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Broadway Village was a proposed development in Lower Town that was never built. It was a private development, but the city was involved as a potential provider of Tax Increment Financing (TIF).

 

Timeline: Broadway Village

2016 February 6. See 1140 Broadway.

October, 2015. Vacant Village: As high rises sprout downtown, more than six acres on Broadway lie fallow. Ann Arbor Observer. "Developer Peter Allen assembled the property in 2000. He sold it to East Lansing-based Strathmore Development Company, which after years of negotiations with the city, county, and state won approval to build a grandiose retail, condo, and office development called Broadway Village at Lower Town."

Strathmore planned to pay for much of the project's cost from money Broadway Village otherwise would have paid in property taxes. Since it was never built, that's now moot. But the state still lost money on the project: the State of Michigan Retirement System (SMRS), which manages pensions for 565,000 Michigan public school employees, state workers, state police, and judges, made a $20 million equity investment.

4. Broadway Village at Lower Town. This may be the longest duration for an unrequited project in the city, which may be fitting given its history as both controversial and enormous. The reasons for building on the site still exist - it offers an excellent location with proximity to downtown and U-M’s Medical Center, and it could become a gem for residential and destination retail. Yet in the meantime, we could look at fencing and broken concrete for some time.

Scott Chappelle, president of Strathmore Development Co. in East Lansing, said he's in talks with several potential financing sources for the 7.3 acre project, but that "credit markets remain frozen."

With the ceremonial shovels turned Jan. 10 at Broadway Village at Lower Town, Clark Construction Co. is now pressing ahead on a bullish construction schedule it hopes will have the $171 million project opened in 2010. Strathmore Development Co. estimates it will take about 30 months and 6,000 personnel hours to complete the project, which includes 152,689 square feet of medical and office space, 138,275 square feet of retail and 185 apartments.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Michigan Economic Development CEO James Epolito, and Ann Arbor Mayor Pro-Tem Marcia Higgins were among the dignitaries who took part in the ceremonial shovel turning. Work by contractor Clark Construction Co. actually began at the $171 million mixed-use commercial and residential project in November.

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