Details of a downtown Kalamazoo development project outlined
by Paula M. Davis | Kalamazoo Gazette
Wednesday June 10, 2009, 12:05 PM
This is a rendering of the proposed redevelopment in the 100 block of East Michigan Avenue in downtown Kalamazoo.
KALAMAZOO -- Details are emerging in the $10 million proposed project to redevelop four buildings in the 100 block of East Michigan Avenue in downtown Kalamazoo for residential and retail space.
Kalamazoo-based MAVCON Properties is the private developer that is buying the buildings from Downtown Tomorrow Inc. for $1.5 million.
Plans are for the sale are to be completed by Sept. 30. Construction on the project is to start in November and conclude by February 2011.
"We are very pleased to be involved in the redevelopment of downtown and look forward to a very bright future," MAVCON Properties President James Dally said in a statement issued Tuesday.
The development involves 8,000 square feet of retail space at the ground level and 20 residential units on second and third floors.
The extensive renovation includes maintaining the four separate buildings but refurbishing their facades "to look like the architectural style in which they were built," said Ken Nacci, president of Downtown Kalamazoo Inc. DTI is the real-estate arm of DKI.
The buildings will get interior renovations and new roofs, windows, elevators and stairwells and other improvements.
Unlike some of the housing in the heart of downtown, these residences are intended to be affordable by more people than just upper-income earners.
Using the examples of a nurse who might work downtown or graduate student, "it'll be affordable for a wide variety of folks," Nacci said. "We want more housing units downtown, and this is an area that can be converted."
Tuesday's announcement did not include potential prices for the units or whether they would be rentals or owner-occupied.
Plans call for several players to contribute to the development, including the city, county, state and federal government.
But the plan is not finalized, as most of the allocations are still pending the approval by the boards of the various agencies.
Some of the financing includes $1.25 million in approved funding from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation for seller financing, more than $1.2 million from the Downtown Development Authority in facade grants and site improvements and $726,000 from various departments in the city of Kalamazoo.
Also, MAVCON is expected to contribute nearly $2.5 million if the deal is finalized.
Most of the funding sources must be in place by July 3, according to the agreement between DTI and MAVCON, Nacci said.
"It's been a long time in coming," Nacci said Tuesday. "I'm hopeful. I think it'll come to fruition."
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