Square-footage, high-load floor capacity are sexy in the economic development world
By Al Jones
Kalamazoo Gazette
COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The former site of the mammoth General Motors plant, whose future was very uncertain when it closed in 1999, is doing so well now that its owners are thinking of adding more space.
“It’s doing very, very well,” Jill Bland, vice president of Southwest Michigan First, said of Midlink Business Park, the 340-acre business center in Comstock Township. “When I last talked to the owners, the facility was about 85 to 90 percent full — the two buildings.”
“Our tenants are asking, ‘Hey, do you have more space?’” said Rob Britigan, vice president of property management for Midlink. “They’re saying, ‘We need more space. We may need more space. Do you have that space for us?’”
Britigan said he and the owners, Los Angeles-based Hackman Capital Partners, anticipate growth in the industrial economy and are trying to get ahead of it, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported.
“We’re sensing it from our existing tenants as well as the brokerage community and calls that we’re getting from the market — just talking with brokers, networking,” Britigan said.
Hackman Capital Partners is poised to build one or more buildings of up to 100,000 square feet to provide smaller, flexible and ready-to-use space for light industrial and other users.
In this case, smaller is better. Space in either of the company’s two 800,000-square-foot-plus main buildings cannot easily be sectioned down for uses of less than 25,000 square feet, Britigan said.
Through this year, the company’s local staff is gathering information and putting together a case for what it wants to see built for industrial uses, and to determine its feasibility.
“We’ll be making the evaluation of that over the next year,” Britigan said.
Bland said the Kalamazoo area doesn’t have enough stand-alone, 100,000-square-foot buildings with 30-foot-high ceilings. Square-footage, high-load floor capacity, and high ceilings are sexy stuff in the economic development world.
Such buildings are attractive to many industrial users, she said, including those in plastics, medical devices (final assembly and warehousing), manufacturing of aerospace components, food processing and automotive components.
“We are seeing a high level of interest in buildings 100,000 square feet or greater here in the region,” Bland said. “And we do lack the buildings.”
She said there are developers willing to build, however. Among them is Scannell Properties, which is building a $12.4 million, 300-square-foot facility at 6501 Portage Road, just south of Milham Avenue. It will be a distribution and final assembly plant that Kenco Logistics Services will use to serve its primary local customer, Stryker Corp.
Kenco Logistics now uses about 210,000 square feet of space in the Midlink West Building. It will relocate when its new home is completed. But Britigan is not worried about the space being left vacant.
“It will create opportunities for other businesses that have needed more space than we’ve been able to offer,” he said.
Referring to property south of where Kenco will relocate, Bland said, “To their south, they are marketing 30 acres of build-to-suit industrial space. Scannell is doing that ... because there’s an interest in that.”
Why should any of the estimated 30,000 motorists who drive past Midlink Business Park each day care?
“Jobs,” Bland said. “It brings new jobs and tax base to the community, increasing our population. It provides opportunity.”
Britigan said, “People should care because it’s employment. It’s jobs. We believe that jobs solve 90 percent of the world’s problems, So if you have good-paying jobs and you have employers expanding ... It’s a good thing.”
The park’s 23 current tenants employ at least 500 people directly, Britigan said. But the park supports many more indirectly, including the many truck drivers, service technicians, contractors and others who do business there. Including Britigan, the park itself has a staff of six.
Those numbers are well off the nearly 4,000 workers once employed there by General Motors. But the vision that Midlink President David W. Smith and his people had in renovating and repurposing the former GM stamping plant still impresses local officials.
“We moved to Comstock in 1977 because it had a strong tax base and outstanding school system because of the money that was available,” Comstock Township Supervisor Ann Nieuwenhuis said of her and her family.
The loss of jobs at General Motors, she said, “personally and community-wide was a big blow in two ways: not only in the jobs that were lost but in what was going to be done with the property.”
She said people were overwhelmed by the size of the factory (2.2 million square feet under one roof). Smith’s vision was to separate it into two buildings and that has worked very well, she said.
Going forward, Britigan said Midlink will focus on attracting tenants for about 14 acres of space it has along Sprinkle Road that’s designated for retail businesses.
Matt Callander, vice president of commercial real estate firm Callander Commercial, said Midlink is trying to fill a retail need in the Sprinkle Road and I-94 corridor that could include but not be limited to new food concepts, dry cleaners, fitness centers, hardware stores, automotive retailers and others.
Callander Commercial was recently named exclusive broker for the business park.
For industrial users, Midlink wants to be able to accommodate industrial and warehouse users that haven’t been its traditional tenants, those that are smaller and in need of 5,000 to 15,000 square feet of space, Callander said.
“We want small business to feel welcomed at Midlink Business Park and let us grow with you,” he said.
Britigan said he hopes to attract businesses that complement those already at the park.
“If we get employees, they need a place to eat lunch, a place for family members to stay,” Britigan said.
A Candlewood Suites extended stay hotel is the only current tenant of the park’s retail area. The four-story, 95-room hotel opened in 2009. Britigan said Midlink would not mind having another hotel, restaurants and other businesses that cater to workers in the park, as well as workers and residents of the areas nearby.
Potential patrons include nonindustrial businesses such as Softball Fans, a seller of softball and baseball gear and a major training center for adolescent to college-level players.
“Immediately, our attention is going to be focused on retail development,” Britigan said. “We want to see the rest of the park developed, particularly the retail side.”
The park has about 40 acres of unused space along Sprinkle Road that it has designated for retail development.
Britigan said Midlink expects to benefit from the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Sprinkle Road/I-94 interchange reconstruction. That $15.5 million project should mean more motorists will pass Midlink, helping to make its retail space more attractive.
Britigan was rehired by Hackman recently and Portage-based Callander Commercial was enlisted by Hackman to push the ongoing development of the property.
Britigan worked as a vice president of operations for Midlink from November of 2009 to April of 2014. During the interim, he worked as a regional manager in Battle Creek for Hinman Co.
Midlink is named for — and will continue to be marketed for — its location. It is equidistant from Chicago and Detroit, and is in a favorable position between Grand Rapids and South Bend, Indiana.
