A $1 million brownfield cleanup and renovation of two historic brick industrial buildings and a parking lot at 1213 Center Street is expected to be finished by winter. The project is off Grand River in Old Town, just a block east of the more familiar and ongoing facelifts on Turner Street.
Work is finished on the first building, dating from 1913, with the complete renovation that includes 7,300 square feet of unique new office space. The non-
profit Governor's Council on Physical Fitness just moved in, and anticipates hosting an open house event in October.
Alan Hooper, director of Northern Environmental Technologies, and his wife, Jamie Schriner-Hooper, utilized the brownfield credit program and tax increment financing from the city to help fund the cleanup and redevelopment project.
The second building, built in 1925, includes 3,000 square feet of occupied office space, and an additional 3,000 square feet of shop space that can be divided into commercial or office space. Hooper’s own Northern Environmental Technology occupies 2,000 square feet of building, and the non-profit Autism Society of Michigan uses the other portion.
The couple plan on keeping the remaining 3,000 square foot space, with its 15-foot high ceilings and
new windows, as is and renovating it according to the desired specs of a new tenant.
They are starting work on the parking lot, which once houses underground gas tanks and probably needs to be decontaminated after exposure to harsh dry-cleaning solvents in the 1970s.
Once the lot is cleaned up, Hooper and Schriner-Hooper will create a new drainage system, re-pave the lot and eventually put in a water-filtering rain garden.
Ivy Hughes is the development news editor for Capital Gains. She can be reached at
ivy@capitalgainsmedia.com.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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