By JAYMIE DEPEW

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — The Beacon House in Marquette will temporarily downsize Aug. 1 by ceasing services at its Third Street location and solely operate the hospitality rooms at UP Health System-Marquette, in part, to focus on a capital campaign for the construction of a building near the new hospital.

Since the Beacon House opened its doors in 2002, nearly 200,000 patients, families and caretakers have had a place to stay during times of medical crises and situations. As the Upper Peninsula’s only hospitality house, Beacon House, a donation-based nonprofit, oversees 33 private rooms at its facility and 21 hospitality rooms at UPHS-Marquette, a Duke LifePoint subsidiary.

Shortly after Duke LifePoint announced its plans to build a new hospital on the other side of the city, the Beacon House’s board of directors decided it would be best to move next to the hospital for the convenience of patients.

The existing building and property located at 1301 N. Third St. was put on the market for $1.5 million last year after Duke LifePoint allotted the organization a 2-acre plot of land by the intersection of Seventh and Spring streets.

Mary Tavernini Dowling, Beacon House CEO, said temporarily downsizing its services will help the organization prepare for the future.

“It’s important that people know we’re not shutting down and our program hasn’t ended,” she said, adding that the organization’s main priority right now is selling the building so it can break ground on a new facility as soon as possible. “We learned through surveying patients that going across town wasn’t going to do it. We need to be closer to the hospital. Right now, we have a very strategic, well thought-out plan and are taking steps with the future in mind to have the right size Beacon House that’s designed to be efficient and comfortable for patients and their families.”

The new building will be constructed in three phases. In order to break ground, $3 million needs to be raised to build the first 20 rooms, general offices, lobby, kitchen and more. Since the new hospital will not have hospitality rooms, the idea is to have a 60-room Beacon House when everything is said and done, Dowling said. Nearly half the amount of money needed for the first phase has been raised through fundraising events and donors.

The Beacon House recently had an offer on its existing location, but the deal fell through. However, there has been a lot of interest in the building, Dowling said. Some investors have even considered turning it into low-income housing.

“There’s been a lot of really exciting ideas of how to reuse the building,” she said. “Great things will continue at this location, I’m sure of it.”

Since there have been several serious inquiries, Beacon House administration decided to keep the initial Aug. 1 closure date. The building will serve guests until July 15.

“That’ll give us two weeks to move what we need to the hospitality rooms to make sure everything’s in place,” Dowling said. “As soon as the building sells, we should have funds needed to begin phase one. We’re hoping to have that done as close to spring (when the new UPHS-Marquette hospital will open) as we can.”

Between now and Sept. 6, Beacon House staff and volunteers will be in all 15 counties throughout the U.P. at various times, campaigning for its 906 U.P. Pledge, by talking to communities about Beacon House and accepting donations of $9.06.

“The Beacon House really serves all of the people of the U.P., which we call ‘the 906,'” Dowling said, “and we just thought it would be wonderful if we could make it to every part of the peninsula.”

The goal is for people to donate $9.06 to the capital campaign, or as much as they would like. A party will be held on Sept. 6 where the total amount raised will be announced.

Anyone looking to help Beacon House meet its goal can also donate online at, http://www.upbeaconhouse.org/capital-campaign, where single donations or monthly pledges are accepted.

Jaymie Depew can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is jdepew@miningjournal.net.