BURTON — Mayor Paula Zelenko has been working three years with the Flint and Genesee Chamber of Commerce, the I-69 corridor and the Next Michigan Development Corporation in marketing and reaching out to national and international businesses for a large development that would bring jobs to the area and grow the city’s economic base.
Zelenko said over the holidays the city was approached by NorthPoint Development about the possibility of NorthPoint purchasing the city’s portion of the property at the intersection of Genesee and Davison roads.
“They also said they were interested in the adjacent property the RACER Trust owns and said for their development they would want both properties,” Zelenko said.
Zelenko said she and others representing the city met with NorthPoint, and NorthPoint gave them a letter of intent to purchase the property. NorthPoint also gave them a conceptual site plan.
“So, I did everything I could do over the holidays to make this happen,” Zelenko said. “I signed a letter of intent. I called in the city attorney over the holidays to look at this. I signed a non-disclosure agreement so that I would not reveal it if I became aware of who NorthPoint’s client that is interested in the property is.”
Zelenko told the NorthPoint representatives she could probably get them in front of city council the second meeting in January. The NorthPoint representatives called Jan. 16 and said they really want to get in front of the city council, and their client was saying they wanted them to buy the property.
Zelenko said the process of NorthPoint possibly purchasing the property is happening pretty quick.
“I believe they’re really sincere and the research I’ve done on NorthPoint Development shows it’s a great, great company,” she said.
Zelenko said she highly respects RACER Trust, which has done business with NorthPoint before and of which representatives are backing up NorthPoint.
“I’m ready to move forward,” Zelenko said. “I feel really good and confident that we have a development. It’s going to go in there. It’s going to bring jobs. It looks like it’s going to be a large facility. It’s right next to the railroad tracks. So, there is a possibility they could build a rail spur off of that so they would have multimodal transportation; not only trucking but would also have rail.”
Zelenko said having more than one mode of transportation for their product would qualify them under the I-69 international corridor multimodal benefits. So, through Next Michigan Development Corporation, they would qualify for some tax incentives, making the property very attractive for the client.
Council Vice President Duane Haskins said at the Jan. 18 city council meeting knowing NorthPoint wants to invest in Burton gives him an overwhelmingly positive feeling.
At 11:15 a.m. NorthPoint sent the mayor’s office an email saying they felt the city council meeting was very positive and successful. Since then, both the city and NorthPoint have signed a purchase agreement.
Zelenko said she thinks the development will have a snowball effect, encouraging more developments.
NorthPoint’s client is a Fortune 500 company, the plan is for the building area to be 1,067,000 square feet and for the development to have 726 car parking spots.