Van Buren Township DDA pays $25,000 dues for Aerotropolis

At its 29-minute meeting on March 25, the Van Buren Township Downtown Development Authority voted unanimously to pay its 2025 Detroit Region Aerotropolis dues of $25,000.
Absent from the meeting were DDA board members Joe Baskin, Dawn Chappell, and Joyce Rochowiak.
DDA Executive Director Merrie Coburn said Van Buren Township has been a part of the Detroit Regional Aerotropolis since its creation. She said Aerotropolis continues to be an economic development tool for marketing the township’s available industrial properties, attracting businesses, and generating leads.
She said Aerotropolis Executive Director Christopher Girdwood responds and tracks all Michigan Economic Development Corporation project requests, as well as responds on behalf of the township for properties that fit the criteria the MEDC is looking for.
Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara, who sits on the DDA and is chairman of the Aerotropolis board, said the township has been paying Aerotropolis dues for more than 16 years.
DDA chairman Craig Atchinson said Aerotropolis has changed a lot since the beginning. He said it changed directors a lot in the early days.
Supervisor McNamara said Chris Girdwood is doing the best as director over all the others.
“We don’t have an economic development director,” McNamara said, referring to Van Buren Township. “We rely on Chris.”
McNamara referred to the Aerotropolis broker luncheon he had attended earlier that day at Michigan Flight Museum (the former Yankee Air Museum) and several large developers were present to talk to him about properties in the township.
According to Independent files, the Aerotropolis Development Corportation was formed in 2009 when the VBT DDA agreed to pay the township’s annual dues of $50,000. The state legislature was still wrestling with the legislation proposed in 2008 to provide economic incentives to attract businesses in the area of the airports. But that was tabled because surrounding counties questioned the fairness of this, since they needed help, too. The Aerotropolis Local Development Finance Authority was being proposed.
At the beginning, communities that signed on were Van Buren Township, Belleville, Huron Township, Taylor, Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, and Romulus.
Belleville said it was going to ask for a waiver of its dues due to hardship or ask for the Belleville DDA to pay it.
Belleville, Ypsilanti, and Ypsilanti are no longer a part of Aerotropolis, but Wayne County, Washtenaw County, Wayne County Metro Airport Authority/Willow Run, and MEDC have joined as public partners and there are several private partners, as well.
In other business at the March 25 meeting, the DDA:
• Re-elected the present officers for another year: chairman Craig Atchinson, vice-chairman Mark Laginess, and secretary Chris Brown;
• Approved the cleaning services quotation received from JANPRO Cleaning & Disinfecting for one weekly nighttime clean in the amount of $315 per month, a biannual deep-clean service in the amount of $275 each, and one tile scrub for $500, for a yearly total of $4,830 for two years. The current contract with Lakefront Windows had expired which prompted the rebidding of the services to the DDA building. JANPRO of Farmington Hills was low-bidder of three and included six letters of recommendation from customers;
• Heard Coburn report on the right-of-way acquisitions for the widening of Belleville Road between Tyler and Ecorse. The DDA has acquired 14 rights of way through settlement and Judgement Consent totaling $821,664.74. Four addresses have defaulted on the 21-day notice to contest and the DDA attorney is trying to contact the property owners to get them paid the appraisal amounts. Two others have an attorney and the DDA attorney will meet with them April 7 to discuss their offers. There is a total of $107,480 to be paid out, she said. Because state funds are being used on the widening construction, the MDOT requires documentation of a 15-page checklist for each parcel to make sure it was all acquired under the Uniform Act. The county is scheduled to go out for bids on the project on Aug. 1;
• Heard Supervisor McNamara say the township is working with State Farm to acquire property for the future western extension of Robson Road. He said the township owns one acre from the north side of the Clover Communities’ driveway that it was given by Clover;
• Learned most of the rights of way for the Tyler Road Non-Motorized Pathway are in the public right of way and the DDA will talk with property owners where right of way over private property is needed. Coburn said plans call for MDOT to go out for bids on this project on Oct. 3;
• Was advised all the bands for Mid-Week Music have been booked, Restaurant Week to promote district restaurants will be held April 20-27, and the Art Sculpture Committee met to choose the 2025-26 sculptures for Van Buren Township and the city of Belleville and they will be installed sometime in May, with the VBT Communications Department creating a map;
• Heard McNamara say that rather than extending the DDA, which would open it up to revenue sharing with the county and others, it should make sure it has enough fund balance in reserve to go out for bonds for projects and pay the bonds with the reserve. “We have to make sure we have enough fund balance to pay the bonds,” he said, noting the DDA should keep a 25% or 50% fund balance or even 100% “to keep the money here to use in our communities instead of it going elsewhere. “This is one of the stronger DDAs in the state,” McNamara said; and
• Heard Coburn say the next meeting will be at 3 p.m. on April 22 and it will be just discussion and very informal.