A key incentive for the $2.2 billion Renaissance Center redevelopment is back on track for potential approval before year-end after members of a quasi-public Detroit authority resisted calls to postpone their vote to move the incentive forward.
The Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority voted 4-2 on Wednesday, Oct. 14, to approve the project's request for a Transformational Brownfield incentive, sending the matter to Detroit City Council for consideration. The Transformational Value is a capture of future state-level taxes to be generated at the redevelopment site and has an estimated value of $300 million.
The two brownfield authority board members who voted "nay" — Maggie DeSantis and Eric Dueweke — said they weren't opposed to the RenCen
redevelopment or use of the incentive, but rather to the authority giving an important approval to the project while the project's community benefits package is still being negotiated.
They were specifically concerned about diminishing the leverage of the Neighborhood Advisory Council or NAC, which is a nine-member group that is currently in heavy negotiations with the RenCen project's developers, Bedrock and General Motors, over the size of the project's benefits package.
DeSantis and Dueweke had sought to postpone the vote until the brownfield authority's next meeting on Oct. 28, as by then the cbommunity enefits negotiations would likely be over.
"I’m going to be voting no because we are disrespecting the Community Benefits Ordinance process," DeSantis said. "We’re disrespecting the NAC that has labored for the past month or so to try and come up with a fair and robust community benefits agreement."
One member of the NAC, Teron Haynes Jr., called in during the authority's public comments period to ask for the two-week postponement, saying he believes that the group needs "the appropriate time to get this deal satisfied and done."
However, NAC Chair Jamaine Dickens went on to tell the brownfield board members that the timing of their approval hasn't been a factor in the NAC's approach to community benefits negotiations.
"With all due respect ... this board is oblivious to our board members. Nobody, not one time, has spoken about what you guys do," Dickens said. “This was always a parallel process and I just don’t want anybody to speak on behalf of the NAC and say what we need in order to move forward, because we are moving forward — we made a commitment to the city and we’re gong to deliver."
Bedrock CEO Jared Fleisher also addressed the brownfield authority and pleaded that board members not allow the two-week postponement.
Fleisher said they are aiming to get all of the RenCen project's approvals done before the end of the year, and a two-week postponement would upset that timeline by missing the crucial window for a 10-day legal notice that must be published before a public hearing that precedes city council's votes on the project's various incentives and community benefits.
According to Fleisher, the timeline is so delicate because city council is scheduled to be on recess in December, which means that it must vote on the project before then so that the Transformational Brownfield can get its final approval from the Michigan Strategic Fund in Lansing prior to the next governor's administration taking over.
Because both candidates for governor have shown a desire for changes at the Michigan Economic Development Corp., he said, it could mean a very long and expensive delay for the RenCen project if it's not approved before then.
“So from our standpoint, if this is not done by the end of the year, it could be months and months and months and months," Fleisher said.
The Bedrock CEO also said that he doesn't think that the brownfield board giving its approval will take away any leverage from the NAC in the community benefits negotiations.
“We will reach a robust community benefits agreement with the NAC," Fleisher said. "You have to be responsible; it’s not Monopoly money. But we’re going to reach an agreement.”
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Brownfield board resists calls to delay RenCen vote after Bedrock plea
