Former Finlandia building to become apartment complex

The historic Justila Center, long a part of the former Finlandia University in Hancock, will soon be transformed into apartments.

The Michigan Strategic Fund Board has approved a $4.5 million loan to create one- and two-bedroom apartments, breathing new life into the nine-story building on the banks of Portage Lake. The development has been named Skyline Commons.

Originally the old Portage Hospital, the building has seen numerous uses throughout the course of its history — most recently as classroom and office space for the now-defunct university, which closed in 2023.

“Rehabilitation and renovation of the building is a top priority,” says Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock.

What’s happening: The transformation of the former university building and hospital into residential use falls in line with Hancock’s efforts to create more affordable housing – a priority for this community of 4,500 on the Keweenaw Peninsula. The project will create 15 one-bedroom apartments and 12 two-bedroom apartments. Nine of the units will be reserved as affordable or workforce housing for as long as 15 years. 

“Hancock is a very attractive place for housing in our community, and this new project will have some of the best views of the Portage Canal in the area from the residential floors,” says Andy Moyle, who is president of the family-owned Moyle Real Estate.

The project will also preserve about 40,000 square feet of commercial office space to retain current tenants and update more 60,000 square feet of underused space to attract new commercial tenants and medical professionals.

“We knew this historic Hancock landmark deserved a new chapter,” Moyle says. “Our team rose to the challenge, and Skyline Commons will provide vital housing and modern commercial spaces.”

The lack of housing in the region is acute. 

Moyle says there are a lot of commercial and industrial employers in the area that need workers, but the companies are having a difficult time recruiting because of a shortage of apartments and single-family homes. The crunch also affects the aging owners of single-family homes who are ready to downsize into an apartment but have no local options.  That keeps their single-family homes off the market.

“It’s a cascading effect,” Moyle says. 

The back story: Finlandia University, founded in 1896 as Suomi Opisto (Finnish College) and Theological Seminary, was the only private university in the U.P. It celebrated its final commencement in spring 2023 and then closed, citing declining enrollment and staggering debt. Finlandia University was Hancock’s last institution founded by Finnish immigrants who came to the U.P. more than 100 years ago to work in copper mines and the lumber industry.

The university’s former Justina Center is the largest of the Finlandia properties and represents the biggest challenge in redevelopment, Moyle says, because of its sheer size and the amount of deferred maintenance over the last 20 years. 

“The last thing anybody in Houghton County needs is to have a 140,000-square-foot building sitting vacant and falling into disrepair,” he says. 

The Skyline Commons project, he says, “brings the building back into productive use, and it helps solve some of the housing problems that everybody is facing around here too.”

More than apartments: Construction will begin this month, with residential improvements completed by November 2026, Moyle says. Exterior improvements will finish up in the summer of 2027. Current tenants will remain mostly unaffected, with some coordination to make ceiling/floor penetrations for plumbing for the (three residential floors) conversions. Current tenants include a dozen small professional businesses, and the Copper Country Intermediate School District offices, KEDA offices, and the MTEC Smartzone.

Funding: The Michigan Community Revitalization Program is an incentive program available from the Michigan Strategic Fund, in cooperation with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The program’s focus is to encourage and promote structural renovations and redevelopment of brownfield and historic preservation sites located in traditional downtowns and high-impact corridors. It offers performance-based grants, loans, or other economic assistance for eligible investment projects in Michigan.

A community effort: Bringing such a sizable effort together “has been a very heavy lift for the entire community, “ Moyle says.  Assistance has come from the city of Hancock; Kewanee Economic Development Alliance; Houghton County Brownfield Authority; the state of Michigan; Michigan Economic Development Alliance; city of Houghton, as part of the Local Development Finance Authority.