News Photo by Steve Schulwitz The Vaughn, which is owned by Alpena developer Jeff Konczak, sits vacant and unused on Monday. Konczak said he intends to build housing during the restoration project on 2nd Avenue and is working with officials to apply for a grant to help pay for the cost of building the apartments.

ALPENA — The Sanctuary Cinema is now open, but it is far from the last downtown Alpena project in the cards.

Alpena developer Jeff Konczak, who rebuilt the old Royal Knight Cinema into the new movie theater, recently provided an update on some other ongoing large projects and shared a few details on some new ones in the works.

Konczak, who also owns the former Vaughns department store and the old State Theater, said although the work to those historic sites is not yet visible to the public, progress is being made. He said there are a lot of moving parts with the projects, but a lot of the action is being done behind the scenes.

The former store on 2nd Avenue, which Konczak said will be called The Vaughn, was slated to have a high end restaurant and a bakery on the ground level. Now, Konczak said the project has grown in scope and will include some apartments on the second level, which will increase the overall cost.

To help defray some of the cost to include badly needed apartments, Konczak is working with local officials to apply for a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp to help cover a portion of the project’s cost.

“It was an enormous cost increase to make suitable apartments,” he said. “I didn’t use any grant funding for the cinema, but the money is there to help build housing and it is badly needed here. It just makes sense.”

Konczak and his wife Tina purchased the old State Theater in the summer of 2020 and announced their intent to renovate it to the specs of the old Maltz Opera House, which was built in 1879 and was the primary entertainment venue in Alpena more than a century ago.

Although the project was stalled briefly while Konczak cut through red tape with the state of Michigan, he said it is inching forward.

“We have hired an architect for the Maltz for the design plans and to include a small addition to the building that will include changing rooms,” Konczak said.

He said an access drive also needs to be built so traffic at the theater can funnel onto Water Street.

“Our feet are always moving and we aren’t sitting still,” he said. “We’ll get there, but people need to understand what is all involved in a project of this size.”

Last July, Konczak purchased the old Alpena County jail property and intends to turn it into a food park. He said there will be a Quiznos, Biggby Coffee, and Taco Del Mar restaurant built inside B-Cubed fabricated buildings, as well as a pavilion and a park-like atmosphere where people can enjoy their lunch.

“We just received the final survey and are working on the site plan to give to the city,” he said. “The buildings are being built at B-Cubed, but Taco Del Mar is dragging a little because we are working on specific things it requires.”

Recently, the Konczaks purchased Lady Michigan — the glass bottom boat in Alpena used to give shipwreck tours in Lake Huron — to make sure it remained in Alpena and not sold or moved by its previous owner.

At the same time, Konczak bought a large boat, named the Superior Paddler, specially equipped to transport kayakers to the wrecks to explore.

Now, in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, new amenities are being added to the riverfront at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center. He said the docking in the Thunder Bay River will be modified to easily accommodate the boats and passengers, as well as the shuttle boats that transport passengers from cruise ships when they visit Alpena.

He said a pavilion will be built to help give people loading and unloading onto the boats some protection from the sun or rain.

“The slab has already been laid and we are just waiting on the pavilion,” Konczak said. “We definitely have a lot in play right now and it is keeping us all moving.”