BAY CITY - Another major development along the Saginaw River is keeping the building trades busy.

The $16 million Boathouse Condominiums are going up at the north end of Water Street, a development that will add 37 condominiums in prime real estate to the city's housing stock.

The Boathouse Condominiums is being built by a group of 23 investors, led by William Gregory and Paul Rowley, who also successfully converted the old Jennison hardware building further south on Water Street into a condo complex. Two years ago, the nearby Doubletree Hotel was completed on the riverfront.

"Our primary motivation to improve downtown Bay City is to get more feet on the street," said Rowley. "After we completed Jennison Place, we felt we had a pretty good grip on the community."

The 165,000 square-foot building will have condos on five levels with ground floor parking. The work, led by general contractor Gregory Construction, is expected to be complete next month. Numerous high-end features and fixtures are being built into the condos, which are priced from $384,000 to $724,000. The development is 60 percent sold.

The building was constructed about 1921, with an addition built in 1935. Over the years it had been used as a marina and for boat sales, and as a warehouse. At one time a railroad siding ran right through the building, which was used to drop off steel shipments. The building also had a 78-foot bridge crane that moved 10,000-lb. boats.

"Knowledge and technology in the 1920s and 30s about inertia and building loads are not what we have today," Gregory said. "And with that crane, there were obviously forces exerted on the building, so we had to make some corrections in the structure. But it is a damn-well built building. And the trades people have done very well."

INSTALLING A DISHWASHER at one of the Boathouse condominium units are Tom Hindman and Jack Ferchau of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 85.

THE BOATHOUSE condominiums on the Saginaw River.