The owner of a company that provides online registration services for youth camps recently gave an update on the progress of an approximately $1 million rehab project of a property at 127 E. Main Street in downtown Niles commonly referred to as the Gallery Building.

UltraCamp acquired the building in April from the City of Niles in a swap for land the company owned near Plym Park.

UltraCamp owner Daniel Ashley said they plan to use the second floor of the building as office space and lease two separate spaces on the first floor to other businesses.

UltraCamp originally planned to build a new office building at the Plym Park location, but could not come up with financing.

Ashley said they initially thought they could have the rehab project finished by the end of the year, but again ran into issues with financing because the building with modifications appraised for $650,000 — far less than the estimated price tag of just more than $1 million.

“The bank won’t finance the $1.1 [million]. They will only finance $650 [thousand],” he said.

Ashley explained that the company is using its own cash along with grant money to cover the shortfall.

He expects to finish the work by April.

“The way things are going now we are making good progress on it, so I don’t think it will be a problem,” he said.

The City of Niles is helping UltraCamp out with the rehab project.

On Oct. 26, the city council essentially approved giving a $59,000 grant to UltraCamp that the company will use to obtain a $210,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The $59,000 was needed to satisfy a matching portion of the MEDC grant, according to a city council report.

UltraCamp has 13 employees. Ashley said they are hiring about one or two additional people every year.

“One of the real benefits of this building is it gives us plenty of room to grow,” he said.

In explaining what UltraCamp does, Ashley said employees develop software that provides online registration services for youth camps. The software provides registration forms, medical forms, payment history, class

selections and more.

“If they want a tool that handles that, we provide that to them,” he said.

UltraCamp also provides its clients training on how to use the software. The majority of the training is now done over the phone, but Ashley said this new building would allow the company the space needed to host training sessions in person.

“It is very possible that three or four times a year we might have 40 or 50 people descend on our building so we can give them face-to-face training,” he said.

UltraCamp serves customers in the U.S. and Canada.

“As far as I know we have camps and clients in every state and almost every province,” he said.