Flint development news

[uaarkson]

Does Flint need this?

[Rizzo]

The city of Flint? No, they don't. It only benefits people on the periphery or long distance travelers have improved access through and around Flint. I mean, heading NB on US23, it's still very convenient to take I-69. This may help relieve some bottlenecks near Bishop International, but that's about it.

The only new freeway construction I could see marginally beneficial on the East side of the state is an extension of I-275 up to Flint. Yet it would still be worse off with all the sprawl it brings...or would it be that more convenient for Flint areas residents to drive to Metro Airport vs Bishop.

[hudkina]

With US-23 around, there doesn't seem to be a point to extending I-275 up that way. In fact, if they do extend I-275 it would make more sense to bring it around to meet up with I-75 via the M-5/Pontiac Trail/Square Lake corridor. Granted, there's far too many rich white people along that corridor for it to ever happen...

[DetroitMan]

Purchase, interest in land around Genesee Valley raises casino speculation
Ron Fonger
December 11, 2010
Flint Journal

Buzz has been building since the October sale of a 28-acre parcel of real estate in the area of Dutcher and Lennon roads, long promoted as some of the county's best undeveloped commercial land.

The same Detroit-area broker who helped put the sale together still has options to purchase additional, adjacent parcels that could double the size of a potential development, according to the real estate company that's representing the sellers.



Jerry Preston, president of the Flint Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he has heard the casino speculation.



“We understand there's been a land purchase by what could be an Indian tribe,” Preston said Friday.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde...10/12/sss.html

[robk1982]

Originally Posted by DetroitMan

Purchase, interest in land around Genesee Valley raises casino speculation
Ron Fonger
December 11, 2010
Flint Journal


http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde...10/12/sss.html

That would be the worst spot for a casino ever.

[Rizzo]

I think this is the first time I've ever seen it up close in the photo. Impressive.

[robk1982]

Not good...from ABC12

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?se...cal&id=7896792

Downtown Flint businesses struggle with McCree Building closed

Angela Brown

FLINT (WJRT) -- (01/13/11)--It's been more than six months since the McCree Court Building closed in downtown Flint due to flooding. Many court cases and workers have been shuffled to new locations, which means a lot of business has moved away from nearby stores.

The doors are still locked and the signs are still up. That means fewer customers across the street. Labor Day flooding at the McCree Building washed out courtrooms and dried up business at Mike's Triple Grill across the street.

The sandwich shop closed after seven year in business downtown. Nextdoor, Paul's Pipe Shop is still holding on -- barely.

"We have been down here since 1944, so we are trying to hang in there," said manager Dan Spaniola.

The store is still open, selling pipes and lottery tickets and other items, but hours have been cut.

........
(Copyright ©2011 WJRT-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

[uaarkson]

God it would blow if Paul's closed down.

[robk1982]

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde...see_count.html

Genesys planning massive medical campus around hospital, consultant says 6,000 new jobs could be created
Published: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 5:25 PM Updated: Friday, January 28, 2011, 8:30 AM
By Ron Fonger | Flint Journal

GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- Genesys Health System is planning for a massive expansion on land around its medical center, a development that a new report commissioned by Genesee County says could create more than 6,000 new jobs on site and another 15,000 spinoff positions.

Genesys, already one of the county's largest employers, confirmed it is "actively formulating plans" to develop a much larger medical campus, and just last month met with township officials to discuss the concept privately before filing formal plans, Supervisor Micki Hoffman said.

Joe Corradino, project manager with The Corradino Group of Michigan Inc., told the county Board of Commissioners Wednesday that plans call for senior citizen housing, retail and other medical services on the Genesys campus and suggested spending $46 million in road improvements in the immediate area from 2015 to 2019.

"This proposal has significant merit," Corradino wrote in a summary report to the county. "It is forecast that by 2020 this project would create more than 6,000 jobs directly on site and another 15,000 support jobs throughout the region, mostly in Genesee County."

Corradino didn't back away from those projections Wednesday, telling commissioners, "This has the potential, from all we have been told, for being real ... This is a viable project."

.........

[robk1982]

http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-mi...5_percent.html

Former Durant Hotel 75 percent full, interest exceeds tenant move-in timetable set by developer
Published: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 4:43 PM Updated: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 8:51 AM
By Kris Turner | The Flint Journal


FLINT — The former Durant Hotel is filling up faster than anticipated and its developer is eyeing other downtown buildings for future housing projects.

Since reopening last fall following a nearly $30 million renovation, the Durant’s 93 apartments are already at 75 percent occupancy.

That’s ahead of schedule and vastly exceeded the expectations of Richard Karp, the Lansing-based developer behind the building’s overhaul.

........

It also has led Karp to begin surveying other properties for redevelopment.

“We’re interested in a number of parcels,” he said, adding that he won’t reveal their locations until he controls them.

.......

Commercial space on the first floor is filling up as well, Karp said.

A lease for the southwest corner of the building is close to being inked, said Karp, who declined to elaborate until the deal is finalized.

The lower-level, commercial areas most likely will be leased for office use, he added.

“We’d really like to see some quality retail,” he said, adding that those businesses would be financially stable and well respected. “Unfortunately, we have to deal with what the marketplace presents to us.”

.........

[robk1982]

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde...tml#incart_mce

Construction could begin this spring in Bishop International Airport expansion
Published: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 9:31 PM Updated: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 10:38 AM
By Khalil AlHajal | The Flint Journal

FLINT, Michigan — After the Bishop International Airport Authority Board cleared the way for contractors to start preparing bids for another expansion, officials said the airport will be large enough to serve 2 million passengers a year by fall of 2012.

Construction could begin this spring in a $16.8 million project, the last phase in a series of expansions.

"It's a big move," said board member Guy D. Briggs. "This is definitely the right time to make the move. We've held off on it for a long time."

The airport completed a smaller-scale expansion last year, spending $3.2 million to add a restaurant, a bar, and a store while installing new, carpeting, flooring, lighting, computer stands and air conditioning and ventilation systems. Another $1.4 million was spent last year on replacing two jet bridges and building a new one.

This time around, construction will include doubling the size of the corridor in which passengers walk to and from their planes and pass through security checkpoints.

Four new gates and about 47,000 square feet of new terminal space will also be added, said Airport director Jim Rice.

......

[uaarkson]

Now that was a damn fine set of good news.

[LMich]

Yeah, no kidding. Three very solid, meaningful pieces of good news. The Genesys project sounds particularly impactful. That's some serious potential for jobs, right there. There are only two other projects planned in the state at the moment that get up to those levels of potential jobs, and that's the Detroit Medical Center expansion and the Detroit River International Crossing.

BTW, I've envy what's been going on at Bishop over the past decade. Whoever saw Bishop's potential and positioned it for growth way back in deserves some major kudos. Here at Capital Region International in Lansing, we just got through posting our 6th consecutive year of passenger decline, though, for the first time in years it was a single percent drop (3.2% drop for 2010 after a 38% drop over 2009). We've had a 61% drop in passengers since 2000. And, after many good years for cargo, we've had a percipitous drop when the national recession hit in 2008, though, that slowed to in the last year (2.4% drop for 2010, which followed a 21% drop in 2009)

[Rizzo]

It has everything to do with location and convenience. When I used to live in Saginaw, flying out of DTW was horribly inconvenient. Flying out of Flint was always easy. Quick trip down I-75, easy to park and that's it. Security was always quick.

Bishop international as it is or has been is way over-designed...and that's going to work well in its future. The terminal skybridge, check in counters and baggage areas are oversized, and the design permits almost infinite expansion of airside and landside concourses. Whoever designed it gets alot of credit IMO.

[robk1982]

The only thing missing from the articles about Genesys and downtown development is any mention about the new urgent care that was supposed to be built/opened downtown. They were supposed to announce the location in the fall, but I haven't heard anything about it.

[robk1982]

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde...grant_mon.html

Next wave of federal funding in Flint to focus on Hurley neighborhood
ublished: Saturday, February 26, 2011, 8:00 PM Updated: Monday, February 28, 2011, 5:17 PM
By Kristin Longley | Flint Journal

FLINT, Michigan — One out of every three houses sits vacant and lifeless in the Hurley hospital neighborhood — recently dubbed one of the emptiest in the entire country.

Now, the city and Hurley Medical Center are hoping to use Flint’s third wave of federal grant dollars to transform this neighborhood into a vibrant living space.

The goal is to build a community where employees can live and walk to work and residents can have neighbors — instead of vacant, blighted houses.

“There’s only three of us,” Flint resident Roger Husocki said of the occupied homes on Stone Street near Hurley. “I always have to chase out the drunks and drug users.”

......

[robk1982]

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde.../post_160.html

Back to life: Kettering University leaders revisit plans to turn old General Motors site into a 'technology park'
Published: Friday, February 04, 2011, 9:12 AM Updated: Friday, February 04, 2011, 10:14 AM
Beata Mostafavi | Flint Journal By Beata Mostafavi | Flint Journal

FLINT, Michigan — Inside a glass-walled building in a west-side neighborhood, two companies are doing research they believe could help change Flint.

The first two tenants in Kettering University’s $3.4 million Innovation Center bring hope to a bigger vision for the barren block of land off Chevrolet Avenue.

The dream goes something like this: a mecca for inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs testing ideas in new laboratories. Four, five, even six more buildings on what are now vacant lots.

Possibly, a new place for students to live. Or a coffee shop that draws people from the Flint River Trail for smoothies and ice cream. Or a retail center.

It would be a bustling place for companies of a future Flint that would bring a former General Motors site back to life.

They would call it the Kettering Technology Park.

“Ten years ago, we didn’t think it was a real possibility on campus,” said Susan Bolt, Kettering’s vice president for administration and finance, looking over the 2007 master plan for the property, which took years to acquire from GM.

“I envision an economic engine that allows for the transfer of knowledge.”

The Innovation Center marks the first big step of the envisioned tech corridor.

The opening of the building, a nearly six-year-old concept that evolved several times and included false starts, has some campus dreamers giddy about what’s next — even if it’s still years away.

Kettering leaders anticipate the 9,200-square-foot Innovation Center will be full by the end of the year. It still has room for two to four new tenants.

Its first two companies already have put the campus in the spotlight. Swedish Biogas International, the company that has pledged to produce a renewable alternative fuel at a biogas plant in the city, has made the building its headquarters.

......

[robk1982]

Here's a link to the Smith Village Redevelopment Plan:

http://www.metro-community.org/attac...mbined-web.pdf



For a visual aid as to all of the proposed development plans that are going on outside of downtown (sorry about the white space):

1) Smith Village Redevelopment
2) Hurley Medical Center neighborhood (very rough outline)
3) Kettering University (Innovation Center) and ongoing work on turning Chevy-In-The-Hole site into a park
4) Michigan School for the Deaf development into joint campus with Powers Catholic

[LMich]

Originally Posted by Hayward

It has everything to do with location and convenience. When I used to live in Saginaw, flying out of DTW was horribly inconvenient. Flying out of Flint was always easy. Quick trip down I-75, easy to park and that's it. Security was always quick.

That's really only a small part of it when you think about it. It wasn't until very recently (2002) that Bishop had more passengers than MBS, so it's not like the two markets had ever overlapped that much until recently. This is really a result of good long-range planning, marketing, and managemet by the local authority positioning Bishop in just the right way while the industry ramped up consolidation screwing over most smaller airports. I'm sure it's similar in other states, but there actually used to be a competitive field as far as the small airports were concerned here in Michigan. Now, you have Metro, Gerald Ford, Bishop, and then everything else.

I mean, there is no reason why Capital Region (Capital City) has had such a massive drop in passengers (657,000 in 2000 to 257,000 in 2010) besides it not effectively fighting for its life like the rest; hell, for the first time in memory, more people flew out of MBS and Capital City according to last year's statistics, that doesn't make sense. The 80-something-mile commute to Metro from here isn't exactly convenient, either, but obviously everyone is doing it; Lansing is pretty much totally dependent upon Metro, now, for its air travel despite being the state capitol. Lobbyist and lawmakers have for over the decade, now, been trying to get back a direct flight between DC and Lansing; this is the most basic of needs not being met. Cap Region just kind of gave up the local air war.

Here's a break down of passengers of the three major airports in 2000 and then 2010:

2000

Lansing: 656,703
Flint: 594,279
MSB: 556,486

2010:

Flint: 986,505
MSB: 262,069
Lansing: 257,350

That is simply stunning, if you ask me.

[hudkina]

Bishop is in a key location as it is within a 45 minute drive of Lansing, Saginaw, and Detroit's northern and western suburbs. There's got to be at least 2 million people within an hour of that airport.