The Bowling Alley on Waukazoo Street Is Becoming a Library. Here's Where Things Stand in Northport.

Leelanau Township Library has the right to buy the Northport Pub & Grille building at 116 S. Waukazoo St. and plans to turn it into a library and community space. The owner has extended the purchase option to March 2027 and plans to keep the restaurant open through 2026. That leaves this winter as a short overlap. The bowling leagues are still rolling, and the library is fundraising and has a board public forum on the move scheduled for November 19.

The pub's owner picked the buyer on purpose. The staff picked the timing. The library is buying a building it needs because more people have been using it. What's changing on Waukazoo Street is a planned handoff from one gathering place to another, and everything below follows from that.

A Library That Outgrew the Township Hall

Right now the library shares a building with Leelanau Township and fits into about 2,800 square feet. Board president Mark Morton told The Ticker that the space "does not meet the needs of the community."

Morton dates the pressure to 2022. That year the library got its own millage and became independent of the township. "Since we got our own millage and separated from the township in 2022, we've expanded hours and we've seen more people coming in. Circulation has gone up. And so there's a real demand for a larger library," he told The Ticker.

So four years of more hours, more visitors and more checkouts filled the room. The library's November calendar shows what a busy small library already squeezes in. One example is a Friendsgiving cookbook potluck where everyone cooks from the same book, which this year is "The Complete Autumn & Winter Cookbook." The library supplies the entree, tableware and non-alcoholic drinks. Morton told The Ticker the new building would hold more books and programs, along with study rooms and "a good-sized community room."

Why the Library Is Buying the Whole Building

The plan didn't start as a full purchase. Morton and owner Michelle Hemeyer told The Ticker that early talks were about the library buying part of the building and adding on. That changed once Hemeyer decided to sell all of it.

"That solved all those problems because renovating an existing footprint is a lot cheaper than putting an addition on," Morton said in the same interview.

Buying the whole building means the remodel works inside a footprint that already exists, which is a restaurant plus a bowling alley. The board's order of operations is simple. They buy first, and spending on design waits. "We've got some rough estimates on what it would cost to renovate it, but we are not going to start paying designers anything until we have the building," Morton said.

The building has hosted a social spot for a long time. Hemeyer opened Northport Pub & Grille in 2021, and Tucker's ran there for several years before that. Hemeyer explained to The Ticker why the library was the buyer she wanted:

"Quite honestly, it's the only reason I did it. If somebody wanted to keep the restaurant open, great, but we've always been really big on giving back to the community that we're in. So (selling to the library) was a huge piece of it. It made it more personal, and I love what they're going to be using it for."

The closing date came from the people who work there. "My staff wants to stay open through the new year and have that be their last shebang, and I'm not going to deny them that," she said.

The Money, Month by Month

The fundraising has gone faster than the August figures suggested. Here's the record so far.

In August, $200,000 of a $1.1 million need was raised, which is under a fifth. Two months later the board described itself as nearly halfway. The public forum is still ahead. In the September minutes, Gans said he was confident the purchase would close by March, and the board talked about available grants. Back in August, Morton told The Ticker: "Northport has always been a very generous community…and we're very optimistic about being able to raise the money, we just have to talk to the right people."

Bowling While the Lanes Are Still Lanes

Until the handoff, the pub runs as usual, and the fall season is underway. These are the details posted on the Northport Pub & Grille website:

• Posted hours: Monday, Thursday and Friday, 3 to 9 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 9 p.m.; closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday.
• Bowling: $7 per person per game, first come, first served, except for pre-booked events and parties.
• Shoes: $4 a pair. You can bring your own.
• Socks: required with rental shoes, and $3 if you forget them.
• League nights: fall leagues are in session, so there's no open bowling after 4:30 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays.

The site also says it's taking sign-ups for winter and spring leagues at [email protected]. The pub is planned to stay open through 2026, so a winter league signup is also a good way to ask the staff directly how much of the season the lanes will see. Fridays and Saturdays are your best bet for open lanes, since the posted hours have no league blackout on those days. The pub also books bowling parties for anyone who wants a holiday get-together on the lanes.

The building will need real work to go from a restaurant and bowling alley to a library, as Morton told The Ticker. So this winter is the last stretch for the lanes in their current form.

Two November Evenings That Shape What Comes Next

Two library evenings on the November calendar tie directly to the move.

Saturday, November 14, 5:30 to 7 p.m. is the Friendsgiving Cookbook Potluck. Sign up for a dish at leelanautownshiplibrary.org or in person at the library. A few copies of "The Complete Autumn & Winter Cookbook" can be checked out, and one stays at the library for reading on site. Volunteers can reach Erin Connolly at [email protected] or 231-386-5131. It's a good look at the kind of gathering a bigger community room would host more often.

Thursday, November 19, 6 to 7 p.m. is the Leelanau Township Library Board of Trustees Public Forum at 119 E. Nagonaba St. The calendar listing describes it as a chance "to hear more about the library's fundraising and potential move to a larger building." The regular board meeting follows at 7 p.m. At the October meeting, five residents attended in person and four joined on Zoom, and a resident who spoke in support of the plan asked the board to hold another public meeting. The board set the forum date at that meeting.

If you have ideas about study rooms, the community room, or what a former bowling alley should become, the forum is the time to raise them. Morton told The Ticker the library won't pay designers until it owns the building.

For more on how downtown Northport's routines have been shifting this year, see our August look at the social district and Faro's debut and our Northport neighborhood page.

Here at Leelanau Living Realty Group, we'll keep following the Waukazoo Street handoff, from the last league night to the first library card handed out in the new space. If you want to know how changes like this affect your corner of Northport, just ask. Relax. We got this.