Stand at the west end of 8th Street in downtown Holland and Lake Macatawa is close enough to see, but an active industrial dock still sits between the sidewalk and the water. Grand Haven has its boardwalk. Saugatuck has its chain ferry and harbor walk. Holland, for all its Tulip Time crowds and 8th Street storefronts, has never had a way to walk from downtown to its own waterfront. Not because of zoning, not because nobody wanted it, but because a single company's dock has occupied the exact parcel where that connection would need to happen.
That changed in a practical sense this spring. In late May 2026, the city of Holland was awarded an $11.25 million Port Infrastructure Development Program grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration. The money is earmarked for the Holland Intermodal Ports Improvement Project at 64 Pine Avenue, the site of the retired James DeYoung power plant. If you're comparing Holland's south shore against Grand Haven or Saugatuck right now, this is the detail worth understanding before you look at a single listing. The grant doesn't build a marina. It funds the move that has to happen before anyone can build anything.
Why one dock has blocked an entire waterfront
The plan, first floated under the city's "Waterfront Holland" initiative and formally adopted by City Council in January 2020, hinges on a land swap. Verplank Dock Company currently operates at the end of West 8th Street, right where a developer would need to build a marina, restaurant row, and residential blocks to connect downtown to the lake. Verplank's move target is the DeYoung power plant site, which the city has owned since the plant was retired in 2017. Swap the two parcels and the city opens its most valuable downtown-adjacent waterfront to redevelopment while giving Verplank a working industrial site of its own.
Holland-based developer Geenen DeKock Properties, known locally as GDK, submitted the only proposal after the city put the site out to a nationwide request for proposals, and voters approved the underlying land sale in May 2023 with about 63.5 percent support. GDK has been direct about what the firm is chasing. In comments to a local television station describing the plan, GDK said it would put Holland
"more on par with places like Grand Haven and Saugatuck, where people can walk the waterfront with the boats."
That single sentence tells a buyer more about Holland's competitive position than any market report. Grand Haven and Saugatuck already deliver walkable water. Holland is explicitly trying to catch up, and the reason it hasn't yet is not lifestyle demand or lake quality. It's an active industrial lease sitting on the one parcel that would make it possible.
What the grant funds, and what it doesn't
The $11.25 million doesn't pay for a hotel, a restaurant, or a single residential unit. According to the local report on the award, the money goes toward reconstructing the seawall at the DeYoung site, accommodating Verplank's industrial operations once it relocates there, and renovating public infrastructure to support the swap. In other words, this grant pays for the plumbing that makes the trade possible, not the amenities everyone pictures when they see the renderings.
That distinction matters for timeline expectations. Here's roughly how the project has moved so far:
- 2017 – The James DeYoung coal-fired power plant is retired, freeing the Pine Avenue site for future use.
- January 2020 – Holland City Council adopts the Waterfront Holland vision diagram and guiding principles after a public engagement process.
- 2023 – GDK submits the only proposal to a citywide request for qualifications, and voters approve the land sale that enables the Verplank swap.
- May 2026 – The city secures $11.25 million in federal port infrastructure funding to cover the seawall and industrial relocation work the swap requires.
Nine years between the power plant's retirement and a funded path to actually moving the dock that blocks it. That pace is the context a buyer needs before assuming this news means shovels are about to hit the ground on a marina.
The part that still isn't approved
Holland Mayor Nathan Bocks has been blunt about where things stand. Speaking about GDK's plan after the 2023 vote, he said,
"This is by no means a done deal at this point, there is an awful lot more that needs to happen."
The conceptual site plan, which includes residential buildings, a hotel, restaurant, marina, ice cream shop, cruise ship docking, a kayak launch, and a boardwalk plaza, still has to clear a typical planning commission and city council approval process. After the 2023 vote, GDK said it would refine that design around public feedback on waterfront access before taking it through formal approvals. There is no published completion date for that process in the record so far. The seawall and industrial accommodations funded by the new grant come first. The mixed-use development that actually changes what someone can walk to comes after.
There's already a small preview of what a connected waterfront could mean commercially. Holland Area Convention and Visitors Bureau director Linda Hart has pointed out that a Great Lakes cruise ship already anchors in Lake Macatawa, even without a dedicated dock, after the city lost regular cruise stops to Muskegon roughly a decade ago. Hart has said seven cruise ship visits to Holland this year generated close to $360,000 in economic impact, even though those passengers are typically bused in from Muskegon rather than docking downtown. A dedicated dock at the redeveloped site could capture more of that spending directly downtown instead of routing it through another city first.
What this means for prices on the south shore today
Here's the part that actually affects a buyer's decision this year. Lake Macatawa's south shore already carries a walkability premium, with or without this redevelopment. Non-waterfront homes within a mile of the lake carry a meaningful premium over equivalent homes farther inland, downtown-adjacent addresses get their own walkability premium on top of that, and the Park Township lakeshore corridor already commands the highest prices in the broader Holland market. That premium exists today because Kollen Park and the Heinz Waterfront Boardwalk already give residents a lakeside walk along the south shore, even though it doesn't yet connect all the way to 8th Street.
Current listings across the lake illustrate the spread buyers are working with as of early-to-mid 2026:
| Where on Lake Macatawa | What you're actually buying | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Prime frontage, the South Shore Drive type of address | Large lots, deep-water docks, direct channel and lake views | $700K entry-level to $3M+ for the best estate frontage |
| Non-waterfront, within a mile of the lake and near downtown | Walking distance to 8th Street, priced above Holland's citywide median of about $419,000 in early 2026 | Above the citywide median, exact premium varies by street |
| Condo and villa communities on the lake | Shared docks, lower-maintenance entry point to lakefront living | Entry pricing from roughly $150,000 |
The middle tier is the one to watch. Those are the properties closest to the parcel that would change character most if the swap and subsequent redevelopment go through. They're also the properties where a buyer today is essentially betting on a funded but not-yet-approved plan, rather than paying for an amenity that already exists the way a Grand Haven or Saugatuck buyer would.
How to actually use this if you're comparing towns
If walkable water access is the deciding factor in your search, treat this news for what it is. It's real progress on the hardest part of a long-stalled project, the part involving money and a legal handoff between a city, a developer, and a private industrial operator. It is not evidence that construction is imminent or that Holland's south shore is about to reprice overnight. Grand Haven and Saugatuck already deliver a walkable downtown-to-water connection today, and their pricing already reflects that. Holland is priced closer to what it currently offers, which is a lakeside boardwalk and park system that stops short of downtown, with a funded but multi-step plan to close that gap.
That gap is exactly why this is worth watching rather than reacting to. A buyer who wants proven walkability today has good reasons to look at Grand Haven or Saugatuck. A buyer comfortable with a longer runway, who values being early on a documented, federally-funded project with council and community backing, has a real argument for looking at Holland's south shore now, before any of it shows up in an appraisal.
A few questions worth asking before you write an offer
Does this grant mean my Lake Macatawa home is about to jump in value? Not on its own. The grant funds infrastructure work, not the amenities that would change how the neighborhood functions day to day. Any pricing impact would follow actual construction and public access, both of which are still ahead of the current approval stage.
When could construction on the marina and residential buildings actually start? There's no published construction start date in the public record as of this writing. The sequence runs seawall reconstruction and industrial relocation first, then a formal planning commission and city council review of GDK's site plan, then construction. Each of those steps has its own timeline that hasn't been finalized.
What happens to boat traffic and the current dock in the meantime? Verplank Dock Company continues operating at its existing West 8th Street location until the land swap is complete and its new site at the former power plant parcel is ready to receive its operations. Nothing about current marina access or boat traffic changes on the ground yet.
If you're weighing Holland's south shore against Grand Haven, Saugatuck, or another Lake Michigan corridor town and want a read on how a specific address holds up against this timeline, the team at Michigan Homes & Cottages can walk you through what's already priced in and what isn't. Reach out and we'll put together a clear picture of the Lake Macatawa options that fit what you're actually trying to buy.
