KALAMAZOO (WKZO) — They are calling it “BTR 2.0”. Western Michigan University wants to expand their wildly successful business park to the Colony Farms Orchard, a large vacant parcel of land between Drake Road and U.S. 131 on the other side of the street from the Asylum Lake Property.
One big difference: the parcel is just over the line in Oshtemo Township, not in Kalamazoo.
WMU’s Bob Miller says the original park has succeeded in just about every way imaginable, by serving the purposes of the university as a place for students to become interns and to become employed.
He says it has already served well as a generator of high paying jobs and responsible citizens.
Next year it will finally be coming on local tax rolls as the Tax Increment Finance Authority that was set up to fund the original infrastructure improvements will expire.
They have the same high hopes for the expansion, and that it will have the same sympathetic relationships and interactions with the Engineering school as the tenants in the original park, which has run out of space.
Miller says they could fit up to a dozen more buildings on the new acreage and would like to break ground before the first snow flies this fall.
But first they have to find about $3.5-million to build roads and install sewer and water service to the parcel.
The Township will kick in some money and so will the University and they are seeking the rest from the County.
Yesterday Oshtemo pitched a tax capture plan to help fund to County Commissioners to fn those up-front costs and say they need the County to forego tax revenue from the park for 20 years to finance the improvements. It was not warmly received.Some commissioners feel such tax capture schemes are designed, and in some case by law, must only be used to attract companies to contaminated or obsolete properties that need clean-ups and upgrades.They say this is prime industrial property and the University should be able to fill it up without the County or any other local unit having to give up tax base. Other funding mechanisms like Public Act 425 would create a temporary annexation of the property by the City of Kalamazoo. Its higher tax rate would pay off the loans in 5 years instead of 15 to 20.Other county officials suggested the Township dip into its own reserves.Miller had hoped for a more cooperative response from the County Board, and says any alternative cooperative arrangements between local governments to generate funding for infrastructure will be between them.Deed restrictions imposed by the state on the Colony Orchard Property would have prevented construction there, but they were lifted by state legislation sponsored by the late Robert Jones several years ago.Miller says the University remains committed to leaving the Asylum Lake preserve undeveloped, as part of their original agreement with the community for the construction of the BTR Park.
