Ashley Capital is aiming to build the Flint Commerce Center, a $300 million industrial park, to repurpose the former General Motors Buick City property and invest in a Flint, Michigan, community that has endured job losses, revenue decline and other challenges. Ashley's acquisition of this site and the promise it potentially could bring to the area has earned this deal the 2024 CoStar Impact Award for sale/acquisition of the year, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
The former General Motors Buick City manufacturing complex was a 413-acre hole in the heart of Flint, Michigan, abandoned for decades after automotive production stopped and buildings were demolished, leaving thick concrete foundations and underground utilities. But at its peak in the 1970s, nearly 30,000 people worked at Buick City, and jobs there supported a solid middle class. The loss of jobs at the complex left deep scars in the community and accelerated a period of disinvestment that eroded local tax revenue and services, coloring Flint’s image as a city in decline.
Also, the legacy environmental challenges at Buick City were comprehensive and complex, affecting soil, sediment and groundwater. The combination of impediments led to several independent parties working together to ensure the property could be sold and that redevelopment would protect human health and the environment while remaining cost-effective.
Then along came Ashley Capital, a privately held industrial real estate investment company that purchased the property in 2023 from Racer Trust. Racer acquired Buick City after the conclusion of General Motors' bankruptcy to correct the environmental issues and sell the property for redevelopment. Ashley now is planning to build a multiphase industrial park that is expected to have 3.5 million square feet of logistics and light manufacturing space across 10 buildings and create 3,000 permanent, full-time jobs. The first building in the Flint Commerce Center, a 330,000-square-foot speculative building, is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2024.
About the Deal: The property is located at 2201 Industrial Ave. in Flint. The center occupies a 275-acre lot, according to CoStar data, and it is just over a 20-minute drive from Bishop International Airport in Genesee County.
The importance of this project to the community — its effect on tax revenue, job creation and the environment — cannot be overstated, as shown by the coalition of public, private and philanthropic interests that actively supported and contributed to the details to make the project a reality. State, city and county legislators and agencies, along with Racer Trust and other entities, came together to make sure that the project had the financing and infrastructure in place for the possibility of success.
What the Judges Said: "Any accretive sale in Flint is significant, only more so for what Ashley Capital will do for the area," said Dennis Bernard, founder and president of Bernard Financial Group.
They Made it Happen: Susan Harvey of Ashley Capital and Bruce Rasher of Racer Trust played key parts in arranging the transaction.