News

Hudsonville’s Village Green Moves Closer to Reality

Press Release

Contact:

Matt Bach
Director of Communications
Michigan Municipal League
(734) 669-6317; C: (810) 874-1073
[email protected]; www.mml.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 9, 2019

Hudsonville’s Village Green Moves Closer to Reality

Technical help from Michigan Municipal League and MEDC’s Redevelopment Ready Communities Program Take it to the Next Level

Ann Arbor, Michigan – Hudsonville’s vision for a Village Green to enhance its downtown is closer to springing to life, thanks to predevelopment assistance from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Redevelopment Ready Communities® (RRC) program and the Michigan Municipal League.

The city’s award-winning Imagine Hudsonville 2030 master plan laid out the vision for the Village Green area as a new traditional downtown for the community. Hudsonville has already had great success in the area with Terra Square, the Hudson Center building, and the Harvey Street “woonerf,” or shared street. Now, the League and MEDC are helping the city build on those accomplishments by tackling site preparation and marketing materials for priority sites in the Village Green area with predevelopment assistance support from the RRC program.

“We’ve been working hard to create a downtown with the amenities and community feel that our residents have told us they want,” said Michelle Fare, marketing coordinator for the City of Hudsonville. “We really appreciate this assistance from the MEDC’s Redevelopment Ready Communities Program through the League and feel confident that these efforts will help our city prosper and attract more residents and businesses.”

Essential elements of the project were illustrative images and data to communicate to potential developers a good grasp of Hudsonville’s vision for the Village Green. To move that along, the League was instrumental in overseeing MEDC funding from the RRC predevelopment assistance program for conceptual renderings by GMB Architecture & Engineering that clearly display the city’s goals for the site. These funds were also useful in procuring an environmental assessment by Lakeshore Environmental for a key site in the project area to enhance its readiness for development.

The Hudsonville project is featured on the League’s Developing Great Places webpage, which showcases several projects designed to help communities attract investment interest in underutilized public properties. The page offers project success stories to tackle individual sites, prime them for the spotlight, and connect them to private developers to move the community’s public-sector efforts forward.

In partnership with MEDC, MSHDA, and the MML Foundation, the League has already worked with over a dozen cities on advancing the redevelopment potential of prime sites in their community. Each project is intended to help communities activate some of their underperforming properties and help them clearly communicate their goals and expectations to potential developers.
“We’re pleased to provide Hudsonville with some valuable development tools,” said Dan Gilmartin, CEO and Executive Director of the Michigan Municipal League. “These resources will help transform their downtown area into a magnet for private investment and community life.”

To learn more about the Hudsonville project—as well as projects in communities across the state—visit placemaking.mml.org/great-places.

For additional information, contact the League’s Matt Bach, director of communications, at (810) 874-1073 (cell); (734) 669-6317 (office) and [email protected].

About the League: Michigan Municipal League is dedicated to making Michigan’s communities better by thoughtfully innovating programs, energetically connecting ideas and people, actively serving members with resources and services, and passionately inspiring positive change for Michigan’s greatest centers of potential: its communities. The League advocates on behalf of its member communities in Lansing, Washington, D.C., and the courts; provides educational opportunities for elected and appointed municipal officials; and assists municipal leaders in administering services to their communities through League programs and services. Learn more at mml.org.

 

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