Parkland Properties is a real estate development and hospitality firm that specializes in urban and waterfront impact investing.

Awards and Recognition

Parkland Properties was founded in 1988 by Jon Rooks when at the age of 25, he developed Ellenwood Landing in Montague, Michigan. There Parkland transformed a corner of White Lake into the largest taxpayer in the City with boat slips, condominiums, retail and a hotel. This development earned Rooks recognition by the Small Business Administration as the ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’. The development also instilled a passion for community oriented projects that would be at the heart of Parkland’s future developments. 

Over the next 30 years, Parkland’s portfolio expanded to dozens of new properties and businesses across West Michigan. This included Boardwalk Condominium, Union Square Condominium, Cityview Condominium, and Monroe Terrace Condominium that collectively brought thousands of downtown residents to Grand Rapids in the early 2000’s. Parkland also developed the first ‘market rate’ housing developments in downtown Muskegon in over 30-years with Highpoint Flats apartments and the Terrace Point Landing waterfront subdivision on Muskegon Lake. These projects proved the demand and propelled a housing boom in Muskegon. 

Today, Parkland is one of the largest real estate development firms in West Michigan with over 250 employees and over 1 million square feet of building space currently developed or under development. 

Parkland continues to stay true to its original vision of performing projects that positively impact and serve as catalyst for the communities where they are located.

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Years in Business

Hospitality expansion

Beginning in 2009, Parkland’s portfolio expanded into hospitality with the purchase and turnaround of the Shoreline Inn & Conference Center and the Holiday Inn Muskegon Harbor (later converted to the Delta Hotel by Marriott Muskegon), and the creation of Walker’s An American Brasserie, the Lake Effect Bistro, and the Lake House Waterfront Grille in Muskegon. Since taking ownership, these properties have received awards including ‘TripAdvisor Top Area Hotels’ and the ‘Top 10 Waterfront Restaurant in Michigan’.

Parkland was also instrumental in the development of the Muskegon Convention Center (also known as the VanDyk Mortgage Convention Center) that opened in 2021. The Convention Center is the second largest convention center in West Michigan behind only the Devos Place in Grand Rapids.

The hotels and the convention center are responsible for hosting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually in the downtown Muskegon area.

 

Housing

Since 1989, Parkland Properties has brought thousands of new housing units to the West Michigan area ranging from condominiums to apartments and waterfront homesites. 

Parkland often utilized the historical characteristics of the property it was developing to help market the project. Two of Parkland’s projects (Union Square and Boardwalk) were the fastest selling projects at the time in Michigan. 

Parkland is currently in the process of constructing over 2,500 new ‘for rent’ and ‘for sale’ housing units between two legacy projects at the former Shaw Walker Furniture Company and the former Sappi Paper Mill in Muskegon. 

Our mission is to be transformative and to have projects that serve as catalyst for the areas where they are located.