Lake Michigan mile of shore up for auction
Published July 8th, 2006
Full Story at www.mlive.com
After decades of being left to nature, more than a mile of pristine Lake Michigan shoreline land south of Ludington will go up for auction in August.
Schrader/Westchester auctioneers and The Brokerage Land Co. will auction 37 tracts covering 6,312 feet of Lake Michigan frontage on high-bank and duneland property bordering Consumers Energy’s pumped storage hydroelectric plant.
Government officials said homes can be built on all the properties.
The auction of the land — which likely will sell for tens of millions of dollars — takes place Aug. 18 at the Ramada Inn and Convention center in Ludington.
Situated about three miles south of Ludington in Pere Marquette and Summit townships, the land is co-owned by Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison. It was acquired by the companies in the late 1970s and 1980s during the construction of the hydroelectric plant, said Dennis McKee, public affairs director for Consumers Energy.
“It’s excess property that serves no purpose for the power plant operations and the company is in a position to try to generate some revenue,” McKee said. “(The land sale) has been under consideration for a while … it has just taken some time to make the project happen.”
While the majority of the land is unoccupied wooded shoreline, two tracts have homes sitting on the property.
