Information on the 201 Market proposal has been slim to none these past few months. This article gives a little more explanation as to why. I hope the stakeholders (namely, the City and the Developer) reach a favorable agreement soon and that this doesn't drag on for years. Among other things, it could mean that they run the risk of missing out on millions of dollars in brownfield incentives (the same incentives that Dan Gilbert has been capitalizing on in Detroit) -
Quote:
Grand Rapids officials target Dan Gilbert-scale tax incentive for 201 Market
Amy Biolchini | MLive
May 22, 2018
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids city officials will be following in the footsteps of Detroit mega-developer Dan Gilbert as they seek out a new type of tax incentive for the city's 201 Market redevelopment. Negotiations have been underway for seven months with bi-weekly phone calls between Grand Rapids city officials and the Indianapolis firm of Flaherty & Collins over the city's 15.8-acre riverfront property. Those talks have included discussions of what tax incentives the city can offer, said Interim City Manager Eric DeLong...
...Projects are eligible for the transformational brownfield program if the developer meets a certain threshold for investment in a community relative to its population. In Grand Rapids, a developer has to invest, at a minimum, $100 million in a project to be eligible for the program, according to the MEDC...
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There is a lot at stake with these negotiations. And so far, everything has been happening behind closed doors, with even the City Commission being mostly kept in the dark. The article also says that on Tuesday, 5/22, the Commission was requested to approve a one-year extension with Jones Lang LaSalle Americas - the company that has been in charge of facilitating the whole deal. That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that this will quickly resolve.
A reminder of the winning development proposal, as initially proposed by Flaherty & Collins.
Source:
MLive | Courtesy | Flaherty & Collins Properties