Developers outline Shaw Walker transformational brownfield plan, seek city support ahead of February vote

City of Muskegon officials and developers on Monday updated the City Commission on plans to redevelop the long-vacant Shaw Walker factory and seek state transformational brownfield approval to help finance the project.

The project team, led by Parkland Properties founder John Rooks and supported by the city's development director, Jake Atcomb, said the plan would convert the roughly 630,000-square-foot, 15-acre factory into mixed-use housing and retail and relies on transformational brownfield incentives to be financially viable.

The state-designated program, an amendment to the Michigan Brownfield Act (Public Act 381), allows tax-increment capture and, for qualifying projects, additional state-level captures of construction and resident income taxes and sales-and-use exemptions to support unusually large or complex redevelopment. Jake Atcomb, the city's director of development services, summarized the difference: "Transformational brownfield at its core . . . provides more incentives from state tax sources, for financially challenging projects than a traditional local brownfield will." He said the state requires a minimum capital investment threshold for communities Muskegon's size (the city must meet the statutory minimum for its population category) and that the state typically approves only a handful of such projects each year.

Why it matters: Parkland and city staff said the project is much larger than most local brownfield efforts and that the state-level tool is designed to make projects with large construction costs and elevated financing risk feasible. Rooks called the plan "one of the largest generational adaptive reuses in the state of Michigan" and said it would bring market-rate and workforce housing to downtown.

Key project details and schedule - Ownership and scale: Parkland Properties acquired the site more than two years ago; the parcel is about 15 acres and the building about 630,000 square feet. Rooks said Parkland has invested about $5,000,000 to date in design, planning and cleanup. - Program and financing: The project team said transformational brownfield (amendments to Public Act 381) allows reimbursement through incremental property tax capture plus certain state income- and sales-tax captures during construction and operations, and that state approval is performance-based. - Built program: The plan calls for roughly 591 residential units (including 55 existing units), 69 condominiums and 432 new apartments with a unit mix Rooks gave as 31 studios, 347 one-bedroom, 44 two-bedroom and 10 three-bedroom units, plus about 25,000 square feet of retail broken into multiple lifestyle-oriented tenants (restaurant, fitness, day care, small grocery and similar uses). - Timeline and approvals: Staff and the developer said no formal votes were requested Monday but that the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (BRA) will review a local brownfield tax-increment financing plan at its February meeting, the city commission is scheduled to consider the housing-affordability agreement and the transformational brownfield plan draft at the February 11 city commission meeting, and the developer expects to seek Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF)/MEDC review in March. The developer said construction could begin in 2025 if funding and approvals proceed on schedule; phased occupancy could begin in late 2026.

Developer and city comments John Rooks, founder and owner of Parkland Properties, said demolition and hazardous-material abatement have already started and that the team has completed full construction plans and signed a construction contract with AM Higley. "We are arguably taking the largest blightest building in the city and one of the biggest in the state of Michigan into this vibrant mixed use community," Rooks said.

Atcomb and the developer emphasized the program's performance-based structure: state captures occur only if the project generates the tax increment, reducing upfront risk to the state. Rooks said the program had been designed to address steep construction-cost increases and higher interest rates: "This transformational Brownfield plan is . . . a critical component of our project's viability."

Concerns and next steps Commissioners asked about local hiring and contract opportunities; Commissioner Destiny Keener praised the planned price points and the developer's stated willingness to allow local, minority- and women-owned firms to bid portions of the work. Several commissioners urged close oversight of demolition and hazardous-material removal; Commissioner Bill Kogel asked for continued reporting from city building and safety teams to ensure contractor compliance.

Parkland and staff said they will return with the formal local brownfield documents, a housing-affordability agreement and a draft community-benefit agreement for review; state review is contingent on documented local support.

Ending: The commission offered general support for the project update and asked staff to publish the upcoming agenda items and supporting materials ahead of the February 11 vote so commissioners and the public could review the draft agreements in detail.