State and local investment valued at more than $797,873 will go towards preparing the site of the vacant Governor’s Inn Hotel in Lansing for a proposed 1,900 square-foot Sonic Drive-In restaurant. In addition, the developers of the restaurant will invest $1.45 million to prepare three acres of land for future development.
“A Sonic restaurant is a cool, destination-type attraction, but the project is much more than Sonic,” says Karl Dorshimer, vice president of the Lansing Economic Development Corporation. “This project is a great example of how we can use our brownfield program in combination with other incentives to get old, vacant and obsolete commercial properties in south Lansing redeveloped.”
The Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority's revolving loan fund will allow up to $797,873 in new state and local tax revenue generated by the development to be captured over 15 years to reimburse developers for preparing the three acres not used by Sonic for additional uses.
The structured incentives will encourage the Sonic developers "to develop the rest of the property," says Dorshimer. "Possible uses could be a new hotel or other businesses that want to take advantage of the location. This should lead to several million in additional investment and many more jobs.”
Source: Karl Dorshimer, Lansing Economic Development Corporation
Writer: Suban Nur Cooley
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