The Michigan Department of Management and Budget is seeking an auction services company to sell the Northville Township parcel. The DMB wants to close on a sale by Sept. 15. The state is back to the drawing board after a former potential buyer backed out of the deal, saying it feared clean-up costs associated with the property would be too high.
Real Estate Interests Group Inc. of Bloomfield Hills forfeited $3.1 million to the state after failing to meet a May 3 deadline to buy 453 acres of contaminated land at the site. REI wanted to use the property for an $800-million complex of housing, stores and restaurants. REI, as the winning bidder, agreed to pay the state $56 million for the property.
REI partner Jon Weaver says the property was "replete with contamination, including the unregulated dumping of medical waste into makeshift pits." The cleanup costs, he says, were too much. State officials announced plans to sell the 1950s-era Northville hospital in 2002. The hospital was closed in 2001.
In the years since, several companies have made bids for the property including Grand Sakwa, a firm that had to bow out after questions were raised about the company's campaign contributions to Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Since then, at least two other companies, in addition to REI, had bids on the property either rejected or withdrawn due to various problems. A DMB spokeswoman says that the state wants the property sold by the end of the state fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
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