Bay City, Michigan 48706
Front Page 03/28/2024 18:50 About us
www.mybaycity.com July 13, 2014
(Prior Story)   Columns ArTicle 9196   (Next Story)


Uptown Bay City residences are now available on the Century21 website.

DOW CORNING @ UPTOWN: Population & Tax Base Rise Inspiring

City Enters New Phase of Growth Led By High Tech Firm

July 13, 2014       1 Comments
By: Dave Rogers

Printer Friendly Story View

Pulses of local development stalwarts are beginning to rise.

About 310 Dow Corning employees will move into their new offices at Uptown the second week of August.

That watershed event will trigger more gravitation to the center of town for living as well as working.

Many of the Corning folks have indicated a desire to live in this community, according to Eric Jylha, who conducted city familiarization tours for the incoming executives and office staff last week through the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce.

Some DCites have indicated they will be moving to downtown Bay City from Midland, Saginaw and other parts of the Great Lakes Bay Region.

What could be more exciting for a city downtown than to have a global silicone/silicon leader at the heart of the new Uptown development?

Links of downtown and Uptown are emerging through an extension of the RiverWalk and the installation of a day dock short-term marina.

Pete Shaheen, vice president of SSP Associates, Uptown's developer, says: "We are excited to be one step closer to having people move into Uptown. The new downtown community will eventually be home to as many as 200 residents; residents who will shop, eat, and enjoy all that Bay City has to offer."

If the numbers are right, the increase from Uptown alone will hike the downtown population by about 50 percent in one fell swoop. That's real progress.

A major tenant, Chemical Bank, is projecting a Sept. 1 opening of its new facility, according to information sent to depositors. Another major, a 100 room Courtyard by Marriott, has announced plans to open by December.

While the Real Seafood Company of Ann Arbor has delayed opening at least until spring 2015, Vince Stuart of the Stock Pot in downtown is planning to open Uptown Grill, a 2,000 square foot restaurant in the Dow Corning building, in August.

The estimated $100 million investment in Uptown (with more to come) translates to about $200,000 in additional tax base for the city, based on a levy of 20 mills per $1,000 of equalized valuation.

According to the Michigan Main Street Center, a development arm of the Michigan State Housing and Development Authority, (MSHDA) a traditional downtown:

"Consists of a grouping of 20+ commercial parcels of property that includes multi-story buildings of historical or architectural significance. In addition, the area must also:

* Have been zoned, planned or used for commercial development for 50+ years. * Consist of primarily zero-lot-line development. * Have pedestrian friendly infrastructure. * Have an appropriate mix of businesses and services. * Be represented by a specific, downtown business organization like a Downtown Development Authority or Business Improvement District.

BINGO! We qualify on all fronts for classification as a traditional downtown.

How many people live downtown now? Candace Bales, executive director of the Downtown Management Board was asked last Tuesday at a Rotary meeting. The rough estimate: 300-400, a very uncertain figure.

Keep in mind that in recent years dozens of families have moved to Jennison Place, the Boathouse, the Shearer Building, all of which are fully occupied. Now add the recently opened, and sold out, Mill End Lofts and the apartments in the LaPorte Building and in numerous second and third story adaptive re-use former commercial buildings.

If planners consider the downtown population includes the riverfront Breaker Cove on South Water Street, the total grows. High rises are another question as are apartment buildings such as the former Evenknit Hosiery building at Walnut and Vermont, and Wheeler Landing, if the West Side is included in downtown.

Consider the positive downtown trend in light of the fact that Bay City has lost nearly 3 percent of its population in the past several years, the U.S. Census citing 2013 estimates at 34,424.

More important in the Dow Corning development as we see it is the trend toward the public view of downtown as a place of residence, an inspiration, a motivation as it were to reverse the city's longterm as well as recent population decline.

A factor difficult to quantify, but nonetheless vital, is the strong possibility that the new move-ins will mainly be highly educated, providing the potential to raise our 25 and over bachelor's degree and over education level from its present 17.7 percent nearer the state average of 25.5 percent.

Writing a book recently about the 1898 move of a major British chemical company to a 250 acre site on the Saginaw River south of 41st Street opened this columnist's eyes about the city's history.

Bay City had more than 50,000 residents at the turn of the 20th century, while research on another book about Midland showed it was populated by only about 4,500.

Midland now has 42,181 residents, according to the Census Bureau, and grew by 1.4 percent in the past several years. It, too, is seeing new vibrancy downtown with a massive Main Street project now underway.

So, what happened in the past 115 years that caused Midland to grow 900 percent and Bay City to decline 30 percent?

A very intriguing answer to that question floated up through the mists of time as my book research on the two communities progressed over the past two years.

Back in the day the Industrial Revolution took Bay City by storm, in terms of large metalworking enterprises like foundries, shipbuilding, auto parts, electric welding machines, heavy cranes and shovels.

Bay City rode the wave until the mid-1970s when lots of heavy industries like American Hoist (formerly Industrial Brown Hoist) moved offshore, Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City Shovels and Prestolite closed, Chevrolet downsized, Newcor and the welding machine firms found foreign competition challenging.... and on and on.

Strikes drove Dow out of town and the cracking towers of Bay Refining were dismantled and shipped to Argentina, where, who knows, they still turn out gasoline.

The promise of the St. Lawrence Seaway, so foremost in minds of city fathers in the 1960s when foreign vessels called regularly and returned to Europe and Asia with products from the Saginaw Valley, faded with containerization and trucking taking over the transportation end.

Tourism, once a glimmering hope, is still flickering and occasional tour buses give hope for increased retail and commercial vitality.

While the North American Chemical Company that operated so successfully in Bay City's South End for 30 years was purchased and torn down by Consumers Power in 1928, Dow Chemical in Midland found research the key to the kingdom of global enterprise and thrived.

To be sure, we still have niches that are historically based in Bay City technology and entrepreneurship, like the high tech French carbide firm Mersen, high tech foundry Bay Cast and S.C. Johnson Ziploc bags and Saran Wrap (a vestige of Dow's decades in Bay City).

Dow and Midland foundations have poured millions into local redevelopment and projects like the iconic Pere Marquette Depot would make any metropolis proud. The State Theatre and the Dow Bay Area Family Y are meccas for young folks. More plans are underway.

A once shabby city center is shining like it did when the Wenonah Hotel and Park provided the symbols of downtown revitalization more than a century ago.

Now, presto, like Aladdin waving his wand, Dow Corning arrives in downtown Bay City and bids fair to provide the inspirational spark for an economic and emotional renaissance.



Printer Friendly Story View
Prior Article

February 10, 2020
by: Rachel Reh
Family Winter Fun Fest is BACC Hot Spot for 2/10/2020
Next Article

February 2, 2020
by: Kathy Rupert-Mathews
MOVIE REVIEW: "Just Mercy" ... You Will Shed Tears, or at Least You Should

"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers!

tjones3 Says:       On July 15, 2014 at 11:55 AM
I would be more than happy to sell my house to any of them that want to move to Bay City and a $150,000 home..... well 15 years ago it had a value of that, now about 30,000 if lucky since the neighboring houses were foreclosed on and sold for $10,000 to investors that now rent the property and don't take care of the lawn, yard, any upkeep or paint or repairs, non running vehicles parked on the lawn, a washer/dryer and stove that don't run along with a kiddie pool, broken trampoline, fire pit, gas grill that is used as a charcoal grill and a broken porch... Maybe buy the whole block for UPTOWN living in the downtown..........
Agree? or Disagree?


Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

More from Dave Rogers

Send This Story to a Friend!       Letter to the editor       Link to this Story
Printer-Friendly Story View


--- Advertisments ---
     


0200 Nd: 03-24-2024 d 4 cpr 0






12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm

SPONSORED LINKS



12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm


Designed at OJ Advertising, Inc. (V3) (v3) Software by Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants
Bay City, Michigan USA
All Photographs and Content Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by OJA/MMCC. They may be used by permission only.
P3V3-0200 (1) 0   ID:Default   UserID:Default   Type:reader   R:x   PubID:mbC   NewspaperID:noPaperID
  pid:1560   pd:11-18-2012   nd:2024-03-24   ax:2024-03-28   Site:5   ArticleID:9196   MaxA: 999999   MaxAA: 999999
claudebot