Walk two blocks of Washington Street this month and you'll pass two versions of the same story. One building has a governor's press release, a state grant number people can recite, and scaffolding that's been up long enough to become part of the scenery. The other has no press release at all, a bar that's been pouring drinks since December 2023, and a national vodka award sitting on a shelf nobody had to ask permission for.
The building with the announcement still isn't open. The one without it already won something.
The Grant That Made The Podium
The Baker Building at 51005 Washington Street has been part of downtown New Baltimore's story since 1868, when Peter Schaars ran a dry goods store out of it and served as the local postmaster from 1867 to 1870. He sold the building to William Baker Sr. for $4,000, and the Baker family operated their business out of that storefront for more than a century before leaving in 1979. Other tenants came and went after that. For the past several years, the building has sat vacant.
In December 2024, Governor Gretchen Whitmer stood at a podium to announce that the Baker Building was getting a second act. A $1,238,924 grant through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Revitalization and Placemaking program would help fund a $2.95 million restoration of the 9,316-square-foot building, converting it into three residential units above ground-floor commercial space. Mayor Thomas Semaan called it a building that "holds a significant piece of history in our community."
Nearly two years later, the restoration is still in progress. A Historic District Commission filing from May 2026 shows the project working through a demolition permit for an existing garage, with plans to reuse the brick in the main restoration. The ground-floor commercial space has been listed since February 2026, and as of a public update in early July 2026, it's marked pending at $25 per square foot on a triple net basis. Someone has apparently agreed to move in. Nobody has moved in yet.
The Restaurant Still Waiting On Its Season
A few blocks away, at the northwest corner of Alfred and Washington, Brasserie 1796 tells a similar story on a shorter timeline. The 4,600-square-foot restaurant is going up on the former site of the Aquarium Shop, a short walk from the public marina, with plans for European-inspired scratch cooking, an inside dining room, and a screened and heated outdoor section. The name honors 1796, the year the town's first European settlers arrived.
Community coverage earlier this year pointed to a spring 2026 opening. As of this September, the restaurant's own website still describes the space as under construction, with an invitation to follow along on social media for "our official grand opening announcement." Spring came and went. The doors didn't.
Here's the pattern across downtown New Baltimore this year, side by side:
| Project | What Was Announced | Status As Of September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Baker Building | Dec. 2024 state grant, governor's podium, $2.95M restoration | Under construction; ground-floor space pending lease |
| Brasserie 1796 | Spring 2026 opening target | Still under construction per its own site |
| Tashmoo Distilling | No grant, no press conference | Open since Dec. 2023; national award in 2025, statewide honor in 2026 |
| Main St. & Washington corner | New council pushing for developer proposals | No buyer, no timeline announced |
Two of these projects came with press releases and are still waiting to open their doors. One came with nothing but a lease and a liquor license, and it's the one with an award on the wall.
Fifty Feet Away, Nobody Asked The Governor
Tashmoo Distilling sits at 51043 Washington Street, close enough to the Baker Building that you could walk between them without finishing a conversation. Chris and Ellen Ross founded it in 2022 with longtime friend and business partner Tom Maliskey, and the distillery and tasting room opened in December 2023. There was no state grant attached to it, no ribbon-cutting covered by a Lansing press office. The name comes from the Tashmoo, a passenger steamer built in 1899 by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company, and the tasting room is styled after a 1920s speakeasy in its honor.
The distillery has spent its short life quietly collecting proof that it's doing something right. In 2025, its vodka took Best in Category for Neutral Vodka at America's Greatest Vodka, and its martini made the shortlist for Best Vodka Martini nationally. In 2026, it picked up a Best of Michigan honorable mention for distilleries. It also holds a distinction that has nothing to do with marketing copy: because its tequila is sourced directly from the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico, Tashmoo is the only distillery in Michigan permitted to actually label a spirit "tequila." This year marks close to its third full year in business, no groundbreaking required.
What Else Filled In While Everyone Watched Washington Street
The Baker Building and Brasserie 1796 have absorbed most of the attention this year, but they're not the only things that changed downtown. A handful of other spots opened or expanded without much fanfare, and together they say more about how New Baltimore actually fills its storefronts than any single grant announcement does.
- Knapp's City Garage opened as one of the newer gathering spots downtown, according to the New Baltimore Business Alliance, with no bigger announcement than a sign going up.
- On The Bay, the Florida Keys-inspired bar with the heated cabanas and the largest outdoor bar in town, added a Saturday and Sunday waffle bar new for 2026, a small addition that didn't need a permit hearing.
- Fin's Eatery & Spirits has occupied the former Anchor Bay Pharmacy building since Bob and Mary Higgins acquired it in August 2015, after years running the Oxford Inn in Royal Oak and Novi. It's been serving fresh fish and baby back ribs long enough that a server elsewhere in town once called it a landmark.
- The Tennyson building, completed in 2016 overlooking Walter and Mary Burke Park and Anchor Bay, leased up fast and still houses Willy & Babbish Boutique and Emerson's By the Bay. It's proof this isn't downtown's first round of new construction, and the last one filled in quicker than anyone expected.
None of these needed a governor's signature to open. They just opened.
The One Corner Nobody's Claimed Yet
Not every piece of downtown has even gotten as far as a pending lease. The corner of Main Street and Washington, home to the city's closed recreation center and old police station, has been sitting empty for years while residents pushed for something to happen with it. With a newer city council in place, there's been movement toward soliciting proposals from developers, with talk of more retail and residential space eventually landing there. But there's no grant number attached to it yet, no MEDC press release, not even a pending sign in the window. If the Baker Building is two years into its comeback story, this corner hasn't started writing one.
What To Actually Watch This Fall
If you're trying to gauge how downtown New Baltimore is really doing, the press releases aren't the instrument for it. The Baker Building's grant announcement and Brasserie 1796's spring target were both real news the day they came out, and both are still, as of this writing, promises rather than open doors. The businesses actually running, the ones with a stamp on their license instead of a line item in a state budget, are the ones telling you what's already working.
The steadier signals haven't needed announcing either. The New Baltimore Farmers Market sets up on Washington Street every Sunday from the week after Memorial Day through mid-October, scaffolding or no scaffolding two doors down. Walter and Mary Burke Park keeps its 16 free daily boat wells and its 160-foot flagpole, the tallest in Michigan, running the same as it always has. None of that waits on a permit hearing.
So when the Baker Building finally opens its ground floor, or Brasserie 1796 finally seats its first table, it'll be genuinely good news for downtown. It just won't be the news that already happened. That part's been open since December 2023, pouring drinks a block away from where the cameras were pointed.
If you're watching downtown New Baltimore shift and wondering what it means for your own place in it, whether you're weighing a move, sizing up an investment, or just curious what your home might be worth in a neighborhood that's clearly still writing its next chapter, Kevin Paton is a call away. Get your free home valuation and find out where you actually stand.
