Formerly known as the U.P. Builders Show and traditionally held at the dome on the campus of Northern Michigan University, the show returned this year under a new name and location at the Westwood Mall in Marquette Township.

The name change was a result of the Home Builders Association of the Upper Peninsula and the Marquette Builders Exchange mutually agreeing to part ways as co hosts of the show in October. After several conversations and meetings between the two nonprofit organizations, the decision was made in order to better serve each organization’s demographic. HBA is geared more toward the residential side of the industry, while MBE puts its focus on the commercial side of the business.

The location change is only temporary, occurring as a result of the pandemic. Due to NMU’s COVID-19 restrictions and the cancellation of spring break, the dome wasn’t available for the event this year.

The mall allowed the show to go off without a hitch, with ample space for indoor and outdoor vendors and plenty of room for attendees to safely congregate and social distance.

Area residents take in the U.P. Home & Garden Show at the Westwood Mall in Marquette Township Sunday. Previously known as the U.P. Builders Show, the Home Builders Association of the Upper Peninsula reintroduced the weekend-long show under a new name this year. While typically held at the Superior Dome on the campus of Northern Michigan University, this year’s show was instead held at the mall to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions and safety measures. (Journal photo by Ryan Spitza)

“The HBA of Southeast Michigan down in Detroit held its show in a mall, and it actually falls under different health guidelines,” said Sarah Foster, executive officer with the HBA. “At the dome, it would have been (considered) an event, so we would have had to follow event gatherings. Here in the mall, it’s retail shopping, so we follow retail shopping guidelines, which are different, so we can actually have more people.”

Foster added that both attendees and vendors alike were very good with following health protocols throughout the weekend.

“We actually have not had a problem all weekend,” she said. “Between Friday and Saturday, we had about 2,000 people throughout the mall, and never at one time was having a crowd a problem. It was in and out all day, people weren’t gathering in big groups and we haven’t had an issue.”

With the new name and location, Foster was unsure how many people would actually come out to the show over the weekend. When the show opened its doors for Day 2 on Saturday, expected to be the peak day of the weekend, nerves quickly turned to smiles within an hour.

“We didn’t expect it to be this many people,” she said. “Someone asked me (Saturday) morning and I said we’ll probably get 500 to 1,000 people, and within the first hour we had 200 people already. Because we’re so spread out in the mall, and outside, you never would have known it, but we’ve been counting at the door.

“We’re super excited, but we were very nervous because each time there’s an update from the health department, if they decided to shut down retail shopping or something, this would have been closed. Being a nonprofit ourselves, this is a huge revenue for us. We already had to move offices and downsize quite a bit, we were kind of teetering with our budget and we really needed this to happen. Because of that, we also invited other nonprofits. We have them throughout the show, and we’re trying to help them raise money they lost in 2020 also.”

With everyone isolated over the last year or so, there’s never been a better time for home projects, which is why the show’s turnout may have been so successful.

“Everybody was locked down for how long, so you’re in your house saying ‘This needs to get fixed, this needs to get fixed, let’s upgrade this,’ so builders, contractors and suppliers are busier than ever,” Foster said. “At the HBA, we have a referral service, so people call in looking for a builder, and instead of them (the customer) calling 20 people, we take that referral and we send it out to our builders who are taking work and they call the customer. It saves the customer having to call a ton of people, but right now they’re booked, backed up and busy.”

Activities at this year’s free-of-charge show included a Ladies Night on Saturday, children’s activities with goodie bags and a mascot named Billy the Builder Bear, an excavator challenge from Midway Rentals & Sales and more.

“We had Ladies Night on (Saturday), which normally in the dome, ladies were free, but being in the mall we can’t charge,” Foster said. “We had some raffle baskets for the ladies this year, we had a kids table and we had about 20 sponsors step up. Vendors normally at the show that could not participate this year sponsored the kids bags, so they had a lot of loot in them and were pretty good. There was an excavator challenge outside and a big bucket lift, there was a lot of really neat stuff going on.

“We had a small handful of brand-new vendors that have never been in the show at all, and they’re doing really good this weekend. We’re hoping they’ll come back next year.”

Foster finished by thanking the show’s lead sponsors, mall management and most importantly, the public for their support.

“Our major sponsors are Window Outfitters of the U.P., Midway Rentals and Rainy Creek Construction,” she said. “Without our major sponsors, we can’t start planning this show, so I’d like to thank them and thank the community for helping us do this.

“The Westwood Mall has been absolutely amazing to work with. They’ve done anything we’ve needed, cleaned any spaces we’ve needed cleaned up, equipment, their workers have been keeping the trash emptied all weekend, I mean they’ve been phenomenal.

“I would really like to thank the public. We’ve had a lot of compliments from attendees coming in. They’re happy that the mall is getting traffic, happy that the show is on and that we were able to do something. For the most part, everybody was wearing their mask and social distancing. Everybody was following the rules. The public has been really good about the show and the vendors have been as well, they’re all excited. We’ve had some vendors make some pretty big sales this weekend. We’re pretty happy with the way things have turned out.”

The U.P. Home & Garden Show is scheduled to return to the Superior Dome next March, assuming the world returns to a more normal state.

For more information on the Home Builders Association of the Upper Peninsula, visit www.upbuilders.org.