It would appear that the City of Grand Rapids will provide $565 million in tax incentives to the 2 billionaire families, despite significant public opposition

GRIID has been following this development proposal from the billionaire families of DeVos & Van Andel, known as the Fulmar Property Holdings project, located at Fulton and Market at the south end of downtown Grand Rapids.

After the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting, where a Public Hearing was held on the matter, I wrote:

The back and forth with City Commissioners and the developer lasted an additional 13 minutes, which means that before the public got to speak, we had to sit through 44 minutes of people talking about how great this project would be for the city and how the rest of us are just stupid. When it finally became time for the public comment portion, the number of those that spoke in opposition to this project was 32, while only 5 spoke in favor.

There have also been 1000 electronic messages sent to Grand Rapids City officials, which was from an Action Alert by the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union. You can still sign this action alert by using this link.

However, after looking at the agenda’s for the City’s Committee of the Whole meeting that will be held on Tuesday morning (December 3rd), I read that there is a resolution in the agenda packet for the 10am meeting, which you can find here. The resolution states, in part: 

Your COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE recommends adoption of the following resolution approving a transformational brownfield plan of the City of Grand Rapids Brownfield Redevelopment Authority for the Fulton and Market Transformational Brownfield Plan at 3, 17, 21, 37, 41, 45, 47, 53, and 63 Market Avenue SW, and 216 Fulton Street W and authorizing an Affordable Housing Agreement. 

Later on in the resolution it goes on to say under point #2 of the section headed Resolved: 

The City Commission hereby determines that it is int he best interests of the public to promote the revitalization of certain properties in the City and to proceed with the Plan. 

I have to ask the obvious, which public are Grand Rapids City Officials referring to? If by public, they must be referring to the billionaire families of DeVos and Van Andel. The billionaire public will received over half a billion in tax incentives for a project that will make them billions over the next decade, especially when you factor the rent costs for the nearly 600 apartments, the 76 condos, the 130 room hotel and all the other businesses that will be housed in the 3 tower project. 

With the decision, a decision that seems to already be determined, the City of Grand Rapids is choosing to give over half a billion in tax incentives to the billionaire families of DeVos & Van Andel, plus it will provide them and other businesses in the downtown area an opportunity to expand their profits. 

However, this decision by Grand Rapids City officials also means that they don’t care about the well being of the thousands of residents who can’t afford a home, those who pay outrageously high rental fees, make poverty level wages, are food insecure, and living paycheck to paycheck. Grand Rapids City officials are deciding to widen the wealth gap and sanction economic hardship for a large sector of the residents of this city.