You could see the Door County Maritime Museum and the Door County Granary get a new neighbor on the west waterfront of Sturgeon Bay depending on what UW-Green Bay wants to do with its future National Estuarine Research Reserve visitor center. Earlier this month, the Sturgeon Bay Common Council approved the site between the granary and the Maple-Oregon Street Bridge as a fourth possible location for a NERR visitor center. It joins Sawyer Park, Sunset Park, and a spot near the end of Nautical Drive as possible locations for the center that could potentially draw thousands of people to the city. Plans to develop a three-story mixed-use building near the site fell through in recent weeks, paving the way for the possibility of a NERR visitor center calling that area home. Sturgeon Bay Mayor David Ward believes the site helps strengthen their bid and could potentially attract something else for the area.

Ward says they are finishing up the prospectus they will submit to UW-Green Bay in the coming weeks as they compete with Marinette and Green Bay for the facility. A section of Sturgeon Bay ranging from Crossroads at Big Creek in the north to the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Reserve in the south has been included in the NERR’s natural area sites list.