The Brownfield Redevelopment Authority has approved a $2.27 million brownfield grant to help developer Gene Townsend get his Kalamazoo Gateway project off the ground.
Townsend’s $13 million project will convert a parking lot on the north side of 
Kalamazoo and Cedar Streets in downtown Lansing into a 13,800 square foot mixed-use development.
Brownfield credits and other tax incentives have made all of the recent, big economic developments in downtown Lansing possible, says Bob Trezise with the Lansing Economic Development Corporation.
“Every one of these projects in the urban corridor are terribly upside down,” Trezise says. Many of the properties are contaminated or have existing structures that need to be destroyed or completely redone, which is extremely expensive. The only way developers can afford to fix these properties is by using tax credits
“Financially it’s just not feasible for developers to take on these projects unless some sort of incentives are involved,” Trezise says.
Source: Bob Trezise, Lansing Economic Development Corporation
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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