The Grand Rapids City Commission votes unanimously to provide a $318 million subsidy for the unaffordable Grand Action 2.0 proposed apartment buildings

On Sunday MLive posted an article with the following headline, $318M incentive plan for high-rise towers, downtown venues OK’d by Grand Rapids board. 

The “board” that the MLive reporter refers to is the Grand Rapids City Commissioners. The Grand Rapids Mayor and the six City Commissioners voted unanimously to provide $318 million of incentives, through what is known as the Transformational Brownfield plan, which was the exact amount requested by Grand Action 2.0. 

The Grand Rapids City Commission voted unanimously to approve a $318 Million incentive – which is code for subsidy – to an organization that is comprised of the economically and politically most powerful people/families in West Michigan, along with people who have relationships with those with power and often do their bidding. You can watch the very brief discussion they had at this link. The discussion about approving the $318 million subsidy to Grand Action 2.0 begins at 14:40 in and ends at 15:50. 

Of the 735 units, only 146 would be affordable, and the notion that those 146 apartments are affordable is questionable at best, but for this writer Grand Action 2.0’s notion of affordable is insulting. Included here above is a graphic provided to the City Commissioners in the agenda packet listing the so-called affordable apartments that will be built next to the Amphitheater and the soccer stadium. How are these number actually affordable for most people who are struggling to survive? Clearly, as I noted in a post two weeks ago when MLive first reported on the $318 million subsidy, Grand Action 2.0 doesn’t want low income people to live in these apartments.

Now that the Grand Rapids City Commission has unanimously signed off on the incentive plan, the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) must do the same. The MSF is the public funding arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. As you can see, the board members of the Michigan Strategic Fund are primarily from the private financial sector, along with a few members of the Michigan government. Notice that Randy Thelen, the president and CEO of The Right Place, Inc., also sits on this board. Thelen will surely voted yes to use more public money to subsidize unaffordable housing that Grand Action 2.0 has proposed, especially since 10 of the board members of The Right Place Inc. also sit on the board of Grand Action 2.0. The centers of power in this city are so god damn incestuous, or what is known as interlocking systems of power.

But Wait, there’s more!

It is important to note that the Grand Action 2.0 Amphitheater and Soccer Stadium apartment projects are not only relying on the $318 Million Transformational Brownfield plan, they also listed in the agenda packet for last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting likely additional subsidies. 

Economic Development staff have been working with Grand Action to submit a grant application requesting up to $1 million from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to support demolition and environmental cleanup costs associated with the amphitheater development. Pending review by EGLE, a request to approve the grant submission would be presented to the board at its next meeting. 

The residential components of the project both meet the requirements for the Neighborhood Enterprise Zone exemption, which may be considered by the City as the projects develop further. Based on projections, the NEZ could provide up to $24 million of tax savings for the amphitheater apartments, and $6.8 million of tax savings for the stadium district tower, each over a period of 15 years. 

If these other tax incentives and grants are approved, then Grand Action 2.0 will get an additional $31.8 million, bringing the total cost to the public $349.8 million. Don’t you just love it when the public pays for projects that are crafted by the Capitalist Class, projects they could easily afford themselves?