Sheboygan’s Blue Harbor Resort is a Lake Michigan delight

When Travis Gross was growing up in Sheboygan the 1980s, he remembers the city’s South Pier area as a somewhat desolate place, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence with no-trespassing signs. 

Three decades later, he hardly recognizes the former C. Reiss Co. coal and fuel storage site, now home to a marina, the Blue Harbor Resort — one of the largest hotels on Lake Michigan — as well as restaurants, shops and condos.

“It’s been a dramatic turnaround, and I’d say the Blue Harbor and its convention center are responsible for spurring a good part of that rejuvenation,” said Gross, the 46-year-old director of the Sheboygan Historical Society.

“When I was a small child, I vaguely remember C. Reiss Co. ships bringing in loads of coal,” he said. “It was an industrial area, nothing like the great place it is now for locals and visitors alike. We have photos from the 1950s and it's unrecognizable now. There were big oil storage tanks right where the Blue Harbor is located.”

When European settlers arrived in the early 1800s, some of them settled on the peninsula south of where the Sheboygan River enters Lake Michigan. By 1850, he said, the Groh family was raising farm animals and running a boarding house there for sailors and other travelers moving up and down the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan.

Over time, a grain elevator was built on that land and a dock reached out into the lake. In the late 1880s, Clemens Reiss bought the property, which was then used to store coal, oil and other products for the next century. After the company was sold, the area sat vacant for more than a decade until the city decided to reclaim the lakefront and develop the land.

“In a sense, that real estate has come full circle, minus the farm animals,” he said. “From the small boarding house that was once there, to pretty much an industrial site to being home to a hotel — certainly many times bigger and more elegant — once again. The city saw it as a golden opportunity to develop something special and I’d have to say they succeeded. It’s pretty remarkable.”

When I visited the Blue Harbor recently for a two-night stay, I was impressed with its spacious lobby, the friendly staff and tasty food. I also enjoyed strolling along the beach and out to the piers in Lake Michigan. Families I encountered were posing for selfies on the water’s edge, other guests were sitting in Adirondack chairs and gazing at the nearly full moon and youngsters were toasting marshmallows with the help of their parents to make s’mores. It was an idyllic Midwestern summer scene.

David Sanderson, vice president and general manger of the resort, said the City of Sheboygan worked with Great Wolf Resorts to build the hotel, waterpark and an adjoining convention center, which was a public-private effort owned by the city and Great Wolf.

“But the first thing that happened back in the '90s was that the city developed the marina,” said Sanderson, who has worked at the resort since 2011. “And then some CEO types here in Sheboygan put the money together to buy the property that Blue Harbor sits on.”

The resort opened in 2004 and was initially successful, but within a few years the recession hit and it fell on hard times, explained Sanderson, who said he has built three hotels and worked on the renovations of several others.

“As I understand it, Great Wolf was going to launch a new brand called Blue Harbor,” he said. “But at some point, they decided against that.”

Sanderson called Great Wolf an “outstanding company” that is continuing to build new properties. But he said its business model doesn’t include meetings and conventions, which is one of Blue Harbor’s big draws.

“There were a few fundamentals that were missed,” he said. “Being a waterpark with a hotel and trying to compete in the conventions market with a place that was totally designed for the leisure family and families with children — who are still an integral part of our business — just didn’t work. There was also a disconnect architecturally between the exterior of the hotel, which has always been impressive, and the interior.”

Sanderson said he decided soon after he arrived to “de-mermaid the property,” which he said some people now compare to the Del Coronado in San Diego or Disney World’s Grand Floridian.

“We needed to broaden the appeal and make it a classic resort that has a waterpark that’s just one of our amenities. We also wanted to make Lake Michigan more part of the resort because it is such a valuable and beautiful resource. And it’s worked.

“So we opened the property up, took out heavy drapes, put in a bocce ball court and a putting green outside, increased the fire pit area, expanded the pool and added a bunch of Adirondack chairs along the lake.”

Sanderson said the 54,000-square-foot waterpark remains a focus of the resort and his company has invested millions of dollars in new attractions and upgrades in recent years.

“But we are not just a waterpark with a hotel attached to it,” he said.

Sanderson said he is flattered that his resort is credited with spurring development in what is now know as the South Pier neighborhood.

“We can’t take credit for doing that singlehandedly,” he said. “But the Blue Harbor resurgence and turnaround certainly has helped. On an average day, we increase the population of Sheboygan by about 2% with our total guest count.

“The real credit should go to some forward-looking people back in the '90s who made a strategic decision to modernize the lakefront and capitalize on it. Because of their foresight, Sheboygan has this great asset on Lake Michigan.”

More information: Rates at the 180-room resort range from $169 for a standard room to $1,500 a night for four-bedroom, presidential suites that have a full kitchen. Two- and four-bedroom villas cost from around $380 to $550 a night. All rooms include admission to the waterpark.

See blueharborresort.com or call (866) 701-2583.

Getting there: The Blue Harbor Resort, 725 Blue Harbor Drive, Sehboygan, is 55 miles north of Milwaukee via I-43 and Highway 28.