04/24/2007

'Boutique' hotel to replace Whiting

By Bill O'Brien

bobrien@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Bob Sutherland, owner of Cherry Republic, stands outside the Whiting Hotel on Front Street in downtown Traverse City.

TRAVERSE CITY — A local entrepreneur who built a successful retail and mail-order business around the cherry is about to plant himself in the middle of the Cherry Capital.

Bob Sutherland of Glen Arbor-based Cherry Republic is purchasing the Whiting Hotel building on East Front Street in downtown Traverse City, where he'll open a new retail store featuring his popular cherry products and apparel, with long-range plans for a boutique hotel to replace the 112-year-old Whiting.

The building is owned by local businessman Michael Anton.

"I've been looking for years as far as what would be the right spot for us downtown,” Sutherland said. "The exciting part to me is to make this a unique and attractive destination for downtown.”

Sutherland is president and chief executive officer of Cherry Republic, a retail, mail-order and wholesale distributor of cherry products and apparel that's grown into one of the most-popular cherry-related small businesses in northern Michigan. He launched the company in 1994 in a tiny retail store in Glen Arbor where it's grown into a thriving complex with more than 170 products and 70-plus employees, and a mailing list of more than 240,000 customers.

He plans to open a Cherry Republic storefront by Memorial Day weekend in the former Happy Hog motorcyclist accessory shop at 150 E. Front St. The other two storefronts in the building, Del Sol sunglass shop and What to Wear clothing store, will remain for now, although Sutherland said he hopes to eventually expand Cherry Republic into the entire ground floor.

Down the road are plans for a specialty inn upstairs to replace the aging Whiting Hotel, currently used for low-cost alternative housing for Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan and other agencies.

The current Goodwill lease extends for another 3½ years so no changes are imminent, although he eventually hopes to create a scaled-down inn with less than the 50 rooms than exist in the Whiting.

"There's a lot of cool history in there,” Sutherland said. "We don't want to lose that by over-renovating.”

Goodwill officials said they'll have to find another transitional housing location but should have sufficient time to explore other options.

"We always anticipated the point in time would come where it made economic sense for that building to be something else,” Goodwill executive director Cecil McNally said.

Downtown officials are excited about Sutherland's short- and long-range plans for the property.

The Cherry Republic store should be a destination stop for both tourists and locals, and the specialty hotel also will attract more people to the central part of the city.

"We expect them to be quite a draw for the downtown,” said Rob Bacigalupi, deputy director of the city's Downtown Development Authority.

Purchase price of the building was not disclosed, and Sutherland also declined comment on estimated redevelopment costs.

The building has an estimated cash value for tax purposes of more than $1.34 million, according to city tax records.

Sutherland also is a development partner in The New Neighborhood housing project near Empire. He served as a Leelanau County commissioner from 1992-94 and is a member of the Michigan Land Use Institute board of directors, where he served as chairman from 1998-2005.

He is a graduate of Glen Lake High School and Northern Michigan University.