http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/in...the_citys.html
Officials to announce renovation of Durant Hotel in Flint into apartment complex
by Ron Fonger | The Flint Journal
Monday October 27, 2008, 1:19 PM
FLINT, Michigan --
The city's historic Durant Hotel will be redeveloped, a $30-million investment that will turn the downtown landmark into a renovated apartment complex, an East Lansing developer and the Genesee County Land Bank are expected to announce Tuesday.
County Treasurer Daniel T. Kildee, chairman of the Land Bank, confirmed today that the project will go forward and is expected to be completed by this time next year.
Plans are for the building to be redeveloped into more than 100 apartments, aimed at college students and professionals who work in or near the downtown area.
Kildee, officials from a new limited liability company that will own the building, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Ford Foundation are among those expected to make the announcement official Tuesday from inside what was once Flint's grandest hotel.
"For 53 years, that building was the symbol of Flint's ascendancy... . It was the place to be," Kildee said. "For the last 35 years it's been sitting there ... a symbol of Flint's decline."
Kildee said a renovated Durant could again mirror the changing fortunes of the city's downtown, which has seen millions in new investments in recent years.
The announcement that the Durant will be redeveloped does not come as a complete surprise.
Interior demolition started in June, work the county said had to be done whether it decided to demolish or help redevelop the Durant.
Last year, the Land Bank created a holding company to push the project forward and signed a pre-development contract with Karp & Associates.
But officials said it was impossible to make the project work without arranging millions in public and private financing to subsidize and provide start-up costs.
Opened in 1920, the Durant closed in 1973 and has been the subject of several failed redevelopment proposals in the past. The Land Bank purchased the building in 2005 with plans to demolish or redevelop it rather than allowing for its continued deterioration.
Kildee said the sale to 607 E. Second Avenue LLC will be for a little more than $500,000, a price that will allow the agency to get back all the money that it has spent on the job.