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Development News

Ypsilanti to demo Water Street buildings, put best foot forward

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It looks like some buildings are ready to fall on Ypsilanti's Water Street property to help jump start the redevelopment project.

 

City officials are considering taking out a $650,000 loan from Washtenaw County to help tear down some of the buildings on the 38-acre parcel and start removing some of the pollution.

 

"The more remediation we can do on the site the more attractive it is to a developer," says April McGrath, the assistant city manager for the city of Ypsilanti.

 

The loan would pay for the razing and cleaning up the buildings on Michigan Avenue that have the most pollution problems first, such as the old First Class Cleaners and Huron Trade Center structures. The hope is that removing them will also make that part of the acreage more attractive to smaller developers who might only want to redevelop a smaller chunk of the property.

 

The loan would come from Environmental Protection Agency funds funneled through the county. The loan would require no payment and incur no interest for its first five years.

 

The City Council will review the proposal on May 8 and could make a decision on whether to move ahead with the plan later this month.

 

Water Street is a collection of 42 residential and old commercial parcels in need of pollution remediation. The city acquired the 38 acres on the Huron River near downtown and bundled it together in hopes of attracting a developer that would turn it into new residential housing and commercial space that stressed a dense, urban ethic. However, city officials are now open to splitting the parcel to develop parts of it and will aggressively market it at the upcoming Brownfields conference in Detroit this weekend.

 

Like so many other plans with the best intentions, the idea of using new taxes from the development to pay off the bonds used to buy the property didn't quite work out as planned when the chosen developer, Joseph Freed & Associates, pulled out. The city has since spent more than a year searching for a new developer before the first bond payments come due.

 

Source: April McGrath, the assistant city manager for the city of Ypsilanti
Writer: Jon Zemke

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