City approves Shaw Walker transformational brownfield plan, affordable-housing and community-benefit agreements

The Muskegon City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a transformational brownfield plan for the Shaw Walker mixed‑use redevelopment and to authorize related affordable‑housing and community‑benefit agreements with Parkland Properties of Michigan.

The plan covers a roughly 15‑acre former Shaw Walker Furniture complex at 965 West Western Ave., 920–930 Washington Ave. and 1330 Division Ave. that Parkland acquired in December 2022. Contessa Alexander, development analyst for the City of Muskegon, told the commission the developer proposes to rehabilitate four existing buildings and add 538 new housing units — 69 condominiums, 37 townhomes and 432 apartments — bringing the project to a total of 591 units when combined with 53 existing units. Alexander said, “The total capital investment for this project is expected to exceed $212,900,000,” and that the redevelopment is expected to create about 200 permanent full‑time jobs and about 600 temporary construction jobs.

Why it matters: The commission and economic development partners described the project as one of the largest and most consequential in recent local history, promising hundreds of housing units and new commercial space in downtown Muskegon and the adjacent NIMS neighborhood. Greg King, director of economic development for Greater Muskegon Economic Development (GMED), said the development’s housing will help meet demand from recent and planned job growth in the county and called the proposal “one of the City of Muskegon’s, if not Muskegon County’s, most important and significant development projects to date.”

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