to the waterfront and has made them aware there are things going on and things to do ... has been the free concert series.
"We also complement that with all kinds of smaller activities and programs," he said. "We have fitness classes every single day, yoga, Zumba, boot camp ...
"We have 50 to 60 programs that are on offer, not all at the same time. ... The way we get them coming back again and again is they have the feeling that there is new stuff down there."
Port Huron already is doing much the same kinds of things, said Nancy Winzer, the city's recreation director.
"We have lots of different programs that we are constantly doing," she said. "And we're going to see some more opportunities in the parks coming up. That's our goal."
She's aware programming is a trend. "It does bring tourism to our city," she said. "We are always looking for things like that."
The recreation department puts on a free concert series, Rockin' the Rivers, on Thursday evenings in August at Keifer Park along the St. Clair River. It just completed its sixth season, and it offers free music, bounce houses and other inflatables for the kids, along with what some consider the best cheeseburgers in town.
"Rockin' the Rivers is our biggest draw as far as tourism goes, but we do a lot of things people don't realize as far as bringing people to town," Winzer said.
Dodski said big events such as Rockin' the Rivers, and festivals such as Boat Week, are "important to get people exposed to the site, but what builds long-term stable attendance is available daily programming."
He said Buffalo offers board games and big games like giant checkers and has fire pits along its waterfront. That's all being done in Port Huron, Winzer said.
"We try to get the word out about what is going on," she said. "We have been pretty lucky — we have a lot of supporters in town.
"But you always need to continue to get that word out to people."
That can involve traditional media such as newspaper and broadcast ads, billboards and brochures — but Facebook and other social media such as Twitter play an increasingly large role, Winzer said.
"We have a younger staff here that's involved with social media," she said. "It is fairly new. I've been here 20 years, and it's kind of a new world. You gotta stay up on them, you really do, and a rec department that is not constantly changing is not good for the city and not good for the viability of the department."
Donsky said his company also seeks sponsorships and corporate partners, not to build play structures and restore beaches, but to fund programs.
"Recreation departments are typically underfunded," he said.
In some cases, a city creates a nonprofit to run its showpiece parks. "They basically do what cities can't do because of lack of funding," Doski said.
"All of our fitness classes in these parks are all sponsored."
Both Winzer and Mark Brochu, director of the county's parks and recreation department, said they look for sponsorships and partners.
"Walk Michigan on Tuesday nights, there are probably 200, 300 people that come out, and that's a partnership with McLaren Port Huron hospital," Winzer said.
Eastern Michigan Bank, she said, sponsored a Halloween Stroll on Saturday, and "Talmer Bank has partnered with us to do a color run that brings in thousands of people."
The city spends no dollars on Rockin' the Rivers, she said, other than staff time.
"We're constantly looking for those partnerships," she said.
Brochu said the county doesn't offer programs in its parks, but maintains the facilities so other groups can do so.
"We have not gotten into the programming at all," he said. "We as an agency look at ourselves as a facilitator to maintain quality facilities and work with organizations to do programming."
He cited the Fort Gratiot Light Station as an example. The county owns the property and maintains the park, and the Port Huron Museum staffs the gift shop and trains volunteer docents who give tours.
"The museum is in the business of doing programming and tours, and it makes sense for them to come onto the property and do programming for us," Brochu said.
Susan Bennett, executive director of the Port Huron Museum, said sponsorships can make the difference between a profit and a loss — important to a group that no longer receives any financial support from the city of Port Huron.
"At a seminar that we attended last fall, and it was about fundraising, and they said whatever sponsorships you can get is what you're going to make," she said.
Sponsorships, however, can take a big commitment — and many of the companies that used to do that are either no longer in the community or have moved their headquarters elsewhere, Bennett said.
She said the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, the centerpiece of the light station, is a gem that brings people to Port Huron and the waterfront. This past season, she said, the museum partnered with Groupon — a deal of the day website — to offer discounts on lighthouse admission, and that "brought a lot of people from metro Detroit."
The light station is also the northern anchor of a trio of attractions — including the Thomas Edison Depot and the Huron lightship — run by the museum within walking distance of DoubleTree by Hilton, Freighters restaurant and St. Clair County's $9 million Blue Water Area Convention Center.
The center is expected to open in Spring 2015.
"We're doing a training program for the Hilton staff" about the area's history and attractions, Bennett said.
She said the Thomas Edison Depot will have a grand reopening in the spring to coincide with the opening of the convention center. The depot is outside the center's front door and can provide space for events.
"We're very cognizant of our location on that Golden Mile," Bennett said.
The museum scored a coup this summer when the light station's Sandfest, in its second year, was named by USA Today as one the top 10 must see sand sculpting competitions in the country.
"Sandfest is really only limited by the site itself," she said, noting that 12,800 people visited during the competition's three days in 2014.
She said the event had 7,800 people in its first year in 2013.
The light station is only five acres and has limited parking, she said. The museum partnered with St. Clair County Community College and Blue Water Transit for off-site parking. Organizers also are considering a satellite location north of and in addition to the light station for 2015.
And they're going to consider locking the company that produces the event into a three-year contract, Bennett said.
Bennett said people who enjoy the museum's attractions, including the Carnegie Center, "need to tell that to about 10,000 friends."
THE MUSEUM'S BIGGEST success story in 2014 was built on the unlikely foundation of sand. Some of the biggest success stories in attracting people to Port Huron are similarly unconventional.
In June, politicians gathered at Bakers Field in Port Huron Township to dedicate the Island Loop National Water Trail, a nearly 10-mile paddling route that transits the Black River Canal, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River and the Black River.
Lori Eschenburg, a planner and GIS specialist at St. Clair County's Metropolitan Planning Commission, was probably the person who most pushed, pulled, pleaded and prodded to make the national water trail a reality. She also developed the popular Blueways of St. Clair County, a website that lists local paddling routes, launch sites and attractions for kayakers, canoeists and paddleboarders.
She said one of the goals is to find out how many people use the water trail and Blueways.
"We need to figure that out," she said. "We've kind of loosely talked about doing a few survey Saturdays where somebody would sit at all the launches ... and count people using the launches and ask them where they're coming from."
She said she gets reports from people living along the Black River about seeing more kayaks and canoes than in previous years.
"I think a lot of people are excited and using it, which is our point," she said.
The county and the city dedicated this year a new accessible kayak and canoe launch east of the Seventh Street Bridge on the Black River. The launch, Eschenburg said, gives paddlers easy access to the city's downtown businesses.
That's part of a concept called Trail Towns, she said, which melds water and walking and biking trails into communities, giving people using those trails destinations with things to do and see.
She said paddling has expanded greatly in Port Huron and St. Clair County.
"I feel like I'm not giving it the attention it needs because it's grown beyond what we thought it would, which is a good thing, but I still have to do the rest of my job," she said.
Promoting paddling is the job of Missy Campau and Erik Isaacson. Campau runs Great Lakes Paddle Sports, 250 Huron Ave., where she sells kayaks and equipment and gives lessons, and Isaacson is a concessionaire at Lakeside Beach where he rents paddleboards and also gives lessons.
Campau is the force behind Paddle and Pour, an event sponsored by the Blue Water Social Club that started in 2012 with about 35 kayakers and canoeists and which has grown to more than 400 participants.
"For Paddle and Pour next year, and this is very, very preliminary at this point, my intent is to make Paddle and Pour a two-day paddling festival — rowboats to canoes to kayaks to standup paddleboards," she said.
She's working with Port Huron Township to bring the event to Bakers Field and attract even more paddlers to "pour money into the city."
Campau said she uses social media almost exclusively to promote the event.
"I meet a lot of people here for Paddle and Pour," she said. "A ton of people my age, looking for something to do that doesn't cost a lot of money."
Like Eschenburg, she sees the potential of the new launch in downtown Port Huron on the Black River.
"This is going to allow the novice paddler to cruise all the way up to Wadhams Bridge (in Kimball Township)," she said.
She's also working with the city to obtain a concession for a rack with kayaks at the launch. That would allow for a turnkey rental — someone comes to the store to rent a kayak, signs a waiver and gets a paddle and personal flotation device and a key to unlock a kayak.
The rack also would give kayakers — and paddleboarders — a safe place to stow their craft.
"You can come down, lock up your kayak and have dinner," Campau said.
Isaacson shares space with Campau, but much of his business is at Lakeside Beach. He'll also deliver a paddleboard to waterfront properties. He's been in business two seasons.
The business, he said, has been "highly successful."
"Last season was well over 300 people who had never paddleboarded before. This season was probably 400 to 500."
He said people come to Port Huron to paddleboard because of Lake Huron's clean water.
"I'd say the majority of rentals at Lakeside Beach are people not from this area," he said. "They are looking specifically for clean water in Lake Huron, shallow water, safe water.
"They love that beach. They're making that drive to get to that clean water."
They're also spending money in the area — Isaacson said he frequently gives restaurant recommendations.
The water, he said, is a unique asset, but also "a place where you have to be on your toes."
"But that doesn't mean you can't have fun and you can't do some exotic stuff."
He said other entrepreneurs could be making money from water recreation.
"Jet ski rental is the single-most asked question at Lakeside Beach. ... I think there's a huge market out there," he said.
Bob Klingler is trying to fill a market niche. He owns the Bramble, a retired U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender docked on the St. Clair River at the Seaway Terminal.
"We've got our own website and we have our own brochures," he said.
He thinks the convention center, when it opens, will push business his way.
"They're going to have a visitors center within that space," he said. "That's going to be a good location, and we're going to improve signage."
The Bramble will be open for tours until Nov. 1. Klingler said about 1,500 people have visited the ship.
"We were hoping for more, but we got about twice as many as we did last year," he said. "Next year we're hoping to get more."
The ship, he said, attracts tourists — and especially former sailors and people who have served in the Coast Guard.
"A far as an attraction goes, it's 2 million pounds of steel that have been all over the world," he said. "Sailors and Coasties alike, once they get onboard, they don't want to leave.
"When you get inside and start walking through all the machinery and the berthing ... it's a big attraction."
Jenny Olsen is a partner in a group that owns the Huron Lady II, an excursion vessel that operates on the St. Clair River on the weekends from Memorial Day to Father's Day, daily from Father's Day to Labor Day, and weekends only again until the end of September.
"I grew up an hour away from Port Huron, and I had no idea Port Huron existed until I owned a business there," she said.
"Here's Port Huron with its awesome fishery and all sorts of cool stuff to do, and I'd never been there," said Olsen, who also is one of the hosts and producers of the "Michigan Out of Doors" television show on PBS stations around the state.
She said tourists want "to see the freighters up close, they want to see the Blue Water Bridge and they want to see the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse."
The tour also attracts local people, she said, who might not have a boat but who want to show off the city to visitors.
"Our biggest budget item is marketing and advertising," she said, "but we can't do it single-handedly."
"... That's the million dollar question: How do we get people in from other areas?"
BRIAN MARTIN MIGHT call it the $30 million question.
Martin is a commercial welder and diver — he calls himself a "3-pound hammer guy" — and he's hatched the most audacious idea to bring people to Port Huron:
Put a window at the bottom of the St. Clair River — he estimates it'll cost at least $30 million — to show visitors what he sees when he's diving. He calls it Below the Blue.
"It could be a basement, perhaps of a hotel, and the basement would have a full window on one end of it 22 feet below the surface," he said. "You could look at the fish, look at the divers."
Donsky, the consultant from New York City, loves the idea.
"Those are the types of ideas that make places special," he said. "When you can do something special like that and you are the only one doing it, the only place with a window on the river for a thousand miles, then you get people to drive there."
Martin said he's marketing what the city already has. He uploads videos of fish — walleye, smallmouth bass, suckers and ominously toothy muskellunge ghosting in and out of the frame — in the St. Clair River to YouTube and posts them on Facebook.
"When I do those fish videos, that's the foundation for bigger things," he said. "I'm trying to convince people there are things here they want to see live under the water."
He argues the technology exists, that institutions such as the Monterrey Bay Aquarium near San Francisco are giving people windows into what's beneath the ocean.
The Detroit Zoo since 2001 has been giving visitors an underwater look at polar bears and seals in the Arctic Ring of Life exhibit.
Patricia Mills Janeway, a spokeswoman for the zoo, said the Arctic Ring of Life is the zoo's top attraction.
"Visitors can watch polar bears swim above their heads in a 190,000-gallon salt water pool, something that cannot be seen in nature," she said in an email.
Diane Miller, the zoo's chief programming officer, said in the same email that people like to watch animals do what animals do.
"We don't consider watching an animal a passive experience," she said. "Guests will tell about what they are seeing, and often it is a 'wow' experience.
"Watching an animal, especially with someone, is a powerful experience and can create lasting memories and conversation. Those memories are what can bring guests back to the zoo over and over, sometimes for generations."
That's what Martin wants to do: Bring people to Port Huron and keep them coming back.
"When I make the videos, it's a piece of the puzzle — a piece of a puzzle the city hasn't put together yet," he said. "They leave a lot of scraps on the table that would make a fine meal.
"They build convention centers first without building attractions. The city needs to build attractions — it's a little piece of the puzzle."
He envisions people who don't dive, who don't swim or who might even be using wheelchairs being able to "roll up in front of that window and see what I take advantage of when I dive."
"My challenge is to interest somebody in doing something like that."
Putting cameras underwater using off-the-shelf equipment would be a start, he said. One of his videos, he said, has more than 9,000 views, and he has more than 70,000 views overall.
"If you knew you could come into Port Huron and go into any bar, and there's a big screen TV there where you can see a big school of fish — that's a tourist attraction," he said. "We have individuals that are marketing Port Huron better than committees ... and when you say Port Huron, you can say the entire Blue Water Area.
"The water is the attraction for the local area in some form. The water is the key, and the water is what they need to promote."
Kathy Johnson knows about the attraction of the water. She and Greg Lashbrook produce underwater films through their company, Gregory A.D.
"Diving and snorkeling are good economic assets for a community that are available in this area," she said.
She said there's a lack of awareness — especially about snorkeling, which doesn't require expensive diving equipment.
"There's almost a misconception that you can't just grab a mask and snorkel," she said. "You could do that at Desmond Landing now, at Pebble Beach (along the Blue Water River Walk), and have a very interesting snorkel.
"There are some beautiful grass beds and fish in there in the summer."
Like Martin, she and Lashbrook try to create interest in the area by posting videos on the Internet and social media.
"We just have to continue to get the word out," she said. "It's a visual thing. It's not so much saying it. That's what we learned."
She said there's a huge concentration of fish species just off Port Huron's shore —and not many people know about it.
"With all of the television and all of the media that's available to people, I think they think if there was something great under freshwater they would have seen it," she said. "We have approached different broadcasters about Great Lakes programming, and only in the past couple of years have we gotten interest back."
Gregory A.D. had a documentary about sturgeon accepted for a freshwater film festival, Voices from the Water, that will be in Madrid, Spain, next summer.
Martin said Port Huron is "the place where anybody would want to do what I'm talking about."
"We have the fish, we have the clear water, we have the freighters. We just have to take advantage of them."
PORT HURON'S CITY MANAGER thinks the city is turning a corner.
"Our downtown is becoming a destination, not only for mom and dad, but for the young professionals," James Freed said.
"We have about 19 restaurants and bars downtown in various forms," he said. "That's drawing people who want to be downtown where something's going on."
He compared interest in the city to a snowball at the top of the mountain just before it starts rolling.
"It's here; it's building up," he said.
Kristi Hazard, program manager of MainStreet Port Huron, sees the same thing from her office on Huron Avenue.
"We need to tell people about Port Huron outside of our boundaries," she said. "Our good news has to get out of town.
"We have got so much to offer here."
Contact Bob Gross at (810) 989-6263 or rgross@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobertGRoss477
FYI
WEBSITES AND FACEBOOK PAGES
• Port Huron Recreation Department:http://porthuronrec.com/Facebook:www.facebook.com/phrec
• St. Clair County Parks and Recreation:www.stclaircounty.org/offices/parks/Facebook:http://on.fb.me/1tkj253
• Port Huron Museum:www.phmuseum.org/Facebook:www.facebook.com/PortHuronMuseum
• Blueways of St. Clair County:www.bluewaysofstclair.org/Facebook:http://on.fb.me/1wwDFL9
• Great Lakes Paddle Sports:www.greatlakespaddlesports.com/Facebook:www.facebook.com/PaddlePortHuronatGLMO
• PoHo Paddle:http://pohopaddle.com/Facebook:www.facebook.com/PohoPaddle
• Bramble:www.uscgcbramble.com/Facebook:http://on.fb.me/1rtgWZU
• Huron Lady II:http://huronlady.com/Facebook:http://on.fb.me/1z55igC
• Brian Martin YouTube:www.youtube.com/user/SmokinWaters
• Gregory A.D.:www.gregoryad.com/Facebook:http://on.fb.me/1DIZhWM
• Port Huron:www.porthuron.org
• Main Street Port Huron Facebook:www.facebook.com/MainStreetPortHuron
• Blue Water Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Discover the Blue:www.bluewater.org Facebook:www.facebook.com/DiscoverTheBlue