Kalamazoo commissioners approve locations for ‘transformational brownfield’ project
Posted By: News Channel 3 on October 20, 2025. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Kalamazoo city commissioners approved a Transformational Brownfield development project during their Monday night meeting.
PlazaCorp has been working with the city to identify three locations that will be re-purposed:
- An office building on East Kalamazoo Street which will be turned into housing
- A building on Porter Street that will be turned into a mixed-use building
- The old Kalamazoo County Building, which will be turned into a boutique hotel
It’s a $96 million investment that the city and PlazaCorp have been working on for “quite some time.”
Leaders are excited about the economic vitality that the projects will bring to downtown.
For Kalamazoo Assistant City Planner, Bobby Durkee, it takes a lot of creativity and effort to rehabilitate the buildings for modern use.
“I think a big part of it is the long-term return of occupied, active spaces is part of the return on that,” Durkee said.
Kalamazoo Development Manager Jamie McCarthy believes the redevelopment will help local businesses, such as hotels and restaurants.
“We know that those hotel stays benefit all of our local businesses, and we’re really looking forward to that,” McCarthy said.
Though the projects have been approved by the city, they still need state approval. The city will then receive permits within the next year, after approval is secured.
All three projects have a five-year timeline, according to officials.
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