Elmwood wants to buy land for parking

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Elmwood Township wants to buy some property in the Brewery Creek development for parking lots to service its park and marina. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

February 2, 2012

Supervisor: The need for adequate parking is only going to grow

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Thu Feb 02, 2012, 07:54 AM EST

GREILICKVILLE — Elmwood Township officials hope a $375,000 cash offer will prod a Texas investment group to sell 5 acres across M-22 from the township marina and Greilickville Harbor Park.

The township wants to buy the 10 remaining lots of Brewery Creek mixed-use development along M-22 for overflow marina parking. The owners rejected the township's last offer in October.

The property has parking lots with room for some expansion, though about half the property can't be developed because of conservation easements.

"The need for adequate parking there is only going to grow," said Jack Kelly, Elmwood Township supervisor. "Parking is a key piece of what we want to do along that corridor."

The township property on West Bay lacks adequate parking, and officials expect the situation to worsen after impending marina improvements are completed. The marina project can't fully proceed without more parking, and resolving the parking issue is key to a planned reworking of the commercial corridor, Kelly said.

"The parks remain the central theme of what we want to do along that corridor to make it more attractive," Kelly said.

The township board approved plans in January to add a fish-cleaning station, fishing pier, boardwalk and other recreational amenities that are expected to draw more traffic to the site. The changes will eliminate several existing parking spots.

This spring the tall ship Manitou, with its 10,000 seasonal visitors, will join two other vessels at the Traverse City Light & Power coal dock adjoining the township park, Kelly said. The consolidation of three historical ships at one site is "exciting" but will add even more parking pressure to the parks, he said.

The township's offer for the property expires at the end of business Friday.

Brown Bark I — a subsidiary of Texas-based NC Ventures Inc., a private company that has purchased more than $1 billion in troubled bank-owned assets — ignored the township's initial offering. The township proposal was for $130,000 in cash plus assumption of a $269,000 lien on the property.

Messages left with NC Ventures were not returned.

The property has been listed for sale at $399,000 for almost a year, said Mike Schmidt, the real estate broker who represents Brown Bark I.

"I think it would be great if the township bought it; I think it's a very good value," Schmidt said.

Schmidt said he doesn't know if NC Ventures will respond to the current bid or why it rejected the township's first offer.

The company eventually responded by filing a Freedom of Information Act request for any documents indicating a deal between Elmwood and lienholder Light & Power.

There were no documents, Kelly said. The township structured the offer on the off-chance Light & Power might allow them to pay off the lien over time, but never discussed it with the city-owned utility.

The current cash offer requires Brown Bark to pay off the lien.