Birmingham approves brownfield tax credits for Catalyst project

It takes a little green to turn brown into beautiful, even in downtown Birmingham.

The Birmingham City Commission approved important brownfield tax credits that will make the construction of the new Greenleaf Trust building (commonly known as the Catalyst project) possible. The $1.36 million in tax incentives will help pay for clearing and cleaning of the old, abandoned gas station at the corner of Woodward and Maple.

"It's incredibly important," says Jill Robinson, a city planner with the city of Birmingham. "Because of the contamination on those sites we wouldn't see any development on them, especially a beautiful, 5-story gateway building like this."

In its place, Greenleaf Trust plans to build a mixed-use structure, featuring space for retail, commercial and residential. Five rental apartments will go on the fourth and fifth floors. The second and third floor of the 50,000-square-foot building will be dedicated to office space. Kalamazoo-based Greenleaf will move its Metro Detroit offices to the third floor. The first floor will be occupied by Zazios, a modern Italian restaurant that is popular in Kalamazoo.

The cherry on top of the structure is its pending application for silver LEED certification for a variety of environmentally friendly features. Those will include a 1,500-square-foot green roof, natural lighting and numerous water- and energy-efficiency fixtures.

Work is set to begin this fall and be done by May 2010.

Source: Jill Robinson, a city planner with the city of Birmingham
Writer: Jon Zemke

Birmingham approves brownfield tax credits for Catalyst project

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