A portfolio of several historic mansions located on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has listed for $3.49 million, and is ripe for investment.
The homes, which were built in the early 1900s, display the grandeur of the era when copper mining and the Gilded Age were at a peak, and “costs were no object as copper prospectors became millionaires overnight,” the listing description reads.
In fact, the largest home on the property was originally built for Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. owners Captain Thomas H. Hoatson Jr. and his wife, Cornelia Hoatson, according to the Keweenaw Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Teddy Roosevelt also reportedly stayed at one of the homes, Laurium Manor, during one of his tours, and slept in one of the room’s mahogany beds, which still resides at the property today.
Currently, two of the properties are being used as a turn-key bed and breakfast, and the entire package of properties would make a nice portfolio for an investor looking to capitalize on nationwide surging demand for short-term rentals.
Listing agent Nick Asplund of Lux Partners Global at Signature Sotheby’s International Realty, told Inman that there’s actually likely quite a bit of untapped potential in terms of vacation rental returns, because many of the properties’ rooms aren’t currently being marketed widely on outlets like Airbnb and Vrbo.
The region has also increased in tourism popularity over the last few years, Asplund said, due to its natural beauty and interesting history.
Nicholas Asplund | Credit: Signature Sotheby’s International Realty
“The area’s seen quite a spike in tourism and that’s been the trend over the past five-plus years,” he said. “It’s kind of a natural beauty on the peninsula; it’s one of the top destinations in the nation for mountain biking. There’s [also] copper mine tours. Over 12 billion pounds of copper were mined from the Keweenaw Peninsula area — actually, it contributed more economically [to the country], the copper boom in Michigan, than the Gold Rush in California.”
There are eight buildings in total on the listed property: six Victorian homes and two carriage houses (which are also fully furnished in the living quarters areas). One of the carriage houses originally functioned as the city’s firehouse, Asplund told Inman.
The homes come furnished in their historical period style, and include other decorative touches like custom stained glass, moldings, paintings and several original light fixtures. The properties also contain hardwood floors and some have coved ceilings, wraparound porches, exposed wooden beams, ornate fireplaces, grand staircases with decorative wooden banisters and four poster beds.
The opulence of the era is also displayed in grand features like a Tiffany glass fireplace and elephant leather wall coverings and chairs.
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In total, the homes offer 40 bedrooms, 26 full bathrooms and 7 half bathrooms across roughly 35,000 square feet located on 2.25 acres of land.
Michael Kuligowski | Credit: Signature Sotheby’s International Realty
Located roughly six miles from the coast of Lake Superior, the properties are just seven miles from Houghton County Memorial Airport (which has direct flights to/from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport) and 12 miles from Michigan Tech University.
The peninsula also features a number of destination attractions within driving distance, like the Quincy Mine, several local and state parks, a few lighthouses and a number of mining ghost towns.
In addition to potential as vacation rentals, Asplund said the homes certainly also have the potential to function as traditional single-family homes (a buyer could keep one and sell the rest), or even as high-end graduate student housing for students attending Michigan Tech, an option interested parties have reached out to him about.
Mike Kuligowsky of Lux Partners Global at Signature Sotheby’s International Realty is also representing the listing.
