City council wrestles with a tax abatement proposal for Missant site

A developer is seeking a tax abatement from the city to develop the former Missant site on Conant. City officials have yet to make a decision on the request.

By Charles Sercombe
City council appears to be stumped on whether to grant tax abatement to a company that wants to develop the former Missant site.
The owner of the site, 8801 Conant Holdings, LCC, is seeking a 10-year tax abatement for the Conant property, which is located just north of the county jail.
The abatement is asking for a property tax freeze, as opposed to the usual 50-percent reduction in taxes. Currently, the company pays $60,000 a year in property taxes, of which the city receives $19,000.
The development plans call for demolishing a number of existing buildings and constructing a new building.
The 24-acre site will be leased to Xbox Global, LCC, which the city has described as “an e-commerce business that warehouses and sells heavy equipment parts.”
The development will cost about $18 million to undertake, according to the city.
Hamtramck has not always had the best of luck with permitting tax abatements.
Several years ago, American Axle & Manufacturing closed down its plants and moved that production to Mexico as soon as its abatement agreement with city ended.
The plant’s closing also meant the loss of union jobs.
That’s still something that rattles some residents and city officials. It’s also one reason why some city councilmembers are being hesitant at making a decision.
City Councilmember Khalil Refai says 10 years is too long, and proposed cutting the tax abatement period down to six years – a proposal that city sources say will result in the development proposal being canceled.
Refai justified his proposal at a recent city council meeting, saying: “We’re being fair to both sides.”
Councilmember Amanda Jaczkowski disagreed. “Six years total is too short,” she said.
It had been pointed out to the council that the property has remained vacant for over 20 years, and that many of the buildings are dilapidated to the point where they can’t be saved and must be demolished.
There have been past proposals to develop the site, but none of them came to fruition. One proposal was to turn it into a recycling center, which drew heavy objections from residents in the neighborhood across the street. They feared a business of that nature would produce both constant truck traffic and foul odors.
Councilmember Nayeem Choudhury is in favor of going ahead with the abatement agreement, saying “we don’t have much choice.”
Despite objections, Refai’s proposal to reduce the abatement period down to six years was approved by two other councilmembers Mohammed Alsomiri and Adam Albarmaki.
Jaczkowski and Choudhury were in opposition.
City Attorney James Allen, who has since resigned from that position, said that approving the original abatement request “sends a signal” to other developers to invest in the city.
He reminded the council that past city officials were under pressure from the community to seek development to expand the city’s tax base.
Allen said the company had already negotiated terms with the city but to now, all of a sudden, change those terms “is not a good message to send.”
He also warned that once the proposal was made public, “Facebook warriors” went to work to disparage the deal.
One of the leading critics of the development is Nasr Hussain, the owner of a print shop in Hamtramck.
He said that, instead of allowing a tax break, the city could market the site to a housing developer. He said the site is a good location, and that the city should not let the developers “scare you.”
Allen pointed out that this site has serious environmental issues.
The Olsonite Company once manufactured plastic toilet seats and other plastic parts for the automotive indsutry at this site. There is evidence that there is ground contamination in parts of the site.
Refai justified his proposal by saying that, if the developer backs out, the city can still collect the current property taxes.
So where does the issue stand?
At last week’s city council meeting, the agenda included the original 10-year abatement proposal as well as Refai’s modified proposal.
Councilmembers Jaczkowski and Albarmaki were absent. The councilmembers in attendance decided to remove the item from the agenda without comment as to why.
The matter will be on the agenda for the next city council meeting, which will be Sept. 13.
Posted Sept. 2, 2022