Author
|
Post |
|
|
Steve Myers
Site Admin
|
Some big changes are coming to the city of Flint.
The changes are improvements that could get more of you and your families exploring Flint’s downtown.
Through the shattered glass of an old building downtown you can see a glimmer of hope.
It’s a side of town residents say is in desperate need of change.
“Add more businesses,” one Flint resident said needs to come downtown.
And that’s not it.
”Places where you can eat outside like in other cities like in Ann Arbor, to make it more inviting,” said Flint resident Dawn Stewart.
Change is coming.
Rowe Engineering just singed a new lease, bringing its headquarters to downtown Flint.
“We’ll have 22,000 square feet of restaurant space on the first floor of this building and the two buildings south of here,” said project manager Ridgway White.
White says the Rowe project will transform almost the entire 500 block of South Saginaw Street.
A brew pub, a Brazilian steak restaurant and a night club will all be right here.
“Our model is an entertainment-oriented retail and restaurant space on the ground floor, office space on the second floor and loft apartments on the top floor,” White said.
Loft apartments are already under construction on the 400 block of South Saginaw.
“That’ll be a good thing for Flint. We need some more things down here to bring people back to Flint, to bring people back downtown,” said Flint resident Troy Perkins.
And there’s a bonus, this revitalization means more than 200 new jobs.
“Fifty-one percent of the jobs will be from residents of downtown Flint, if not more,” White said.
Now the locals are ready to give downtown another chance.
“Oh that’s excellent, that’s what we need. That’s the motivation I’m looking for in the city. Work opportunities and chances to meet other people,” Perkins said.
This is a chance to put a new frame of the face of downtown.
Developers say the groundbreaking for the Rowe project will be in June of 2006
Full Story:
http://www.weyi.com/news/local/1477677.html |
|
|
Tue Apr 19, 2005 8:40 pm |
|
|
|