LVR Realty owner Ranae Ihme enjoyed a banner 2016. She was the highest grossing agent in Glen Arbor (within the Traverse Area Association of Realtors (TAAR) MLS system) and was the third highest grossing agent in Leelanau County last year.
Jeff Katofsky, the new owner of Sugar Loaf, visited the dilapidated onetime ski resort for the first time on Wednesday, Dec. 14 — a biting cold and snowy day in Leelanau County. Katofsky acquired Sugar Loaf from Remo Polselli this fall.
Matt and Katy Wiesen — owners of Crystal River Outfitters, the Cyclery and the M22 store on Glen Arbor’s east end — have acquired the former home of Great Lakes Tea & Spice on M-109 and will open a new apparel store called “Coastal” in spring 2017.
The Sleeping Bear Ale Trail celebrates half a dozen (relatively) new breweries along the M-22 and US-31 corridors in Leelanau and Benzie counties. Patrons could foreseeably visit all six over the course of a weekend. The Ale Trail complement’s the region’s already well-established wine tourism pilgrimages and traditional drinking holes.
Jeff Katofsky — a Southern California attorney, property developer, and minor league baseball team owner — is on the verge of taking over Sugar Loaf from the ski resort’s longtime owner Remo Polselli. Katofsky told the Glen Arbor Sun he will close escrow before the end of October. According to Leelanau County code inspector Steve Haugen, the transaction could be official by the end of this week.
Big Glen Lake resident Chip Hoagland — dubbed the “Warren Buffet of food” in a recent Traverse Magazine feature story — will be honored with the Milliken Leadership Award by the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities on Saturday, Oct. 8 at the nonprofit’s annual Harvest at the Commons celebration. Tickets to the event, including dinner and entertainment, cost $45 and are available at MyNorthTickets.com.
A studio artist (that would be me) walks into a Traverse City Goodwill store looking for used clothing to repurpose (I cut up T-shirts into a knittable yarn). And as I stand there, rifling through the 25-foot long floor rack full of T-shirts, I think, and not for the first time, “There are enough T-shirts in this one store that no one needs to make or buy a new T-shirt ever again.” It seemed as though there were thousands.
Iron Fish Distillery opened over Labor Day weekend on a 119-acre farm on Dzuibanek Road, a dirt road that is three miles from Crystal Mountain Resort and five miles from downtown Thompsonville, just south of the Manistee-Benzie county line. Nearby meanders the tranquil Betsie River. The rural property is so beautiful that you might sip a spirit and stay all afternoon, and it is so remote that you would slip into the 19th century if it were not for the buzzing of the smart phone in your pocket.
Five rental homes may be leveled as a result of a massive business deal between the Noonan family and Rieth-Riley Construction, Inc., headquartered in Goshen, Indiana. Rieth-Riley’s services include road and bridge construction as well as earthwork and building site preparation. The deal, which closed on July 1, centers around the sale of Kasson Sand and Gravel, which began operation under Peninsula Asphalt Company of Traverse City in 1959. In 1982, it was sold to Robert Noonan and has been family operated ever since.
Let’s dispel the rumor right away. Deering’s Market in Empire is not closing. It’s 11 a.m. on a Wednesday in July, and Deering’s Market owner Phil Deering is taking chicken out of the fryer, getting things ready for the lunch crowd. The man is working hard. “It’s the way it is,” he comments. “Ya gotta make it in 90 days.” He dumps the chicken into a large metal bin lined with red and white checked paper.