With speed to market an increasingly crucial consideration for global manufacturers, having a deep portfolio of ready industrial sites has gone from being a competitive advantage to a strategic imperative for states pursuing transformative economic development projects.
Enter MI Sites. Michigan’s new site development program — spearheaded by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) — is helping to build out a roster of shovel-ready sites across the length and breadth of Michigan. The goal, in a state that overflows with assets, is to check that final box for site selectors and their corporate clients.
“We’re a diverse state with a lot of offerings,” says Paul O’Connell, MEDC’s vice president for real estate development. “We have a great manufacturing workforce, great infrastructure, great ports and a long history of making things. We’re looking to MI Sites to help put us over the top.”
“We want to make sure that the sites that we’re developing fit exactly what companies are looking for.”
— Paul O’Connell, MEDC VP of Real Estate Development
To develop MI Sites, MEDC partnered with Quest Site Solutions, a site consultancy based in Greenville, South Carolina, to establish granular protocols for identifying, evaluating and developing industrial sites in a manner that both leverages Michigan’s strengths and advances the state’s strategic goals. Electric vehicles, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing rest squarely within Michigan’s sweet spot.
“MI Sites,” O’Connell explained to Site Selection, “creates consistent, statewide criteria tailored to the needs of those and other growth sectors,” including, he says, clean energy and the defense industry. “We want to make sure that the sites that we’re developing fit exactly what those companies are looking for, so that we’re not doing one thing where they’re looking for something different.”
On the Same Page Now
This year, MEDC announced the approval of $87.5 million in grant funding through its Strategic Site Readiness Program (SSRP) to support 18 sites across Michigan. Recipients include Hancock Business & Technology Park in the Upper Peninsula; Muskegon Heights Industrial Parks and Covenant Business Park in West Michigan; Flint Commerce Center in East Central Michigan; and Latson Innovation Interchange Technology & Industrial Park in Ann Arbor.
“These grants will prepare us to win more manufacturing projects creating thousands of good jobs,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “Together with a strong, bipartisan economic development toolkit, we are competing with other states and nations to bring home supply chains of cars, chips and clean energy.” She added: “Let’s move some dirt!”
MI Sites, says O’Connell, builds upon this broader, statewide framework.
“Part of the SSRP funds were sent to economic developers to go out and identify sites in their market. After that,” he says, “the MI Sites program comes in and provides a professional review of those sites to establish exactly where they stand, further support them and get them ready to go for economic development.”
In addition to the promise of additional grant funding, MI Sites, says O’Connell, includes innovative marketing support and an important consulting component.
“We’re creating a process and building a structure around it,” he says, “to help our economic developers understand the steps that they need to go through to see that shovel-ready site to fruition.”
Supersite in the Making
The 1,000-acre Advanced Manufacturing District (AMD) of Genesee County — being developed near Flint by the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance — stands out, says O’Connell, among Michigan’s top emerging industrial sites. This year, the project received a hefty $260 million in state grants to purchase targeted land in the county’s Mundy Township. Being developed with high-tech manufacturing in mind, the site is envisioned by supporters as a lure to a multi-billion-dollar investment that could generate thousands of jobs, promote related expansion and pour untold millions into local coffers.
“We’re marketing the Advanced Manufacturing District to companies that will help bring our supply chain back to the United States and grow our local talent pipeline,” said Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance. “This will create opportunities for young people, including jobs that don’t require a college degree. Between these jobs and the economic boost this will give our small businesses, we are very excited for the impact this initiative will have on our region and the entire state.”
In July, the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance announced that AMD’s network of supporters has grown to include more than 30 regional employers, community stakeholders and labor organizations.
“This site,” Rossmaessler said, “is among the best in the country. Every day,” he said, “we’re hearing from people who live and work in Genesee County about their excitement and optimism that an advanced manufacturing project can help to turn around our county and our region.”
All this goes toward certifying that, when it comes to site development, Michigan is committed to expanding opportunities for both its people and potential investors.
“The bottom line,” says O’Connell, “is that Michigan is investing. We will continue to invest, we have a unified standard and solid sites. And many more to come.”
This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of Consumers Energy, Michigan’s top energy provider. For more information, contact Valerie Christofferson at Consumers Energy at valerie.christofferson@cmsenergy.com
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