KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Graphics Packaging is lining up local tax breaks for a multi-million dollar expansion of their paperboard manufacturing facility on Kalamazoo’s Northside.
The project is a $600 million undertaking and is expected to help revitalize 123 acres of now vacant industrial land for both economic and business matters.
During a meeting on Monday, Dec. 16th, Commissioners held a public hearing for representatives and citizens to speak on the matter.
The only person who spoke other than the Commissioners was Rusty Miller, Senior Vice President of Engineering Technology at Graphic Packaging.
“This industrial development district is actually a combination of a couple districts that we’ve had before,” Miller said. “It enlarges it to the additional properties we have purchased the last five years, most notable the old Checker site where most of our development will go, but it’s a simple enlargement of our area, including all the properties that we’ve purchased.”
No citizens made any comment during the hearing, and no further discussion was made by the Commissioners.
Miller says it will also create at least 26 new jobs and they will produce about 900,000 tons of recycled paperboard annually, at the expanded facility. That would be 44% of the production of this particular packaging material made each year in North America.
In a statement on the City website, officials wrote that, as far as economic revitalization, the project is expected to “reach community wide goals for affordable housing, increased public transportation, local business success, and to avoid involuntary displacement.”
