Muskegon residents will get their first real look next week at what could replace a stretch of industrial shoreline near downtown, as the city rolls out design renderings for a new 3.12-acre waterfront park at Third Street Wharf. The Muskegon City Commission reviewed updates to the project on Tuesday, moving the long-debated waterfront overhaul one step closer to construction. The park sits on vacant land next to the Shoreline Inn, part of a larger parcel known as Third Street Wharf that also includes adjacent green space owned by Mart Dock, formally West Michigan Dock and Market Corporation.
The city commission agreed in August to pay Grand Rapids-based Progressive Companies $96,621 for design services on the project, according to MLive. Progressive Companies is handling planning, public engagement, survey work, site design, environmental review, permitting, and limited construction administration for the site. The firm has previously completed master planning for the 60-acre Muskegon Luge Adventure Sports Park in Muskegon State Park, according to Progressive Companies.
Why the Campground Can't Just Move Next Door
Progressive Companies has already begun preparing time-and-materials bid requests for work on the 3.12 acres, and City Manager Jonathan Seyferth told the commission those bids will be reviewed in the coming weeks, per the same MLive account. Seyferth also addressed a question that's lingered since the original land swap: whether a campground could simply be relocated onto the city-owned waterfront strip instead of being eliminated altogether. He said the answer is no — the city's 3.12 acres is a narrow, linear stretch running alongside the water, leaving insufficient room for a campground.
An interior portion of the broader site, owned by Mart Dock, could theoretically accommodate a campground, Seyferth noted, but the city has not had any discussions about purchasing that land. Instead, the city is prioritizing the waterfront acreage itself based on public feedback, with Seyferth saying it offers the greatest value for public access and park improvements, the report states.
Public Input Session Set for Pigeon Hill Parking Lot
Progressive Companies plans to host a public engagement event from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on October 20 at 895 Fourth St. in Muskegon, in the parking lot across from Pigeon Hill Brewing Company. Attendees will be able to view site renderings at four separate stations, and organizers plan to set up a tent on site in case of inclement weather.
The feedback session arrives just days after the city separately issued a formal solicitation for trade bids on construction of a public access path and amenities at Third Street Wharf, according to the City of Muskegon. The city scheduled a site meeting for October 16 and set bid submissions due October 23 — a rapid pivot from design discussions into procurement for physical construction.
A Land Swap Years in the Making
The Third Street property is part of a broader land swap agreement the Muskegon City Commission approved in a 4-2 vote in December 2025, transferring ownership of the Fisherman's Landing campground to Mart Dock for commercial port expansion in exchange for downtown waterfront acreage and public access rights, according to WZZM 13. Under that agreement, Fisherman's Landing will remain open through the 2026 camping season before overnight camping ends, though the public boat launches, fish cleaning station, and parking are set to remain.
Fisherman's Landing has deep roots in the city's history. The site was originally created in 1968 as Fisherman's World on a former foundry sand dump through volunteer efforts and state grant funding, growing into an 18.6-acre park that conservation study data cited by the City of Muskegon estimates generates roughly $6.5 million annually in local economic impact. Its planned conversion into a larger industrial port on Muskegon Lake is the broader project's trade-off for the public access gains envisioned at Third Street Wharf.
Federal Money and a Bigger Port Vision
The financial stakes behind that trade-off are significant. An MLive FOIA report in September found that the City of Muskegon and Mart Dock applied for more than $29 million in federal Port Infrastructure Development Program grant funding to convert Fisherman's Landing into a modern industrial freight terminal, a project estimated at $37.15 million overall, as detailed by MLive. The port realignment also extends to a joint acquisition process between the city and Mart Dock for the neighboring 52-acre Verplank property, with two-thirds of that parcel reserved for port shipping infrastructure.
City and port leaders have projected the overarching waterfront transformation could generate more than 300 jobs, $41 million in annual sales, and $14 million in wages across West Michigan's maritime and commercial sectors, while adding 4,000 feet of public lakefront access modeled after Chicago's Navy Pier. That 4,000-foot figure for new public lakefront access is echoed in the commission's own project updates this week.
The waterfront's rising value has been building for a while. Muskegon Lake was officially delisted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from the Great Lakes Areas of Concern list in September 2025, ending a designation it had carried since 1985, following more than $70 million in habitat restoration that restored 134 acres of shoreline — a milestone Hoodline reported alongside celebrations on a historic ship last August. That cleanup has fed directly into the surge of interest in redeveloping the lake's downtown shoreline for public use.
Not every waterfront proposal for the site has gone smoothly. Back in 2023, city and museum leaders debated relocating the World War II museum vessel USS LST 393 to a permanent dry-land berth at Third Street Wharf using $2.8 million in state enhancement grant funds, but those plans stalled, according to WZZM 13. With design renderings now heading to public review and construction bids already in motion, the city appears intent on avoiding another years-long stall this time around.
