Boatnerd News – July 17, 2023

Offer to save leaking World War II ship by city of Muskegon rejected

MUSKEGON, MI – A nearly $3 million proposal by the city of Muskegon to save a leaky World War II museum ship has been rebuffed by the ship’s owner.

The city of Muskegon offered a couple of times to use $2.8 million in grant funding to buy property at the end of Third Street and bring the USS LST 393 ashore there. The property is owned by West Michigan Dock & Market (Mart Dock), a subsidiary of Sand Products Corp. that owns the ship.

Mayor Ken Johnson called the offer a “win-win.”

Sand Products CEO Max McKee and LST museum officials recently said the hull of the rare “landing ship tank” is taking on water and the ship is in jeopardy of sinking with all of its historic artifacts on board. It needs to be taken out of the water to preserve it, they said.

But McKee told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle he’s not interested in selling his property at the end of Third Street because he prefers to trade it for the city’s Fisherman’s Landing campground. Such a land swap has been contemplated, but it’s complicated by a prior state grant and could take more than a year to accomplish.

“Why should we be obligated to sell property?” McKee said when asked why he turned down the city’s proposed purchase. “We don’t like to sell property. We think property appreciates. It’s an investment.”

Johnson told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle he believes the city’s purchase of the property and relocation of the ship could create a park-like “wharf” for which the city received state “enhancement grants.” Those grants need to be spent fairly soon, though there’s no set deadline, he said.

“They say, ‘The ship is taking on water and it needs to be addressed. It’s essentially an emergency situation,’” Johnson said. “Well, here’s a solution to your emergency situation. It doesn’t need to be tied into the complex (land swap) deal that isn’t going to get done anytime soon. Here’s a win-win.”

McKee has his eyes on the campground as a location to which he could move his commercial port operations. Eventually, he’d like to construct a mixed commercial/residential development at the Mart Dock, which is located on prime Muskegon Lake shoreline. It’s also where the LST 393 currently is docked.

He said moving the LST on shore near where it’s currently docked isn’t an option because it wouldn’t fit in with those development plans.

The LST 393 is one of two surviving landing ships built during World War II. The ship was involved in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, to which it made 30 trips, as well as other battles.

It was purchased by Sand Products in 1948 and used as the Highway 16 car ferry to Milwaukee until the early 1970s. Restoration of the ship to its wartime appearance and the opening of the museum occurred about 20 years ago. USS LST 393 Veterans Museum is operated by an independent nonprofit group that leases the ship from Sand Products.

About eight months ago, breaches in the LST’s hull were repaired, but museum officials say it continues to deteriorate and the only way to preserve the ship is bring it ashore.

“Historic warships, especially the World War II ones, are sinking around the world,” museum Executive Director Jim Flood told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle earlier. “They have a finite life span and eventually the hulls give out.”

The city and McKee had been working on a land swap that would involve the city acquiring the Third Street property in exchange for the campground. But the land swap is complicated because the city used Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund money to develop Fisherman’s Landing.

If it was to get rid of the campground, the city would need to replace it with comparable property through a state-approved “conversion” process.

In November 2022, the city commission hired Ramboll, an engineering firm out of Ann Arbor, to develop a preliminary proposal for the state on the conversion of the Third Street Wharf and Fisherman’s Landing properties. Ramboll also was to look into several other properties that could require conversion. At that time, city staff said such conversion processes take at least a year to complete.

Meanwhile, the city has money to spend and McKee has a historic boat in jeopardy of sinking.

McKee said he would be willing to lease or sell a portion of the Third Street property onto which the city could move the LST. He believes the $2.8 million in grants were intended for moving the LST.

But Johnson said the money was intended for a park and wharf of which the LST could be a part. Leasing the property won’t satisfy terms of the grant, nor would it likely spend it all, he said.

Johnson remains interested in getting port operations moved out of downtown so the Mart Dock can be redeveloped, which he said was the main reason he agreed to pursuing a swap for the campground. It’s feasible that even if the land swap doesn’t go through that McKee could still acquire the campground a different way, Johnson said.

Meanwhile, the city continues to look for property for its wharf project.

MLive

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