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Issue 1469 May 6, 2012
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3 FOR THE MONEY: Midland, Saginaw, Bay City All See Downtown Growth

August 3, 2014       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Main Street Midland is replacing retail storefronts, adding a downtown residential component to Midland.
 
Three-story 70,000 square foot McLaren-Bay Region office building-surgical center is slated for a 2015 opening.

Who ever said the central cities in Michigan's three heartland towns now termed the Great Lakes Bay Region were stagnant?

They were, more or less, at least until recently, attested to by:.

*Riverfront Medical Center in Saginaw,

*Main Street Midland,

*Uptown Bay City, and

*East End Midland.

All are new projects showing unprecedented center city growth and vitality in the region.

Uptown Bay City is rising fast on the 48-acre former site of the Industrial Brownhoist, an estimated $100 million project. Some 300 Dow Corning employees are poised to occupy the firm's new tech center; Chemical Bank will open soon and McLaren Bay Region has recently received city site approval for an office building-surgical center at the south end of Uptown.

Groundbreaking is slated for December for the three story, 70,000 square foot building designed to house about 150 employees.

Riverfront Medical in Saginaw is a recent development of SSP Associates and its related entities.

"This area was a severely blighted area on the Saginaw River in downtown Saginaw, states the firm.

In a letter to the Commerce Committee of the Michigan Legislature, the late Dr. Samuel Shaheen in 2012 pleaded his case for tax concessions for extension of renaissance zone status for another Saginaw project:

"As you are well aware, Saginaw has an unemployment rate in excess of 25 percent, a poverty rate in excess of 30 percent, and a history of violent crime that leads the nation."

Dr. Shaheen was among the leaders in reversing that desperate situation, so emblematic of urban "Rust Belt" cities, a process now carried on in the region's main urban centers by his sons Dr. Sam Shaheen Jr., and Peter Shaheen.

Regarding Saginaw's Riverfront Medical project, the firm states:

"Major challenges including securing title to properties, demolishing closed manufacturing facilities, environmental contamination issues, and a very challenging soil conditions."

This three building development is home to 180,000 square feet of Class A office space.

Current tenants are Michigan Cardiovascular Institute, Ascension Health Systems, Tri-City Urology, Pain Consultants of Michigan, Citizens Bank, Garber Management Group and the State of Michigan.

Main Street Midland is a five story residential complex at 416 McDonald Street, calculated to infuse downtown residents into Midland much as Uptown is doing the same for Bay City under the same leadership.

Half a block at Main and Ashman in downtown Midland was demolished to make way for the mixed-use building to be comprised of retail and restaurant space with room for three tenants. The next three levels will feature 19 condos, and there will be rooftop space accessible to residents of the building.

The new development will be situated on a hill with partly underground parking structure providing 39 parking spaces.

A total of $23 million in total capital investment and creation of 46 full-time jobs is anticipated from the Main Street project, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. reported. That agency is providing a $4.8 million Michigan Community Revitalization Program loan.

Gillespie Group and Caddis Development Group, both of Lansing, Michigan, are developing Midland's East End project.

East End is on a 5.5 acre site north of State Street, east of East Main Street, west of Ellsworth and south of Poseyville Road. It is directly across the street from Dow Diamond, home of the Great Lakes Loons baseball team. The project held its grand opening in June.

The top three floors of the building house about 700 office workers -- an established customer base for conveniently located first-floor cafés, retail shops and professional services, according to the developers.

The $48 million, 2256,000 square foot facility, has excited downtown Midland supporters as well as baseball fans who are expected to make up much of the customer base for restaurants in East End.

East End tenants include Dow Chemical Co., a restaurant owned by Michigan Baseball Operations, which also owns the Great Lakes Loons, Chemical Bank, MidMichigan Health and the law firm Warner Norcross & Judd. ###

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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)

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