Van Buren DDA meets for first time at new $3 million headquarters

The Van Buren Township Downtown Development Authority board met at its new headquarters for the first time on Nov. 26 — but it didn’t have a quorum and no votes could be taken.
The board decided to only discuss matters and turn the item that needed a vote over to the three full-time township officials to sign off on.
The request was to approve an expenditure not to exceed $7,500 for advertising in the 2020-2022 Ann Arbor Area Guest Guide. It will be pages 2 and 3, which, Assistant Director Lisa Lothringer said, “will allow us to get the full attention of the reader through the use of vibrant photographs, along with the strategic use of white space.”
She said the guest guide is published every two years and is placed in all of the hotel rooms in the Greater Ann Arbor area. The last ad the DDA placed was one page.
Supervisor Kevin McNamara suggested the board take a straw vote, thumbs up or thumbs down, and everyone voted thumbs up. Supervisor McNamara said the township board does that all the time.
Lothringer also announced completed publicity pieces: four pages for the Van Buren Township Today publication, full page in the winter edition of the Ann Arbor Community Observer, two full-page ads and one full page “top spot” for Hour media’s Detroit Area Guest Guide, and welcome maps were completed and will be distributed to the local hotels during the next few weeks.
When board members arrived for the meeting, Executive Director Susan Ireland took them for a tour around the new building, pointing out the kitchen, the lounge with a flickering fireplace, two private offices, a bathroom with a shower, and the meeting room with a especially constructed 14-foot wooden table surrounded by padded chairs.
This is where the DDA will hold its monthly meetings.
In her update to the board, Ireland said in May 2018 the DDA approved the Placemaking Initiative Project for a guaranteed maximum price of $2,832,094 (with about 54% for site improvements) and a contingency of $200,000 and $125,720.47 of the contingency has been spent, leaving about $74,279.76 remaining.
Ireland said there are a few minor items that need to be addressed and the DDA is holding back $290,241.65.
Ireland said she will plan an open house shortly after the first of the year. She said she and Lothringer have only been in the building for a week and an open house during the holidays would be too difficult.
Ireland said the DPW will put the lighted holiday ice skaters in the triangle at Belleville and Quirk Road and put the lighted trees in Harris Park at the new headquarters.
“We need to think about use of the building,” Ireland said. She said she sent a questionnaire to all members and it will take a while to get the policy in place.
“It’s not Susan’s building,” she stressed.
DDA member Helen Foster said they have to comply with state law in the spending of DDA funds, but she likes the questionnaire, too.
Foster suggested Ireland check the enabling legislation for DDAs in the state when determining how the building is going to be used, and if the DDA pays for something, determine if it is a legitimate expenditure.
McNamara said it was a community meeting room.
Foster replied that it has to be determined if any cost is or is not a legitimate expenditure, such as security for a meeting.
“It’s a community resource,” McNamara insisted.
“Yes, but there are restrictions,” said Foster, who also served as VBT treasurer and supervisor in the past.
In other business at the unofficial gathering, the DDA:
• Heard Ireland report that the DDA is holding some retainage to ensure that the 15 dead trees are replaced in the spring at the Belleville Road pathway and crossing over I-94. She said this project came within 4% of the original contract amount;
• Learned the DDA staff met with Wade Trim on Nov. 21 to review the Capital Improvement Plan. The subcommittee had already had earlier draft copies to evaluate. Ireland said in early December a copy of the plan will be forwarded to board members to review and a presentation will be made at the first meeting of 2020. There is no meeting in December;
• Learned Aerotropolis has hired Christopher Girdwood as its new executive director and he will attend the January 2020 meeting to bring the DDA board up to date. Supervisor McNamara said this is not a political appointee and “sounds like this is a real-live developer of economics”;
• Heard Supervisor McNamara say digital marketing is where everyone is going and if you can’t do it on your phone, you’re in trouble. “Van Buren Township does not want to get into the economic development game,” he said. “We don’t have to do deals to get them to develop… The $25,000 dues to Aerotropolis is a cheap way to get an economic development director”;
• Heard Ireland state that although the DDA did not have an October meeting, as required by PA 57 the staff held the second informational meeting for the year on Oct. 22. She said one person came to the meeting, DDA director Joe Baskin;
• Heard Vice Chairperson Carol Bird say that at a recent real estate convention she heard many good comments about VBT. “Van Buren Township has come a long way … Now it really looks good … Northville and Plymouth residents want to come to VBT… What a difference. We’ve come a long, long way”;
• Heard Ireland say that they are looking at doing an overpass like VBT’s over I-94 in Ypsilanti and they have asked for details from VBT on its project;
• Heard Foster comment on the park next to the DDA building. She said sitting in the park is very peaceful and that it’s amazing that next to a five-lane road you can have that peace. “We build quality,” McNamara replied;
• Heard visitor Marcia Hollins ask the distance you can walk around the park. She said it would be good to know to tell the senior citizens the distance they would cover. She asked about a restroom and McNamara said walkers could go inside the DDA building to use the bathroom. Hollins asked when the building closes and McNamara said there would have to be more discussion about the use of rest rooms; and
• Heard McNamara say the State of Michigan has a new emphasis on walking and there’s a grant out there that he wants the VBT Parks and Recreation Department to apply for in conjunction with the DDA for a walking map. He said there is a walking app where you walk along and the GPS tells you where you are. He said Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Wright is half way to having the grant application filled out. Secretary Chris Brown said in Ann Arbor as you’re walking along the street, you can see all the buildings and it tells you what they are. You go in through Google Maps, he said.
Present at the meeting were Vice Chairperson Carol Bird, Secretary Chris Brown, Supervisor Kevin McNamara, and Directors Jim Chudzinski and Helen Foster. Also present were DDA Executive Director Susan Ireland, Assistant Director Lisa Lothringer, and visitor Marcia Hollins. DDA members absent were Chairman Craig Atchinson and Directors Joe Baskin, Dawn Chappell, Victor Delibera, Mark Laginess, and Joyce Rochowiak.