Fourth time’s the charm? Builder offers to buy downtown Dexter site
Posted By: MLIVE on December 27, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A Michigan builder eyeing key vacant land in downtown Dexter has offered to buy it and turn it into something new.
The city and its downtown development authority have been trying to find a buyer to redevelop the 3045 Broad Street redevelopment area for more than a decade. A few projects have come and gone.
However, Auburn Hills-based Trowbridge Companies has an offer on the table to purchase the five lots along Mill Creek Park, on either side of Broad Street, between Forest and Grand streets. The parcels total about three acres.
“They are a builder that desires to create residential opportunity, whether it’s condos or rentals,” Dexter Mayor Shawn Keough said.
Details are “to be solidified,” Keough, who also serves on the Dexter Downtown Development Authority, said, adding that building housing there “generally aligns with the DDA’s goals.”
It is unknown if Trowbridge plans to propose a commercial component along with residential units. Company representatives have not responded to a request for comment.
Keough declined to disclose how much Trowbridge is offering for the vacant lots, “until the DDA sees it” and “out of fairness to the process,” he said.
The DDA hasn’t officially discussed the firm’s latest offer yet. It were set to discuss it during a closed session Thursday, Dec. 19, but there weren’t enough members present for a quorum. It is a multi-part, phased offer, Keough said.
Trowbridge earlier this year made known its interest in the site. In mid-April, the city received a letter of interest from the firm, and representatives also attended a public workshop where residents shared ideas for what they want to see built there.
The firm came back with an initial offer, which wasn’t enough to cover the city’s investment in some of the parcels but recently came back with a revised offer after a meeting with the firm, Keough said.
The meeting included discussion of “some of the past experiences we have had with other developers,” DDA Chair Doug Finn said in an email.
“Until we meet with them to go over the offer, I am not sure what they are proposing for the final product,” Finn said.
The DDA is expected to discuss the offer in a closed session at a meeting, possibly by January.
A portion of the site once housed manufacturer DAPCO Industries, which relocated to an industrial park across town. There was also a now-decommissioned DTE Energy substation there.
“The motivation was to get the industrial properties out of (down)town,” Keough said.
The parcels also include a gravel parking lot and former single-family home sites. If Trowbridge moves forward, it will represent the fourth proposal to build on the site since the city purchased the former industrial site in 2012.
A previous plan for two five-story apartment buildings with commercial space and underground parking is among three projects that have fallen through. Brighton-based developer Common Sail Investment Group informed the city and DDA in late 2023 it wouldn’t be moving forward with purchasing the site.
In 2017, the city and DDA had entered into a pre-development agreement with Ann Arbor-based Norfolk Homes. The firm decided not to move forward during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to that, Birmingham-based Foremost Development Company was interested in putting an apartment complex and commercial there, but that project also fell through.
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