Matching Opportunity with Resources: Brandon Ball Forges Ahead with Manistee Project and Venture North
“People are moving to Manistee,” says Manistee realtor Brandon Ball. “I was here during the low times and now we’re enjoying the good times. Seeing the faces and excitement of people at the end of their real estate purchase is what I enjoy the most.”
Ball began his Manistee real estate career in 2006, tough economic times for this community that has so much going for it.
Like a robust history, Lake Michigan and Manistee Lake shorelines, an industrial port serving successful corporations, a K-12 school, community college a well-functioning network of nonprofits, faith-based institutions, award-winning hubs for the arts and film and an eclectic business community that includes a downtown district overlooking the Manistee River channel.
Now, eighteen years later, Ball has become a successful business owner who is making the most of these special community assets.
“I’ve known Brandon for twenty years,” says Steve Brower, Business Development Specialist for Venture North Funding and Development, a nonprofit commercial lender that recently supported Ball with capital for a residential/business multi-purpose building. “He’s been very successful in real estate. His Dwelling Real Estate business is a leading sales office, recognized by the Board of Realtors in Manistee, Oceana and Mason Counties.”
Ball says the firm is a close-knit assembly of real estate pros, including mother, Judy Ball, a longtime booster of Manistee, including tourism and convention promotion and the community’s widely popular fishing tournaments.
“In the past, we saw properties simply being purchased and flipped in a very transitory real estate market,” says Ball. “Now, people are moving here to run a business or raise a family or enjoy our spectacular resources. They’re investing in our community. They want to stay here.”
MIBEACH PROPERTIES, LLC is Ball’s holding company, founded in 2020, that holds property Ball purchased that he saw years ago while scanning the possibilities with notables like the late Dave Carlson, a community leader and visionary.
“We thought it would be great to do something with one of these buildings from Manistee’s past,” says Ball.
In this case, it was a property at 369 River Street that had burned down in the Great Fire of October 8,1871 that swept across the State and burned two million acres of forest. The building was rebuilt in 1884. It is centrally located on River Street, the prime downtown thoroughfare.
In its history, the building had housed a clothing store, a dentist office and even a union meeting hall.
The vision was to restore and renovate the property to hold Ball’s real estate offices on the ground floor and create living space on the second and third floor. The upper floors will include flexible space and two bedrooms and baths, open dining and kitchen space, a loft and even a skylight that will intersect the second and third floors. Ball expects the building will be completed by 2026.
Brandon Ball, shown below, and some images of the ongoing rehab of 369 River Street in downtown Manistee.
With the benefit of an investment from the Manistee County Community Foundation (MCCF), Venture North Funding and Development recently provided an affordable loan of $48,954 to MIBEACH PROPERTIES for the building’s fire escape, an essential part of the redevelopment that will also help with unloading construction materials.
Venture North is a tax-exempt nonprofit that is a certified Community Development and Financing Institution (CDFI). It specializes in providing affordable loans and no-cost consulting to support the growth and prosperity of small businesses in ten northwest Michigan counties. It gives priority to underserved communities and to projects with demonstrable community impact.
The MCCF made an “impact investment” in Venture North, providing a low interest loan for Venture North to deploy to support projects such as Ball’s. Impact investments are made with the intention of generating both a financial return and social return and enable MCCF to expand its positive impact on Manistee County beyond grantmaking
“We are pleased to see capital investments in our downtown by Venture North,” said MCCF President and Chief Executive Officer Laura Heintzelman. “This project will result in a restored and renovated property in the heart of our downtown. We look forward to the positive community impact of this project and hope it will encourage others across Manistee County."
“It’s a fit with the target market priorities of our organization,” said Venture North President Laura Galbraith. “We’re looking forward to supporting small business projects and growth in Manistee County.”
“The Venture North process was fast and easy,” said Ball. “They fill the gap that small businesses need to move to the next level. In this case, it will mean more happy faces for Manistee!”
Also in Manistee…
Venture North Funding and Development will join with USDA Rural development in hosting two “Call to Action” 1.5-hour sessions in Manistee County at 9 a.m. at West Shore Community College Downtown Manistee, Education Center, 400 River St, Room 121 and at 2:30 p.m. in the Onekama Township Offices, 5435 Main St., Onekama. The purpose is to see how affordable lending, grants and no-cost consulting may support business growth and how financing for Community Facilities and loan guarantees can help achieve community priorities. Both sessions are open to the public. Please RSVP by visiting our website at www.venturenorthfunding.org/events or by emailing johanna@venturenorthfunding.org.