Macomb County commissioners approved Brownfield Redevelopment projects in Shelby Township and Richmond at its meeting Thursday, the first such type projects in three years.
One project, a new headquarters for Lutz Roofing Co. Inc. in Shelby Township, is large, and the second one, a Wendy’s eatery in Richmond, is relatively small.
The projects, the first Brownfield redevelopments since 2021, are significant but smaller than some of such developments in Macomb County in recent years. Northpointe Development three years ago opened the 1-million-square-foot Shelby Commerce Center industrial park off 23 Mile Road east of Mound Road as a Brownfield project. It is next to the Amazon Fulfillment Center, which also was a Brownfield project.
Other Brownfield projects include Jimmy John’s Field in Utica and the Chesterfield Town Center shopping zone near Interstate 94 and Hall Road (M-59) in Chesterfield Township, the site of former sewage lagoons.
The new projects received approval by the Shelby Township Board of Trustees, the City of Richmond, county Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and county Board of Commissioners committee, and received final approval Thursday by the full board.
Lutz Roofing, a commercial roofing company, will relocate from its existing facility on 22 Mile Road east of Ryan Road to a larger two-story, 34,200-square-foot building on 6.4 acres for office and warehousing at Ryan and Hamlin roads. The $7.3 million project will help retain 180 current jobs and allow for the addition of about 50 jobs, according to documents submitted to the county.
Site of the likely new Lutz Roofing Co. headquarters in Shelby Township.PHOTO FROM MACOMB COUNTY
The property owner, Hamlin-Ryan Properties, LLC, will provide the $1.5 million mitigation of the site, a former landfill, and be reimbursed over 30 years via increased tax revenues from the development of the site, under tax increment financing.
Amanda Minaudo, program director at the county Department of Planning and Economic Development, said the projects will put current unusable land into use.
“It’s crucial to have these incentives for companies to clean up and site and put it to use … to improve the site to the best of their ability,” she said.
“Without Brownfield tax increment financing, the added costs to address the environmental challenges at the site would make the project not financially viable,” officials added in county documents. “The project will improve property values, catalyze additional investment, and foster the growth of an existing local business.”
The site, which is currently “grassy, gravelly and wooded,” is a former landfill and has not been in full use for about 50 years although it was recently “being utilized for limited truck and roofing materials storage,” according to documents provided by AKT Peerless Environmental Services, located in Farmington, in an assessment. It operated as a waste disposal site for construction fill materials, building debris, and incinerator ash with the potential for hazardous materials and petroleum product disposal, AKT says.
It is part of a larger landfill facility area of nearly 30 acres, Manaudo said. It is near but not part of the former the 60-acre G&H Industrial Landfill located off 23 Mile Road between Ryan and Dequindre roads that is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Site.
The site contains a myriad of toxic chemicals in soil and groundwater, and a “geo-technical barrier” will be built to cover the contaminates and “make sure nothing leaches into the landfill or leaches out.”
AKT says it found metals, volatile organic compounds, peptide nucleic acids exceeding state standards. It found arsenic, cadmium, total chromium, lead in both soil and groundwater, and trichloroethylene in water. Also located in the soil were total mercury, selenium, silver, ethylbenzene, trimethylbenzene, xylenes, benzo a pyrene and fluoranthene, AKT says.
Found in soil and/or groundwater were ethylbenzene, mercury, tetrachloroethene and trichloroethylene, AKT says along with additional chemicals.
A vapor-mitigation system will be installed to capture and release methane gas produced in the old landfill. Methane is not toxic but is “explosive, flammable and asphyxiant,” AKTPeerless says.
“There is no risk of an explosion,” Manaudo said.
A Lutz official did not return a call seeking comment.
The Lutz parking area was the site of a major fire in March 2022 in which several semi trailers and other materials such as tires and shingles burned, emitting a plume of charcoal gray smoke.
Meanwhile, in Richmond, a Wendy’s will replace an old gas station and auto-repair facility on Gratiot Avenue in front of the Kroger store near 31 Mile Road under Brownfield Redevelopment. The old facility operated from the 1950s to 2013, according to an analysis by Fishbeck, a civil engineering company in Kalamazoo.
“This is a much cleaner site” than the Shelby Township project, Manaudo said.
It will be the only Wendy’s in Richmond.
The developer, WM Limited Parntership, aka Wendy’s of Michigan Limited Partnership, will clean up the property, including demolition of the 1,720-square-foot building and removal of gas storage tanks, at a cost of $159,000, for which it will be reimbursed over seven years with expected increased tax revenues. The existing structure contains asbestos, according to Fishbeck.
The $2-million project will include a 2,024-square-food restaurant building.
For both projects, captured tax revenue that will be reimbursed to the developer over the specified time periods will include those collected by the township or city, including police and fire millage levies in Shelby, Macomb Intermediate School District, Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, Huron Clinton Metroparks Authority.
Excluded from being captured and continuing to go to the taxing authorities are millages for the local school district, the Detroit Zoo and Detroit Institute of Arts.
Both projects are scheduled to be completed this year.
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