Brownfield Reforms Open Financing for More Mid-Michigan Communities

Governor Jennifer Granholm recently signed a package of bills that will let more communities apply for development related tax credits.

Before the bills were signed, only 100 “core communities” in the state could take advantage of brownfield tax credits, which allow communities to give developers tax breaks and financial incentives for cleaning up or demolishing industrial properties for new construction.

“You could easily see hundreds of thousands in reimbursement for a project,” says attorney Richard Barr of Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn, LLP.

Without these credits developers may take a pass on certain projects, he says.

“To say there could be dozens of additional projects in the next few years that could benefit from hundreds of thousands or millions in incentives is not an overstatement,” Barr says.

In 2007, the state approved approximately $80 million in tax credits for 50 new brownfield redevelopment projects. Brownfield credits were part of an incentive package developer Pat Gillespie used to build the Stadium District condos.

Source: Ari Adler, John Bailey & Associates

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Enjoy this story? Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.
Signup for Email Alerts