Redevelopment Projects Receive $42M in State Aid

DETROIT-The state has offered assistance to help redevelop four brownfield sites in Traverse City, Redford and Midland. Two projects in Traverse City received approval for brownfield assistance.

The Dow Chemical Co. received approval for a brownfield Single Business Tax credit for potential plans to redevelop properties at the company’s operations in Midland. The project could result in private investment of up to $245 million. The brownfield Single Business Tax credit approved for this project is valued at up to $24.5 million over a 10-year period.

One Traverse City project involves redeveloping 16 parcels of land located on both sides of the Boardman River. The blighted Downtown property is expected to be redeveloped into a retail and commercial along with possibly an upscale hotel or upper-end condominium complex. The project will remove vacant and deteriorating structures and provide needed parking and other infrastructure improvements for redevelopment. The development, which will include up to $70 million of private investment, received approval to capture up to $12.1 million in state and local taxes.

The other Traverse City project involves redeveloping the former state of Michigan psychiatric hospital and neighboring buildings including a former power plant. The project is the initial phase of an effort to redevelop a 500-acre campus with several buildings consisting of about 750,000 sf of space.

The proposed development will refurbish the existing buildings into a mixed-use, walkable village environment. This development will include up to $32 million of private investment. The project received approval to capture up to $4.4 million in state and local taxes.

A former elementary school site in Redford that has not been occupied in more than 10 years will now be redeveloped thanks to brownfield financing.

The project involves demolishing the school building, infrastructure improvements and site preparation activities to allow for the redevelopment of the site into 56 housing units. The project will result in private investment of about $7.5 million. The project received approval to capture up to $1.37 million in state and local taxes.