TRAVERSE CITY -- A $6 million, taxpayer-funded parking deck that would serve a proposed cancer treatment center sits on economic life-support while Munson Medical Center waits for an economic rebound.
Munson put its vision for a new, $40 million center to house its cancer programs on indefinite pause while it waits for donor support and financing markets to improve, said Ed Ness, president and CEO of Munson Medical Center.
"We are sill moving forward with a lot of components of our cancer center program, but the road to our ultimate vision of a bricks and mortar cancer center is just a little bit longer and more difficult than we had originally hoped," Ness said.
Munson's stance threatens the viability of public funding for a parking deck at the 73-acre Copper Ridge development in Garfield Township. Copper Ridge, one of several sites Munson is considering for a cancer center, lacks enough parking without the deck.
Grand Traverse County officials on Nov. 19 gave the nonprofit hospital a one-year extension to move along the project or lose taxpayer support for the parking deck.
"We'd like to see the project happen, and I think one year gives them sufficient time," said county planner John Sych, a member of the county's land bank authority that granted the extension. "But we were pretty adamant one year is it."
The county board of commissioners gave final approval to a complicated land swap to qualify the project for public funding during a standing-room-only meeting on Thanksgiving eve one year ago.
Copper Ridge LLC will donate property for the parking deck to Munson, which would then sell the property to the land bank authority for $1. Land bank ownership qualified the entire Copper Ridge development as a brownfield.
The brownfield designation allows the county to divert tax revenue intended for local governments over the next 14 years to reimburse Munson $5.7 million plus interest for the deck.
None of the land transfers have occurred, but the county's Brownfield Redevelopment Authority still begins capturing property taxes in 2010.
"We don't want to withhold money from the taxing jurisdictions if the project isn't going to move forward," said Jean Derenzy, director of the land bank and brownfield authorities.
The land bank's extension also is conditioned on Munson obtaining an option to purchase the property, said land bank attorney Scott Howard.
"Munson has to get this stuff done with Copper Ridge and if they don't, then there's nothing to talk about," Howard said. "The deal is dead."
Copper Ridge developer Rick Deneweth said the economy makes pulling off projects difficult, but he thinks a deal will be in place with Munson before year's end.
"We are still discussing it and trying to keep the project alive," Deneweth said.
