February 21, 1999

The GT Commons timeline

Building 50 and the old state hospital

      - NOVEMBER 1881: The state pays $20,000 for 400 acres on the outskirts of Traverse City for the new Northern Michigan Asylum. Construction starts the next year and continues until 1969. At one point the asylum's lands totaled more than 1,000 acres.
      - NOVEMBER 1885: First 492 patients arrive. Patient population will peak at 3,600 in 1966.
      - 1968: All but the central modernized portion of Building 50 is vacated.
      - MID-1970S: The Traverse City State Hospital and its campus are nominated for the National Historic Registry. Eleven buildings make the list. That becomes important later as a possible source of tax credits for redevelopers.
      - OCTOBER 1975: Of 870 employees, 507 face layoffs.
      -SEPTEMBER 1980: State announces it will demolish three buildings on the hospital grounds. The Coalition for Logical Land Use is quickly formed by the city and Garfield Township and the city prepares a lawsuit to halt demolition. When a wrecking crew arrives to demolish four historic "cottage" buildings, City Commissioner Carol Hale and others stand them off. The city pays the cost of canceling the demolition contract. The state wants to level the structures and then sell all developable lands to the highest bidder
      - MAY 1982: The state agrees to prepare a long-term use plan for the buildings. Two months later, Arnell Engstrom becomes a separate children's psychiatric hospital.
      - NOVEMBER 1982: Traverse City and Garfield Township planners unveil a land-use plan that says less than half the state hospital property is suitable for re-use. It shows three areas for new development: Division Street, Silver Lake Road and North Long Lake Road. It also shows Munson Medical Center and the county nursing facility expanding into the north end of the campus.
      - 1984: In apparent disregard of its agreement with local officials, the state Department of Mental Health tries to quietly arrange for the demolition of several hospital buildings. Local legislators derail those efforts.
      - JULY 1986: The mental health department hires Wigen, Tincknell, Meyer & Associates, a Saginaw architectural and planning firm, to study how the buildings might be used. A year later it reports the main psychiatric hospital and Arnell Engstrom should remain but that most other abandoned buildings should be turned over for private or public use. It says several historic buildings should be razed if no developers want to buy them. It also recommends turning over about 300 acres to the state Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan State Police.
      - JUNE 1987: The Coalition for Logical Land Use responds to the Tincknell report. It calls for a new state psychiatric hospital on the campus, making buildings at the north end of the campus available to Munson and the county nursing care facility, and maintaining the park-like atmosphere of the grounds.
      - NOVEMBER 1987: The mental health department announces it will declare nearly all buildings and about 300 acres surplus, keeping open a 140-bed adult hospital and Arnell Engstrom and retaining several other buildings and parcels. All Faiths Chapel would be given to the community.
      - FEBRUARY 1988: The state announces plans to close the hospital by October 1989. Patient population has dropped to 140.
      - SEPTEMBER 1988: The Coalition for Logical Land Use is dissolved and replaced by the 30-member Traverse City State Hospital Task Force, specifically authorized by the city and Garfield Township to deal with planning and land transfer from the state. Its stated goal: Get state hospital property for community use and save historic buildings and grounds.
      - APRIL 1989: The task force holds the first in a series of well-attended community meetings to get ideas for the grounds and 65 buildings. Two months later, Zachary & Associates, a Detroit-area consultant, is hired to work with the Task Force to create an Adaptive Re-Use Plan for the campus.
      - AUGUST 1989: The last patient leaves the hospital and the last service is held at All Faiths Chapel, a church on the grounds. A month later, the hospital is formally closed. State workers lose 285 jobs.
      - NOVEMBER 1989: State corrections department officials say they are considering a geriatric prison at the campus. They agree not to pursue the idea after fierce local opposition.
      - FEBRUARY 1990: The Zachary plan is approved by the city and Garfield Township planning commissions. It calls for the grounds to be used mostly as park land, senior housing and medical services, and all undeveloped land to remain that way.
      - MARCH 1991: The city hires Rick Murray of Ross Development, a Chicago marketing and planning firm, to study financing and marketing options for the grounds and recruit developers. Three months later, the city creates the Grand Traverse Commons Redevelopment Corp. under state Public Act 250, which allows the creation or appointment of a developer to take ownership of publicly held lands and oversee their redevelopment. Under the act, the non-profit Commons can serve as developer for 20 years before it must dissolve.
      - JULY 1991: Gov. John Engler signs a bill to sell All Faiths Chapel and a house on the grounds to Commons. The chapel is to house non-profit organizations and the house becomes a shelter for domestic violence victims.
      - SEPTEMBER 1992: Commons, city, and township officials approve plans to move the county's long-term nursing care facility to a new building on state hospital grounds in what will become known as The Grand Traverse Pavilions. Demolition of several "non-historic" buildings is needed to make room for The Pavilions as well as a 600-car parking deck for Munson.
      At the same time, the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District completes a deal with the state to buy the former Arnell Engstrom Center and its seven-acre site for $1,225,000. After a $1 million renovation and expansion, the facility becomes the new headquarters for the intermediate school district. As part of the deal with the state, TBAISD agrees to give Child Guidance Center rent-free quarters at the 66,000-square-foot Engstrom complex for 10 years. The deal is done independent of the Commons but places the facility under the controls of a master plan for the campus.
      - OCTOBER 1992: State officials agree to sell much of the 450-acre campus and its buildings to the Commons for $1. Seven houses and 92 acres along North Long Lake and Silver Lake roads are held back to be bought later for "fair market value." Garfield Township and the city each receive major parcels of open space - 101 and 106 acres respectively - and designate them park land. Under the terms of the deal with the state, if any portion of the park lands are ever developed, all proceeds would go to the state.
      -1993: Rick Murray brings a couple of would-be developers to the Commons board, but Baldwin Development Co. of Chicago, the most serious candidate, drops out of the project after preliminary discussion. Former Baldwin employee Carl Groesbeck offers to put together a development group to take on planning and development for the project. Kids Creek Development Co. and related partnerships and subsidiaries are formed. Commons names Groesbeck's group master developer.
      A master lease agreement gives Kids Creek options to buy and resell the 132-acre core campus, where most of the buildings are. The intent is that Groesbeck find developers for all or portions of the core campus to renovate the historic buildings into a "continuing care complex" of independent, assisted-living and full nursing care housing for seniors. Under the agreement, Groesbeck collects rental income from various tenants on the property. He predicts redevelopment of several "cottage" buildings into senior apartments and reconstruction of the north half of Building 50 into apartments within three years.
      Groesbeck and his associates hire consultants to do full surveys, environmental assessments, and engineering studies of the properties and structures, create a master development plan and draft zoning amendments for the city and township to create a new zoning category: planned redevelopment district. The work puts the Commons and Kids Creek in position to market the project to developers and also lays the foundation for selling part of the campus to Munson Healthcare and the county.
      - May 1994: Groesbeck announces Kids Creek will go out of business by the end of the year upon sale of 51 acres to Munson Healthcare. The community is stunned by the news that Kids Creek had mortgaged the 132-acre core campus to secure loans. It owed $1.8 million to a Cayman Islands holding company made up of Japanese investors called Leighton Holdings Ltd. That debt and others had to be settled, Groesbeck said, before the Munson-county deal could close. He says Kids Creek had spent $3 million on pre-development work for the Commons project. The news came shortly after the city and township modified their zoning ordinances to add the complex "planned redevelopment district" category for the campus.
      - September 1994: Leighton Holdings forecloses on Kids Creek, saying the partnership and Groesbeck defaulted on repayment of $2 million owed in principal and interest. Leighton had lent Kids Creek funds to pay for pre-development work in preparing the project for marketing to sub developers. The foreclosure and a counter suit by Groesbeck against Leighton threatens to wreck the $2.5 million deal with Munson and the county.
      - December 1994: A deal is reached for Munson and the county to pay $2.5 million for the land, most of which goes to pay off Kids Creek debts. They also pay nearly $400,000 to Kids Creek for its planning costs.
      At the same time, the county agrees to pay the state $585,000 to buy 130 acres of Commons lands called the "fair market value parcels." It is the last of the Commons campus to come into local hands. The county agrees to buy and hold the property for Commons because Commons has no funds.
      Kids Creek is forced into bankruptcy by creditors and soon is out of the Commons picture.
      - APRIL 1995: The Commons hires Shelly Skiver, who had worked for retirement complexes in California and Florida, as part-time executive director.
      - JULY 1995: Commons sends out requests for proposals from developers, gets three responses and selects a team headed by the Granger Group of Lansing to redevelop Building 50 and several "cottage" buildings to the south. Granger offers a plan that would cost $30 million just for half of Building 50 as a first stage.
      - SEPTEMBER 1995: Special zoning and master plan procedures for approving projects at the Commons prove cumbersome, causing the county to threaten to pull its Pavilions project out of the campus unless things speed up. An emergency meeting bringing all parties together results in the county staying with its original plan. The city gives its nod to required demolition.
      - DECEMBER 1995: Granger says a market exists for 200 to 300 units of senior housing and now the challenge is to see if Building 50 can be done over without costs pushing the prices too high.
      - JULY 1996: Commons can't reach an agreement with Granger and chairwoman Carol Hale says it may be time to consider demolition of Building 50. It may be impossible to create an economically feasible plan for redevelopment of the 309,000-square-foot building as a senior living facility, she said. Granger representatives tell the Commons board it should allow the developer to put up high-density housing in the so-called "barns" area and on other land designated for open space to offset the high cost of Building 50 renovation. The board tells Granger that wouldn't fly with city planners and also, the county owns the barns land and probably wouldn't sell it for that purpose.
      - OCTOBER 1996: Commons drops Granger as preferred developer, ponders its next move. The idea of uses for Building 50 other than senior living is discussed.
      - MARCH 1997: Commons hires Clarion Associates of Chicago and Denver to study feasibility of rehabilitating the cottages, possibility of new developments on the campus, and possible uses for Building 50. Moving away from the senior living use would be a big change in the mission. Later, Alexander & Co. of Racine, Wis., indicates interest in rehabilitating Building 50. Its figures show an $8 million gap between what it would cost to convert it to 155 apartments and what the market would pay. Through the year and into the next, Commons officials struggle unsuccessfully to come up with ways to eliminate that gap, possibly with help from the city, county, state or federal governments. The only other alternative before the board is demolition, estimated to cost $3.7 million, which the board doesn't have.
      - NOVEMBER 1997: Commons hires Edmund London and Associates of Ann Arbor to study the feasibility of partial demolition and reconstruction of Building 50. In early 1998, the firm comes back with a report that the building could be converted into 218 apartments for "independent elderly." It said partial demolition would be less feasible than complete renovation. It pegged the renovation cost at $24.6 million with historical site tax credits cutting that to $20.4 million. It cautioned, however, that developers might reach other conclusions. Developers are invited to look at the study and offer plans.
      - December 1997: Pavilions plans renovation of three historic "cottage" buildings at the north end of the campus into assisted living quarters for the elderly with occupancy for some time in 1999. Munson also begins planning to convert a cottage into a hospitality house.
      - MAY 1998: PM Group of Brighton, a developer and operator of senior housing complexes around the state, says Building 50 is redevelopable but not for senior housing. It wouldn't provide enough large common spaces. It recommends tearing it down and building a new senior housing complex on the site. The Commons board enters into a pre-development contract that calls for the company to come up with details for the demolition-redevelopment plan.
      - JUNE 1998: Commons board goes to the city, county and Garfield Township and asks for their views on what should be done with Building 50 in light of PM Group's demolition-redevelopment scenario. No ideas are offered though one official tells the board, "If it has to come down, then it has to come down."
      - LATE 1998: A group called the Committee to Preserve Building 50 organizes and begins to protest the PM Group plan. A group of architects, engineers and others put together a partial-demolition, multi-use proposal that they say could be economically feasible and still preserve much of the architectural heritage of the old landmark.
      - JANUARY 1999: The Commons board votes to put its contract with PM Group on hold for six months to see if the partial-demolition scenario for Building 50 will attract serious developers.