November 14, 2004

The Muskegon Chronicle

Dave Alexander

Chronicle Business Editor

When community leaders and citizens gathered to plan a new downtown, they had a vision of a livable, walkable and vibrant central city with plenty of people, activities and events.

However, the Imagine Muskegon planning process didn’t contemplate:

• A downtown powered by the sun or wind.
• Roof top gardens to absorb rain water runoff.
• High-efficient LED white lights for traffic controls and parking lot and pathway lighting.
• A snow-melt system operating from a fuel cell.
• A downtown linked with a series of small electric vehicles.

These and other potential design elements for the public and private portions of the former Muskegon Mall site redevelopment are being considered by the property owner, Downtown Muskegon Development Corp. The ideas and ways to implement them are being assisted by mall-property neighbor Grand Valley State University.

With its two research institutions on Muskegon Lake in the downtown, GVSU has become “bookends” to the mall site redevelopment.

Mall property owners now want to draw upon the ideas and resources of the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center and the Lake Michigan Center to set energy and environmental standards that will give Muskegon’s downtown a 21st century identity.

Downtown Muskegon Development — a nonprofit consortium of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County, the Paul C. Johnson Foundation and the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce — has begun meeting with GVSU scientists to plan for the redevelopment.

Officials say the goal is to create a 1950s downtown in terms of a center of commerce and community life but doing so in away that will serve those in 2050. Besides looking at building and infrastructure design in terms of energy efficiency and environmental soundness, the mall property owners also are concerned about designing a downtown that supports a healthy lifestyle.

The demolition of the Muskegon Mall and the cleared site that once was the Western Avenue downtown shopping district provides the community with a unique opportunity to “get it right” in the redevelopment, according to Arn Boezaart, vice president of programs for the community foundation.

Downtown Muskegon Development salvaged and recycled as much of the old mall as possible. Now the property owners want to be just as environmentally responsible in creating the new downtown that is expected to be a mix of retail, office and residential uses.

“We are in position to do this right,” Boezaart said. “Let’s take this to a higher level in what we are thinking. We have (the energy center) sitting to our right and the Lake Michigan Center to our left. Why not incorporate the best of both institutions?”

In a downtown that has lost its regional shopping center and was unable to secure a dock for a high-speed cross-lake ferry service, GVSU has provided the central city with its biggest wins in the past decade.

With the help of private donations, Muskegon community leaders built a research ship and eventually a new home from the GVSU Water Resources Institute. The city of Muskegon helped with bonds to create the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center — or MAREC, an alternative energy center located in the new Edison Landing business park.

GVSU officials are ready to become involved in further downtown redevelopment.
“MAREC and Grand Valley’s Lake Michigan Center are both up and running,” said Matt McLogan, vice president for university relations. “We hope they will be a catalyst for completion of Edison Landing and also serve to attract new businesses and services that will support and complement these centers of excellence.”

Muskegon finds itself in a unique situation that can set its downtown apart from many others in Michigan and the Midwest, according to Al Steinman, director of the Lake Michigan Center.

“By putting in ‘green’ infrastructure we can provide a downtown destination for those interested in the environment,” Steinman said. “Muskegon can seek a new identity. This is a unique opportunity for the community to redefine itself. We have the opportunity to create a unique 21st century vision.”

Steinman suggests that Downtown Muskegon Development find those who will build with designs such as “green roofs.” In putting plants on rooftops, rain water and runoff is captured and used, keeping potential contaminates out of Muskegon Lake.

Likewise, “rain gardens” are green spaces created to handle water runoff from streets, sidewalks and parking lots. Crushed stone on pathways can absorb rain instead of creating more potentially harmful runoff.

“There are developers that are up to speed on these ideas,” Steinman said. “We don’t want to create increased costs but ideas that will pay for themselves over the long run ... more than 10 years. We hope people keep an open mind.”
On the energy side, MAREC Director Imad Mahawilli is pushing downtown developers to embrace Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, or LEED, standards. LEED is a nationwide construction industry movement to use best materials and practices to make new buildings energy efficient and easy on the environment.

MAREC — an energy center featuring solar roof panels, a fuel cell and a high-tech battery storage system — was designed and built by WorkStage LLC of Grand Rapids to receive LEED certification. Mahawilli wants to use what was learned at GVSU to help other downtown buildings obtain LEED certification.

Specifically, GVSU would help the developers with the integration of alternative energy sources such as wind power, solar cells, microturbines and fuel cells, Mahawilli said. In addition, the developers and the city might explore lighting the area with LED white lights — an emerging technology that is 50 times more efficient than standard lighting. The lights are cheaper to operate and last longer than traditional lighting.

“That becomes a question of economics,” Mahawilli said of LED white light technology that today is initially more expensive to install. “In five to seven years, it becomes more economical.”

Muskegon Chamber President Cindy Larsen is exploring “neighborhood electric vehicles” — small compact vehicles operating on electric motors that provides transportation for short distances in urban areas. Such vehicles could transport people and materials between Edison Landing and the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, for example, but roads, pathways and buildings would have to be designed to accommodate them.

“There are cost advantages to energy efficiency,” Larsen said. “But I think there will have to be incentives provided to developers for them to embrace some of these new technologies,” Larsen said. “But I think local contractors are a lot more knowledgeable about new practices than many think.”

A working group of downtown property owners, GVSU scientists, city and Muskegon County officials are gathering to plan a set of design standards that they hope will inspire creative and foward-thinking developers to the former mall site.

“GVSU can be in a role to push us to be different ... to think big and leave provincialism behind,” said Jim Edmonson, president of Muskegon Area First — the economic development agency coordinating downtown redevelopment. “We hope to create a center of learning and a cool place to live. This only adds to our marketability.”

One drawback to pushing too aggressively for energy and environmental designs is that the bar might be set too high, discouraging potential developers afraid of high costs and too many requirements.

Cathy Brubaker-Clarke, the city of Muskegon’s community development director, said that flexibility on the part of the city and property owners will be key to working successfully with developers. She said raising the standards on the Blufton Bay subdivision development on the city’s west side resulted in a better neighborhood and increased property values for the developer.

“Sometimes you can do things that really don’t cost more but by doing them right they can make the property more valuable,” Brubaker-Clarke said. “This is more of an education of presenting to developers some options.”

Here is a wish list of potential technologies and environmentally-friendly elements that community leaders want to incorporate into downtown Muskegon’s redevelopment:

• All utility installations below ground.
• Fiber-optic network linking to the Shoreline Fiber Network.
• LED, or Light Emitting Diodes, white lights in all public lighting.
• Downtown snow-melt system in partnership with CMS Energy.
• Accommodations for neighborhood electric vehicles.
• Wireless high-speed Internet connections.
• Use pervious road, sidewalk and parking surfaces for environmentally friendly drainage systems.
• Capture and reuse rain water and even “greywater” from buildings.
• Wind power demonstration project.
• “Rain garden” public green spaces.
• Use of solar cells and passive solar heating systems in buildings.
• Use of fuel cell technology to set up a distributive electrical system for the entire downtown.