Drive Jefferson Avenue between Metropolitan Parkway and South River Road this month and you'll spend most of it in a single northbound lane. The road rehab crews out there through September have the corridor down to one lane while they resurface it, which means anyone heading south toward the Clinton River Spillway is routed around. It's the kind of temporary annoyance every Harrison Township resident has learned to plan a few extra minutes for.
What's harder to plan for is the marina. For six years now, the North Marina at Lake St. Clair Metropark has sat closed, its docks and utilities left underwater after the high water levels of 2019 did the kind of damage that doesn't get fixed with a weekend of work. Every summer since, boaters have asked the same question: when does it come back? The answer arrived this July, and it's not the one most people were hoping for. The marina is coming back. Just not this season, and not next spring either.
That gap between what's been promised and what's actually landed is the real story of Harrison Township's waterfront in 2026, and it cuts the other way in one place nobody expected.
The Marina Everyone's Been Waiting For
Huron-Clinton Metroparks announced in July that nearly $15 million in improvements are coming to Lake St. Clair Metropark over the next three years, and the North Marina is the anchor project. When it reopens, it'll do so with 78 boat slips, almost double its old capacity, plus a dedicated fishing area, bollard-style lighting designed to keep the fishflies down, and a renovated boathouse with year-round restrooms and a boater registration area. Metroparks CEO Amy McMillan has called it the most significant investment in the park in decades.
The marina-specific funding breaks down as $5 million from a state appropriation through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, roughly $294,000 from a DNR Waterways grant for engineering, and more than $1.5 million in Metroparks matching funds. That's real money moving on a real timeline, but the timeline itself is the part worth sitting with: McMillan has said the North Marina is targeted to open for the 2027 boating season. Not this year. The parking lot renovations tied to the same project were slated to wrap by this summer, while the trail work and West Boardwalk renovation don't even start construction until 2027.
So if you've been telling yourself "next year" since 2023, adjust the count by one more.
The Bridge That Keeps Missing Its Own Date
The pedestrian bridge over the Jefferson Avenue spillway has an even longer history of slipping its own deadlines. Back in 2023, the township was applying for congressionally directed funding for the project. By February 2024, the Board of Trustees had set a budget: $650,000 in township costs, layered with more than $2.6 million from the Transportation Alternatives Program and Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan grants, for a total project cost of $3.45 to $3.5 million. At that point, the plan called for path construction in 2024 and the bridge itself going up in 2025.
Township Clerk Adam Wit put the urgency in plain terms when the budget was set, describing drains on the current spillway crossing narrow enough to catch a bicycle tire, on a bridge posted for 40 mph car traffic with no real space for anyone on foot. The new bridge, later given the working name of a memorial to Donald "Digger" O'Dell, a Selfridge veteran and former base commander, was designed to finally give the area a safe crossing while also linking 15 residential streets and 10 condo developments to four township and state parks, the county's regional path system, and the Iron Belle Trail.
As of Supervisor Ken Verkest's State of the Township address this past June, that bridge is still in planning. Not under construction. Still in planning, roughly a year past the point where it was supposed to be built.
Here's how the two headline waterfront projects actually stack up against what residents were told to expect:
| Project | Original Timeline | Status as of 2026 | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Marina reopening | Closed since 2019 after flood damage | Targeted for the 2027 boating season | Roughly $15M park-wide; marina funded by $5M state grant, $294K DNR grant, $1.5M+ Metroparks match |
| Jefferson Avenue pedestrian bridge | Paths in 2024, bridge in 2025 | Still in planning as of June 2026 | $3.45M–$3.5M |
Two marquee public investments, both still years from delivering what residents were promised on the original schedule.
What Actually Opened While You Were Waiting
Set that against the private side of the same waterfront, and the picture flips.
Gino's Surf, the lakefront landmark at 37400 Jefferson that had sat closed since 2015, came back under new ownership in the fall of 2024. The team, led by Brian Jeffries of Apex Hospitality Group, rebuilt it as an upscale sports bar with a DJ booth, dozens of televisions, and a menu from chef Richard Conover built around steaks, seafood, and pasta, with a separate events venue called Vista Lago carved out of the old banquet hall. Jeffries told the Detroit News at the time that the focus was on serving the neighborhood first, not building a nightclub. It worked well enough that Supervisor Verkest delivered that October's State of the Township address from Gino's own DJ booth.
A few minutes south, Jane's Bridgeview Bistro at 28409 South River Road has been renovated into a bright, all-day breakfast and lunch spot that describes itself as continuing more than 70 years of culinary tradition in what it calls the Boat Town community, a nod to the identity Harrison Township has always carried even when the marina itself was locked behind a fence. And Harrison's Speakeasy has opened as one of the township's newer additions, running a rotating menu and cocktail list.
None of these openings required a multi-year grant cycle, a Board of Trustees budget vote, or a construction season tied to Michigan Economic Development Corporation appropriations. They just opened, on a business timeline instead of a public works timeline, and they're the reason the waterfront still feels alive even with the marina fenced off and the spillway crossing unfinished.
The Detour That's Already Here
None of this is abstract for anyone driving Jefferson Avenue right now. The stretch between Metropolitan Parkway and South River Road is down to one northbound lane through September as part of Macomb County's 2026 pavement preservation work, with access maintained to businesses and properties along the way but delays to expect regardless. If your regular route to Gino's Surf, Jane's, or the Metropark itself runs through that corridor, plan for it the way you'd plan for any construction season, not as a sign that something's permanently changed.
The supervisor's June address also flagged something less visible but worth knowing if you spend time on the water: shoreline algae has been getting worse, enough that Verkest specifically thanked state Representative Alicia St. Germaine for pushing for funding to address it in Lansing. It's not a marina problem or a bridge problem, but it's part of the same waterfront that residents are watching closely this year.
The Pattern Worth Remembering
Public infrastructure in Harrison Township runs on grant cycles, matching funds, and construction seasons that get pushed a year at a time. The North Marina has been closed since 2019 and won't reopen until 2027. The spillway bridge was supposed to be built by 2025 and is still in planning. Verkest himself has floated a half-mil grant-matching millage for the 2026 ballot, an acknowledgment that the township needs a steadier way to fund projects like these instead of chasing state and federal dollars one grant application at a time.
Private investment on the same half-mile of waterfront moved faster. Gino's Surf went from a decade-long closure to open again in about a year once new ownership committed to it. Jane's Bridgeview Bistro renovated on its own clock. Harrison's Speakeasy just opened its doors.
If you live here, the marina and the bridge are both worth watching, because they'll change how this stretch of the township functions once they're finally done. But they're not what's carrying the waterfront's identity this year. The restaurants already are.
If you're curious how any of this waterfront momentum, current or delayed, is showing up in what homes near it are actually worth, The Zibkowski Team tracks Harrison Township and the rest of Macomb County closely and is happy to walk through the numbers with you.
