‘America’s best megasite’ halted after state agency spends nearly $6 million in taxpayer funds

After spending $6 million of taxpayer money to prepare a site for an industrial development in Eagle Township, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced in November that it will end the project.

Michigan Farm News reported on Nov. 19 that the MEDC is squashing plans for the site, which the Lansing Economic Area Partnership once touted as a national frontrunner for attracting corporations.

LEAP boasted the project would be “America’s best megasite,” according to Bridge Michigan.

Michigan’s chief agency for distributing taxpayer subsidies initially backed the plan for the land in Clinton County. The MEDC disbursed $5.95 million to the Lansing economic development organization for site preparation, Otie McKinley, communications manager for the MEDC, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.

“MEDC’s overarching goal is to create good-paying jobs and opportunities throughout Michigan,” McKinley added.

The agency that disburses subsidies believes the site has great potential given its proximity to infrastructure, workforce, and other adjacent industrial uses, McKinley said. He said, though, that it is not the right time to pursue additional development on the site.

Part of the property, 1,200 acres, was acquired from Michigan State University, which received the land as a gift from a now-deceased farmer, Dave Morris. Michigan Farm News reported that Morris wanted the land to remain agricultural for at least 25 years, which one of his neighbors confirmed to CapCon in 2023.

The state’s development agency did not want to wait that long. “We have this very unique opportunity right now, if we move very quickly with site readiness,” Terri Fitzpatrick, executive vice president and chief real estate and global attraction officer at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, told Bridge Michigan Aug. 25, 2022.

But no company had committed itself to purchasing the site.

Lansing-based LEAP told Bridge Michigan that local municipalities “are engaged and in full support” of the project, though it did not mention any local opposition. Voters recalled the local township supervisor who supported the project as a way to stop the megasite. Local residents partly opposed the project because the township kept it a secret. Eagle Township Supervisor Patti Schafer signed a non-disclosure agreement with the MEDC on March 26, 2022, according to the NDA CapCon obtained through a record request.

Several township residents formed the nonprofit Economic Development Responsibility Alliance to oppose certain megasites, including one for a battery plant near Big Rapids.

“The MEDC and LEAP’s backing off the development of the (megasite) is a win for Eagle Township residents, and it’s a win for grassroots communities across Michigan,” Marjorie Steele, founder and executive director of the alliance, said in an email to Cap Con.

“While it’s unfortunate that residents had to resort to recalling their supervisor and revising their master plan in order to make themselves heard to our state-funded developers,” said Steele, “it demonstrates that Michiganders have the power and the savvy to protect their communities from toxic heavy industrial developments which abuse taxpayer dollars.”