“The Liberty Harbor Event Center is a 32,000 square foot facility, so as far as food and beverage operations in the Great Lakes Bay Region, this is one of the larger ones you’ll find. We've got four different banquet spaces that can accommodate groups up to 400 people. We also have the W.H. Ales Brewpub restaurant and brew pub that's open seven days a week where we brew our own beer and serve American cuisine. Then we have the Stables, which is another part of this facility that is a bar and nightclub with live entertainment. We will also have an executive dining room and that's going to be casual fine dining that will be open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. We’ve got a fantastic team here and we’re going to show up to work every day and do the absolute best we can.
I grew up in Bay City and went to Pinconning High School. My father comes from a long line of restaurateurs, and one of the first businesses that he ever got involved with was the Golden Globe Ballroom in Saginaw in the late 1970s, a wedding reception and banquet facility. We’ve been involved in a lot of different things as a family, but food and beverage is something that we've always loved.
We wanted to grow, so we purchased the Village Inn up in Linwood, which has been fantastic. It’s a hometown bar and restaurant that people in Linwood and Pinconning love. We’re looking forward to keeping the things people love while taking it to the next level.
The facility here at Liberty Harbor Event Center used to be called the Lumber Barons, and then The Stables. But if we go back to when this facility was first in existence, as far as a food and beverage operation, we'd be dating back to the late 1990s. Back then it was called Hereford & Hops and there was a big investment project that went into this facility where people originally operated out of the Upper Peninsula. They lasted a couple of years, and then Art Dore bought it in the early 2000s and operated it.
After COVID and Art passed away, the facility never reopened. We knew the potential of the building—it could be one of the largest food and beverage operations around. It’s 32,000 square feet and there is not another building like this in Bay County. I really look at what we want to do compared to what Zehnder’s is doing in Frankenmuth.
We saw the potential and knew what we were getting into, and made a huge investment in renovating the building. This investment made sense because I think that Bay City is a great place to be and we felt like the community was ready for another option for dining and events.”
– Garrett Whaley, Liberty Harbor Event Center and W.H. Ales, located on Midland Street in Bay City
“I'm from Bay City, so it's exciting being the hometown kid. With our business New Tech Dealer Services, I get to travel around and see a lot of different things in different cities. I think we can do some of the things they’re doing, and that’s our goal with Liberty Harbor Event Center and W.H. Ales. It’s exciting to try and build something fantastic for Bay City and for Midland Street.
We’ve got a lot going on with this facility. Even when it comes to the banquet setting, while it’s fantastic for a wedding reception, you can also grab a drink prior to coming to the wedding. You can go try all this craft beer that we've brewed here. There’s also fantastic stuff after the wedding if you want to keep going and go listen to a band or go down to the Stables and hang out.
Something that has surprised us a little bit is just the sheer amount of corporate and business events that this facility has the opportunity for. We don’t necessarily have that at our facility in Saginaw with the Golden Glow Ballroom, because it's a little bit more outside of town. We're doing some of the larger events on Fridays and Saturdays, but the smaller groups and the activity that we’re hosting here has been great. It's an economical solution for businesses looking for a great place to meet.”
– Garrett Whaley, Liberty Harbor Event Center and W.H. Ales Brewpub
