Muskegon’s historic Hackley Administration Building is for sale at $1.2 million after the “Hackley Castle” hotel plan stalled

MUSKEGON — The Hackley Administration Building, one of downtown Muskegon’s best-known landmarks, is on the market for $1.2 million after a plan to turn it into a luxury hotel stalled.

Core Realty Partners listed the three-story building at 349 W. Webster Ave. on Wednesday, MLive/The Muskegon Chronicle reported. The listing puts it at 43,860 square feet.

The building’s developer, Wheelfish Group, wants a buyer that “has a longer runway to continue the project or take it in a different direction if they chose to do so,” Joe Keck, an agent with Core Realty Partners and Wheelfish, told the paper. He did not say whether the hotel idea still works and said that would be up to the next owner.

The sandstone building went up in 1892 with money from philanthropist Charles Hackley. It served as a school and later as the administration building for Muskegon Public Schools, which moved out in 2020. Wheelfish founder Brad Playford and his wife, Kathleen, bought it for $1 a year later, MLive reported.

In 2024 the company announced the Hackley Castle Inn and Suites, a 45-room boutique hotel with rooms for families and groups of up to eight and a gallery about the Hackley family, according to a release posted by the Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce. It was set to open in fall 2025, and the release called the building 55,000 square feet. MLive said Wheelfish later expected to spend $15 million on up to 47 rooms, a speakeasy-style bar and restaurant and a spa, with an opening before summer 2026.

Structural trouble got in the way. When the Playfords bought the building, the original 1892 roof trusses had warped and were pushing the southeast wall outward, MLive reported. To keep it from collapsing, the developers ran steel support beams through the center of the building from the basement to the roof so the wall could be rebuilt.

About $4 million has gone into stabilizing the exterior, and the interior is stripped to the studs, “creating a blank slate for redevelopment,” according to the listing.

The building sits a short walk from Hackley Park, Hackley Public Library and the Muskegon Museum of Art. Bob Lukens, director of Visit Muskegon, said in 2024 that the larger rooms would help the county serve visiting families.

Sources:
MLive/The Muskegon Chronicle, “Historic Muskegon building slated for redevelopment now listed for $1.2M” (Nov. 4, 2026; listing price, size, Keck quote, 1892, $1 purchase, $15 million plan, trusses, $4 million stabilization), https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2026/11/historic-muskegon-building-slated-for-redevelopment-now-listed-for-12m.html
Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, “Muskegon’s Iconic Hackley Administration Building to Transform into Boutique Hotel” (Sept. 2024 release; 45 rooms, 55,000 square feet, fall 2025 opening, Lukens quote), https://www.muskegon.org/muskegons-iconic-hackley-administration-building-to-transform-into-boutique-hotel/
Photo: JJonahJackalope, “Hackley Administration Building, Muskegon, MI.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), resized, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hackley_Administration_Building,_Muskegon,_MI.jpg

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Tags: Muskegon · Hackley Administration Building · Hackley Castle · Historic preservation · Downtown Muskegon · Real estate