Land Exchange Agreement

The City of Negaunee and the Negaunee Public School District have entered into an agreement to transfer approximately 8-acres of city-owned land to the ownership of school district. The land is part of a 36-acre parcel knows as the Mather B Site and runs parallel to the railroad tracks behind the Negaunee High School.

Under this agreement the school district will build up to two softball fields and a parking lot. In exchange for this parcel, the school agrees to construct a street starting from Arch Street to the ball fields, approximately 1500 ft long.

“The city believes that improving the 8-acre site with the improved street will likely lead to desirable economic development in the area”, City manager Nate Heffron said.

Currently, there is no public right-of-way that would allow new developers to access the 36-acre site and parcels beyond the city owned land. Without legal access to the property, developers may be turned off from such a development.

“The softball fields will be a great addition to our community. The possibilities of new housing and other developments on the lands beyond the fields is exciting. Whoever develops it will have great views of Teal Lake”, Heffron said.

“We’re excited to enter into this agreement with the City”, says Superintendent, Dan Skewis.  “We continuously look for ways to improve facilities for our student body.  Acquiring this land will allow us to do just that.”

Construction on one of the softball fields and the parking lot will begin as early as this June and is slated to be completed by September.

Questions concerning this release may be directed to the attention of the City Manager, Nate Heffron at (906) 475-7700 ext. 11 or Dan Skewis, School Superintendent at (906) 475-4156.