Call it symmetry, poetry, yin-yang, or maybe even kismet. Whatever the perfect term, Marty Lagina loves the idea that energy born of the sun—a 29 million-degree Fahrenheit nuclear fusion inferno—will be used to create cold and freeze ice on a large scale. And that will help Traverse City Curling Club members afford their goal of laying down the best curling ice in the United States.
The solar-to-ice conversion will happen in the club’s new Traverse City Curling Center, which opened in early 2023 in the former Kmart at Garfield and S. Airport Roads. An $8 million investment saved the decrepit and abandoned building and converted 28,000 of the 70,000 square feet into the nonprofit curling club’s ice facility, with its five ice lanes and social club.
“You have that big, flat roof. Let’s put some solar up there.”—Marty Lagina, CEO, Heritage Sustainable Energy
Lagina is CEO of Heritage Sustainable Energy, a renewable energy developer, and was already an investor in the project when the match of solar and ice dawned on him. “I contacted Lowell Gruman [also an investor in the project] and said, ‘You have that big flat roof, let’s put solar up there.’”
The largest single expense by far that the curling center has is buying energy to make ice—the club is run by volunteers—and the solar system will take a major bite out of that cost. “Why wouldn’t we do this?” asks Gruman. “It’s the right thing to do to shrink our carbon footprint, and it’s a great example for the community to see how to look differently at our building spaces. Why not look at buildings beyond being just simply a bunch of bricks. Let’s think of a building as a self-sustaining system.“
“This project was born out of necessity, considering the amount of electricity the curling club uses to keep the ice cold,” says Bart Hautala, Heritage engineer
“This project was born out of necessity, considering the amount of electricity the curling club uses to keep the ice cold,” says Bart Hautala, the Heritage engineer overseeing the installation by Windemuller Electric. Heritage commissioned an engineering study to ensure the roof could support the weight of the panels and then made plans to install 150kw’s worth of generating capacity on the 70,000 square foot surface—enough to power 22 homes. Hautala anticipates taking delivery of the components in June and installation to take about 12 weeks, with completion possibly in September.
Like Gruman, Hautala also hopes the project can be a poster child for how to use industrial roofs and inspire others to do the same. “If you have a roof, you can do something good with it,” he says. “And the cost of solar has come down so much, it’s way more palatable than, say, seven years ago.”
“It’s important to us the way we self-identify with Traverse City and how Traverse City lives in us. This project says, ‘This is how we do things.’”—Lowell Gruman, Boomerang Catapult
“This is a high-profile place,” Gruman says of the building, with soon-to-be rooftop solar installation silhouetted against the sky. “Everybody who sees it from a plane or lands at the airport and drives past on their way into town will say, ‘Look at that!’” He likes how the big building’s story—a large renovation project with what’s likely the region’s largest rooftop solar array– “plugs into our own storytelling about ourselves. We identify as a community that cares about this stuff, right? It’s important to us the way we self-identify with Traverse City and how Traverse City lives in us. This project says, ‘This is how we do things.’”
As gratifying as it is to see solar energy freezing ice while also creating an inspiring example for rooftop solar, for Gruman and the other investment partners, Bruce Byl and Casey Cowell, there’s far more to the story of the restored building, which the team has named the Center for Lifetime Engagement Activity and Renewal (CLEAR). The curling center takes up just 40% of the former Kmart’s floor space, and the investor team has already rented some of the remaining to the Traverse City Philharmonic (formerly Traverse Symphony Orchestra) for use as a headquarters, music classes, and recital space. A golf simulation business has also rented space. The search is underway for other businesses to round out the suite of renters.
The investor team has also created an investment opportunity for others that enables investors with a $50,000 minimum stake to take advantage of special tax provisions intended to stimulate revival of blighted and distressed property within federally designated “Opportunity Zones.” One of the chief advantages is that capital gains from the investment would not be taxed. The name of the investment vehicle is “Friends of the Traverse City CLEAR Center,” which is a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund. (For complete details, contact Lowell Gruman, lowell@boomerangcatapult.com.)
Around town, people have long called the building “the old Kmart.” This makes sense, after all, because for decades the building was Traverse City’s Kmart, attracting customers with its everyday low prices, iconic “blue light specials,” and rotisserie ham that slowly spun over by the lunch counter. But retail trends evolved, and Kmart did not do the same. The business cratered, and so did the building. In its final years employees were shuttling buckets around to catch rain and snowmelt leaking down from the roof. Kmart closed the store in September 2017. The high-profile northwest corner where Garfield and S. Airport Roads meet suddenly had a gigantic chunk of blight. And now that chunk of blight has new life as an example of renewable energy possibilities and engaged lifestyle. Gruman says the story has more good chapters that will unfold, but he can’t talk about those chapters quite yet. Stay tuned. 
Jeff Smith is Groundwork Communications Director.
jeff.smith@groundworkcenter.org
