By Jim Bloch
The city of Port Huron may soon see 26 new residential units created in the 119-year Fead Building.
KC Management LLC, under Kyle Schieweck, plans to invest $6,820,434 to redevelop the two-story, 40,500 square foot brick commercial building into a mixed-use building with apartments, a mail room and ground floor commercial space.
Because the building is functionally obsolete, the developer qualifies for benefits under the state’s Brownfield Redevelopment Act.
The Port Huron City Council voted unanimously at its regular meeting May 11 to approve the plan.
“It’s a redevelopment, a rehabilitation of the Fead Building,” Connor Zook told the council, as heard on the recording of meeting posted on YouTube. Zook, who works for the Lansing-based environmental consulting firm Triterra, wrote the brownfield plan. “Total investment into the building is estimated at $6.8 million, of which we hope to capture about $1.5 million in tax increment revenue over a19 year period.”
The building sits on three-quarter of an acre with a taxable value of $204,277. Under the Brownfield plan, the taxable value then becomes the baseline. As the rehab continues and more value is created, taxes on the value above the baseline flows into the local authority ultimately to the developer to help offset his costs. By the end of 2027, Zook estimated that the improvements will have increased the taxable value of the build to $1,480,000.
The address of the building is 1635 Poplar Street. Its western side fronts 10th Avenue. Its north side is bounded by Whipple Street. Pine Grove Avenue runs north and south a block east of the building.
A contiguous vacant lot will be turned into a dog park for the building’s residents.
“A new parking lot will be constructed in the southwest portion of the subject property and new street parking spaces to the north along Whipple Street, for a total of 43 new parking spaces,” according to Triterra’s brownfield plan.
Bruce Seymour, chair of the city’s Brownfield Development Authority, said the authority approved the plan on April 16. “We like this plan. We like that it’s a redevelopment of an obsolete building.”
The building was erected in 1907 as the home of Fead & Sons Woolen Knitting Mills. As their business grew, the Feads built two 3,420-square foot storage sheds on their property, as well as a 2,470-square foot shed, and a 380-foot shed to store drums. The sheds occupy the southern portion of the parcel. The mill operated until 1948.
“Plastic Plaque Products, which produces decorative plastic resin molds utilized to adorn burial vaults, has been operating on the subject property since that time,” according to the plan. “Portions of the subject property have also been leased out to various commercial enterprises in the property’s recent history, including an art studio, a billiards hall, a screen printer/embroider, a tobacco shop, a candy shop, a paintball equipment retail, furniture retail, an animal shelter, a career guidance agency, and prefabricated automobile construction.”
City Manager James Freed praised the developer, Kyle Schieweck.
“This is his second development in addition to numerous businesses he owns in town,” said Freed. “He’s done the apartment building on Seventh and Union. Extraordinary project there… He did great work attracting the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to this project and getting MEDC funding to the table, which is very rare.”
The MEDC reviews all non-environmental brownfield activities, such as demolition, site work, and infrastructure.
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority requires that 20 percent of the apartments created using tax increment financing – six apartments in this case – will be reserved for residents earning at most 120 percent of Area Median Income for the 19-year reimbursement period.
One of the goals of the Brownfield Redevelopment Act is the safe reuse of obsolete or contaminated properties to minimize urban sprawl and revitalize communities. With its proximity to McLaren Hospital and the city’s downtown, the Fead Building rehab should provide more housing options in the city and boost Port Huron’s walkability.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
