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MICHIGAN
$9.3 Million in Grants Awarded
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| The City of Munising received a $157,100 grant and a $75,000 loan. | |
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| The City of Flint received a $306,000 grant for area-wide site assessments. | |
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| The 2400 Lincoln Street property in the City of Birmingham is being redeveloped with their grant. | |
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| The City of Mt. Pleasant received a $409,400 grant and a $184,690 loan to clean up and rehab the historic Borden Building. | |
Approximately $9.3 million in Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Brownfield Redevelopment Grants, along with $4.9 million in loans, will be awarded to 23 communities throughout Michigan.
The grant projects will be funded from six different brownfield funding programs, including the Clean Michigan Initiative and the Environmental Protection Bond. Grants awarded include:
Livonia Public Schools received a $1,386,000 grant and a $1,000,000 loan. The 37-acre former Cooper School site in the City of Westland will be redeveloped into a senior housing complex with approximately 150 units, a 25-acre commercial driving range, and approximately 10,000 square feet of retail space. The site is a former unlicensed landfill, and the school was closed in 1992 due to concerns over direct contact hazards with the landfill material.
The City of Jackson was awarded two grants totaling $506,101. The Jackson Brownfield Redevelopment Authority received $150,000 to redevelop an entire city block. The first phase involves turning a complex of abandoned former manufacturing buildings into a community for artists with low-income housing and mixed-use commercial spaces. The second phase will develop the National Guard Armory, which is the historic first State Prison of Southern Michigan, into market-rate housing.
Jackson is also receiving $356,101 to develop a trail system to connect various downtown activity areas and a scenic doorway between the urban and natural environment.
The City of Alma received a $200,000 grant and a $154,000 loan. The city plans to redevelop 11 acres of industrial riverfront property for mixed use and a river trail by acquiring and assembling properties from private owners and then transferring them to developers.
Funding will be used for redevelopment of functionally obsolete buildings, contaminated soils, contaminated ground water, asbestos-containing materials, lead-based paint, and above-ground and underground fuel storage tanks that are present on the properties. The city estimates 230 jobs will be created as a result of the project.
Ypsilanti was allocated a $500,000 grant and a $500,000 loan. The city has undertaken a large-scale urban redevelopment effort, the Water Street project, to transform a 40-acre blighted brownfield area adjacent to downtown into 800 units of new owner-occupied market-rate townhomes with commercial opportunities along Michigan Avenue. The project is currently under way and the city has nearly completed land acquisition activities and has initiated demolition, environmental cleanup, and soil stabilization/site preparation.
The Water Street project is expected to bring in $100 million of private investment and a new population that will increase demand on goods and services. Job creation is anticipated to include up to 254 permanent jobs in the project and the downtown area, and up to 645 construction jobs.
The DEQ received 43 applications from local units of government, brownfield redevelopment authorities, and other local authorities requesting almost $37.4 million in grant and loan funding.
The Brownfield Redevelopment Grant and Loan Program was initiated in 1988 and has provided over $127 million for 274 projects statewide.