Then, about 18 months ago, city officials approved a plan to transform the neglected banks of the Kalamazoo River near Downtown into a "lively and vibrant 24-hour riverfront district with unique urban flavor and character." Kalamazoo isn't the only Michigan city focused on its riverfront as a revival project. Detroit is about 18 months into a long-term effort to revitalize a three-mile stretch of the Detroit River.
In Kalamazoo, the city has used the state money to acquire about a dozen properties, most in the area of Gull Road and Harrison Street. In July, it paid just more than $1 million for the 6.5-acre KTS Industries complex, in the heart of a 30-acre target area for the riverfront plan. City officials expect to take over the property by November and envision a riverfront trail through the site, which also could be used for housing, light industry and other mixed uses.
Across the river to the east, the city owns eight acres off Ampersee Avenue that was used for more than 50 years to deposit coal fly ash generated by the former Consumers Power Co. The fly ash has been cleared to ground level and city officials hope to see high-density residential development on the site.
Directly south across the railroad tracks, adjacent to the recently completed Rose Park, sits 2.5 acres that the city acquired in 1997. Formerly home to a coal-burning power plant, it has been for sale for about five years and could be the first key property in the target area to be redeveloped, officials say.
"That is the single [riverfront] site that we own that is most prepared for redevelopment," says Chad Howell, city development manager. "Our dream of dreams is to have a chain restaurant come in there or some kind of corporate office."
"There are a lot of people who have grown up in suburbs who are yearning for that urban experience, walking to the local store, kayaking down the river in the morning," says Kent Anderson, of Hamilton Anderson Associates, the Detroit consultants for Kalamazoo's riverfront plan.
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