State Grant to Allow for State Hospital Redevelopment

TRAVERSE CITY, MI-The state has awarded a $1 million grant to Grand Traverse County to pay for environmental response activities required to redevelop the former Traverse City State Hospital.

The Minervini Group plans to redevelop the property into a mixed-use commercial and residential development with a variety of housing, shopping, dining, and office space in a village setting. The project will include commercial/office space and is expected to create 700 new jobs. The new development will result in private investment of $73 million, the state says.

The former state hospital is included in a Renaissance Tax Zone and is considered a brownfield area.

“We are pleased to work with Grand Traverse County in its effort to reuse this historic property,” says Steven Chester, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, which issued the grant. “Much of the grant will be used for lead paint and asbestos contaminated waste removal in the remarkable 100-year-old Building 50, helping to preserve its unique architecture for another hundred or more years. Other grant funds will be used to address contaminated soil and remove old underground storage tanks, making the site safe and usable for residential and commercial development.”