Ypsilanti puts clean-up grants to work on Water Street

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

The asbestos is gone and the demolition crews are rolling through Ypsilanti's Water Street property.

The city has begun work on demolishing the half a dozen vacant buildings on the site. Those buildings range from small residential and commercial structures to industrial buildings. They will all be gone by the end of August thanks to $850,000 in local, state and federal grants.

"We're basically going to clear the entire site," says April McGrath, assistant city manager for Ypsilanti. "There will be no more buildings on it. We'll even have some money left to do a little remediation."

The city assembled the 38-acre parcel just east of downtown a few years ago with the idea of redeveloping it into a dense, urban area that capitalizes on both its border on Michigan Avenue and the Huron River. Those plans took a big hit when the initial developer pulled out and real-estate market crashed.

The fallout was the city fell into a budget crunch as it pays off the bonds used to acquire the property. However, city leaders are sticking to the urban-based theme for the site, rejecting a recent proposal to build a stereotypical suburban Burger King on part of the land. There are still other developers interested in the site, however, no new plans will probably surface in the immediate future.

"It's still a funding issue," McGrath says. "The credit market is not strong enough yet in Michigan."

Source: April McGrath, assistant city manager for Ypsilanti
Writer: Jon Zemke