www.mybaycity.com
August 19, 2007
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$16.3 million in annual revenue might be generated by proposed Marine Heritage Center built on I.B. Property City Could Net About $1.5 Million in Sale of Uptown Site, Plus Developments
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Not only would tourism bring big dollars to Bay City, the sale of property along the Saginaw River would boost the strained city budget.
A report slated to be received tonight by the City Commission will estimate about $16.3 million in annual revenue from a Marine Heritage Center proposed for the Uptown at RiversEdge site, the old Industrial Brownhoist property of 48 acres being studied for development.
The center, as envisioned by Shirley Roberts, executive director of the Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, would be patterned after a highly-successful facility in Mystic, Connecticut.
Dow Corning Corp. is one of the main backers of the proposed $10 million project, having contributed $20,000 for the study report.
If appraisals approximate the $37,000 per acre option taken by the Tall Ship Celebration on 8.57 acres, the city could net about $1.5 million for much of the Uptown at RiversEdge site.
At that per acre figure, the remaining 33.29 acres on the site would bring $1,235,265 if appraisals at "fair market value" end up at a comparable figure.
City Manager Robert V. Belleman Monday night will recommend to the City Commission the sale of the 8.57 acres to the Tall Ship Celebration for $318,000, or about $37,000 an acre, and approval of the option for purchase of real estate from RiversEdge Development Corporation (Paul Rowley and Art Dore)in an initial option amount of $10,000 and sale "at fair market value as determined by a contemporaneous appraisal."
The total of just under 42 acres would be the main part of the Uptown development, with the remaining six acres of the total of 48 acres apparently to be occupied by the proposed new YMCA or other projects.
The city has offered land behind city hall and near the river to the Y free if it follows city guidelines for its building. The Y is reportedly planning a fundraising drive for a multi-million dollar new structure. No plans have been announced for the old building on Madison at Columbus.
The City Commission is poised to receive an optimistic report tonight from Certec, Inc., a Lexington, Kentucky, consulting firm that in recent years has done projections of tourism potential for Hamilton, Porter and Tippecanoe counties, Indiana, the state of Missouri, eastern Kentucky and other areas in the Midwest.
The Bay City Times obtained an advance copy of the Certec report and revealed in Sunday's editions that the report would project 255,000 visitors, 261 jobs and income of $16.3 million in the third year of operation of the Maritime Heritage Center. According to the report, the center would generate about $2.5 million in state taxes and about $1.4 million in local taxes during the third year of operation.
James F. Carr, president of Certec, will be here tonight to make a presentation to the commission's finance and policy meeting at 6:30 p.m.
The company is collaborating with Donald Holecek, former head of the Michigan State University Tourism Center, that was phased out Aug. 1 because of state budget cuts.
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