Other People's Money

continued

But instead of the shiny new condos, retail, and office space promised by the developer, Broadway Village is 6.4 acres of unmowed field ringed by a chain link fence.

The plan to turn an abandoned supermarket and a few neighboring buildings into a virtual new downtown was always audacious. But Broadway Village's real daring was its financial engineering. East Lansing-based Strathmore Development Company planned to build it all with other people's money.

Strathmore's appetite for public funding was a subject of considerable debate in Ann Arbor. The city ultimately decided not to issue bonds to help pay for the project, but the company's website boasts that Broadway Village "received one of the largest economic incentive packages from the State of Michigan in State history totaling over $75,000,000."

Even that understates the commitment of public funds, which eventually approached $100 million. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) boasted that Broadway Village would create 582 new jobs, and in January 2008 Gov. Jennifer Granholm came to Ann Arbor to celebrate its "groundbreaking."