DETROIT – The Michigan Economic Development Council Tuesday approved a 30-year tax cut for the planned Ford Motor Co. campus in the historic district of Corktown in Detroit, which is the hub for the revitalization of Michigan's long-lasting Michigan Central Station by the car manufacturer.
The board of the Michigan Strategic Fund signed with Ford the application for a 30-year Renaissance Zone designation for the 18-storey train station and associated parking deck, the former warehouse for books in Detroit adjacent to the depot and ownership of the property. former Lincoln Brass. Factory operates in 2051 Rosa Parks Blvd.
The tax cuts amount to $ 208.8 million – or $ 6.95 million per year – in property taxes that Ford does not have to pay over a 30-year period that will start in 5 years, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The Corktown properties currently generate less than $ 200,000 in taxes annually, according to a MEDC briefing letter to the board members of MSF.
The approval of the MSF board of the Renaissance Zone designation is the final step to Ford, which achieves nearly $ 239 million in tax benefits for the $ 740 million autonomous vehicle campus that the automaker wants to establish in Corktown by 2022.
Ford, however, seems to have more time to bring 5,000 jobs to Detroit in exchange for tax benefits.
The strategy fund document states that Ford has promised to bring 2,500 "direct jobs" to Corktown by December 31, 2022, and 2,500 employees from suppliers and "partners" by December 31, 2028.
Ford "expects the majority of suppliers' jobs to be created or brought in by 2022," said Stacey Bowerman, vice president of development projects for the MEDC.
The Detroit City Council has approved tax cuts under the Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act, a commercial rehabilitation department. According to the MEDC memo, these have been reduced to $ 27 million over 12 years.
These tax benefits will effectively freeze the taxable value of Corktown properties at the current level after renovation and improvements.
City council also approved an application for a Renaissance Zone, which exempted Ford from paying real and personal property taxes, as well as Detroit's city taxes on corporate income and utility users.
Ford Land Development Co., the real estate development law of the car manufacturer, plans to demolish the 289,000 former copper plant on Rosa Parks Boulevard and build a new office building from 500,000 square to 600,000 square meters.
Ford, which announced the purchase of Michigan Central Station in June, had insisted on speedy approval of the tax cuts this fall by state and city officials to begin building a temporary safety enclosure to dry the damaged train depot. were exposed to the elements for years.
Major refurbishment and construction work at the train station is expected to start in early 2019, according to the MEDC memo.
The brass factory plant is adjacent to the factory building in Rosa Parks and Michigan, where 250 Ford employees in Ford's electric and autonomous vehicle divisions started work at the end of May.
Rehabilitation of the former DPS bookstore of 273,000 square meters on 2231 Dalzelle St. starts at the beginning of 2019. The former post office of 1936 has remained empty since a fire in 1987 destroyed the building.