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Grand Rapids commissioners signal support for downtown tower project

Dozens of people stand in a group in front of the red Calder Sculpture in downtown Grand Rapids. Behind them, the black tower of city hall. In the front of the group of people, a large white sign with black letters reads 'Together West Michigan.' The sign features a logo of a hand shaking the image of lower Michigan on its side, the thumb of the human hand grasping the thumb of the state of Michigan.
Dustin Dwyer
/
Michigan Public
Members of Together West Michigan gather on Calder Plaza to oppose tax incentives for the current proposal to build three new towers in downtown Grand Rapids.

The Grand Rapids city commission is taking the first steps toward approving tax incentives worth more than half a billion dollars for a new downtown development.

Most of the tax incentives would come from the state, which still must approve them.

But first the city has to approve the project as a “Transformational Brownfield Plan.” A group of residents oppose the designation because they say the plan is receiving too much public money, and not pledging enough to help with housing affordability.

Developers have offered to pay $8.5 million over 20 years to the city’s affordable housing fund. Opponents want to see that number raised.

The plan calls for building three new towers on a site along the riverfront in downtown Grand Rapids. The towers would include office space, residential and a hotel. One of the buildings would become the city’s tallest.

Fulmar Property Holdings, the group putting forward the project, estimates it will cost $797 million in investment. They’re seeking to cover about two-thirds of that with state and local tax breaks.

Tuesday morning, during a preliminary vote by commission members, only one commissioner voted against moving the project forward.

“I am not against this project,” said commissioner Kelsey Perdue. “But I am unable to ignore the concerns of the people in this community that I swore to do my best to serve.”

But other commissioners argued the city would get nothing if the plan doesn’t move forward. Developers have said the plan isn’t feasible without the tax breaks.

Most of the $565 million in expected tax breaks would have to be approved by the state. Grand Rapids mayor Rosalynn Bliss said she wanted to see that money come to her city.

“For years I have been supportive on this state incentive,” Bliss said at a morning commission meeting Tuesday. “[I] was active in getting the state to increase the cap after seeing the vast majority of transformational brownfields and those dollars — those state dollars — go to the east side of the state.”

The resolution to approve the Transformational Brownfield Plan is up for a vote before the full city commission at tonight’s meeting. City staff said this morning they expect the state to weigh in on the tax incentives in early 2025.

Dustin Dwyer reports enterprise and long-form stories from Michigan Public’s West Michigan bureau. He was a fellow in the class of 2018 at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. He’s been with Michigan Public since 2004, when he started as an intern in the newsroom.
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