Witts bringing lofts, live theater to Citadel

Dave and Georgina Witt are about to start on another landmark project in downtown Port Huron.

They and Stephen Witt, owner of Sanctum Contracting, expect to buy the Citadel building at 609 Huron Ave. next week.

Michelle Witt, of Sanctum Contracting, told the St. Clair County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority that the family's tentative plans include renovating the 12,000-square-foot building into six lofts on the upper floors, two ground-level retail spaces facing Huron Avenue and a theater facing Superior Street.

"We still have a few more meetings with the city to sort things out and meetings with the potential theater groups before anything is official yet," Michelle Witt said. "So the theater is not a done deal yet."

Witt said the lofts would be similar to the style of the Ben's Luxury Lofts, 314 Huron Ave., that the Witt family opened in September 2014. Those lofts have a refined industrial feel with exposed brick in each residence.

At Tuesday's brownfield authority meeting, the Witts' new company, Port Huron Citadel LLC, was awarded $3,500 for an environmental assessment of the property.

The application stated project construction would begin as soon as possible and be completed within one year. Total investment is estimated to be $1 million while creating 20 full time-equivalent jobs.

Dan Casey, Economic Development Authority of St. Clair County director and brownfield authority chairman, said there are a few theater groups interested in joining together to lease the theater space.

"This theater would not take away from the McMorran theater at all," Casey said. "This kind of live theater would have shows that would attract 50 to 100 people, which is no fit for McMorran. McMorran is much larger than that."

Casey said this project aims to be a permanent home for local theater groups.

Michelle Witt said the building would not have enough parking to accommodate all theater guests, so theater-goers likely would have to park in the McMorran Place parking lot.

The number of theater seats has not yet been decided.

The Citadel building was built by the local Salvation Army in 1903.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, it housed Guitar and Drum Land. In the 1990s, the building was the Citadel Antique Mall and Auction.

Since then it has housed multiple real estate and financial service offices. It has been vacant, with utilities shut off, for the past year, said David Haynes, Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County director of business attraction.

Contact Nicole Hayden at (810) 989-6279 or nhayden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHayden_TH.