Original article by Mike Ellis, October 26, 2022
1,300-acre mega site in Clinton County is on the market Here’s what leaders hope happens next
A 1,300-acre site 10 minutes from Lansing is going to market, seeking a chip manufacturer or similar high-tech company that could bring an investment in the ballpark of $10 billion.
The land, largely owned by Michigan State University, is in Clinton County between the Grand Ledge airport and Interstate 96.
The site is being marketed to the small number of companies that would meet MSU’s standards, including research and development opportunities, and that would be able to fill much of the site over time, said Bob Trezise, president and CEO of Lansing Economic Area Partnership.
It could be a chip manufacturer for the automotive industry, another battery site, an electric vehicle plant or some other competitive modern industry that propels the state forward, he said. A $2.6 billion electric vehicle plant is being built in Delta Township.
The site, called the Michigan Manufacturing Innovation Campus, is among the largest publicly available commercial/industrial plots in the state.
There are six larger plots listed on the Michigan Economic Development Corporation site tracker. Four of those are in the Upper Peninsula. The other two sites are in Durand and Marshall.
Trezise said the Clinton County site is ideal: It butts up to a freeway and is a quick drive from the university or Capitol. There is enough land for the giant projects he envisions.
The site is also less than 10 miles from Capital Region International Airport.
He said utility companies – including the Lansing Board of Water & Light, Consumers Energy and Novi-based independent electricity transmission company ITC Holdings Corp. – are all ready to meet the demands of such a large project.
Farmer and former Eagle Township supervisor David Morris bequeathed much of the land, about 1,000 acres, to the university about 15 years ago, said Patti Schafer, who was the township’s treasurer when Morris served and is now the township's supervisor.
She said Morris trusted MSU with the property and expected something visionary would happen with it. He had expected it to be farmed for years, maybe some barns added, Schafer said.
“Bringing another industry to us? David would have loved that,” she said. “He donated it with the vision that they’d do something with it at the right time.”
The MSU land currently is leased and worked by a farmer, Schafer said.
The rest of the 1,300 acres is connecting land that owners have agreed to sell.
The university's mission includes boosting a strong local and regional economy and that's one of the reasons MSU agreed to work to help recruit a major development, said Emily Gerkin Guerrant, vice-president for media and public relations at the university.
She said the university is not picking industries or directing a particular type of development but would be happy to be in partnership with any company because the university's skill set is broad enough to fit a wide variety of potential companies.
Its location, sandwiched between an industrial park and Abrams Municipal Airport to the south and a freeway to the north, is good for large companies and having existing industrial activity there makes it easier to convert farmland to a big project, said Kam Washburn, chair of Clinton County’s Board of Commissioners.
“The type of economic development that would come in there is something we think would fit with the highway there,” he said.
Washburn said the county plans to follow a similar model that led to the development of a $555 million dairy manufacturing plant in St. Johns. It was the largest food-processing plant in the state when it opened in 2020.
“That’s something that’s become a real economic driver,” he said.
This mega site would likely be on an even larger scale, Washburn said.
It could change Eagle Township’s future and give the township a role in leading the state and country to less dependence on foreign companies, Schafer said.
“Will this change people’s lives? Yes,” she said. “I’m anxious to have Michigan back on the map for something new.”
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM