Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a series examining the proposed hotel and office development on the Center for Applied Research and Technology, leading up to the Board of Trustees’ July 17 meeting.

When Ken Van Der Wende took over April 1 as Central Michigan University Research Corporation’s president and corporate executive officer, he knew he had to start fresh.

The Center for Applied Research and Technology had not seen much development in 15 years, and Van Der Wende thought that was unacceptable.

The 27-year-old, 300-acre CART, located on the south end of campus along West Campus Drive and Three Leaves Drive, is a state-designated SmartZone. The park receives incentives from the state to enhance economic and technological development.

“Today what you’re looking at is sort of what I would call an antiquated view,” Van Der Wende said. “It has not been refreshed in real time.”

the right fit

From motels, bank offices, auto parts manufacturers and a conference center to nano-tech labs, biotechnology medical offices and CMU’s charter school offices, the CART hosts a wide variety of tenants.

Van Der Wende wants to keep it that way. However, he said some of the present companies do not fit his vision for more of an academically-motivated park.

“That’s one of the things that is a requirement of all university development parks,” he said. “For new tenants, that’s a requirement.”

With CMU’s movement toward a possible medical school, the CART could forward that vision, Van Der Wende said.

“The vision that’s there today is toward hospitality,” he said. “It could increase perhaps to some of the health-related academic relationships.”

LaBelle Management LLC leases most of the hospitality-related parcels of land. It owns and operates the Comfort Inn and Conference Center and Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern, 2424 Mission St., and the Fairfield Inn and Suites, 2525 South University Park Drive.

LaBelle first signed a lease with the university in July 1988. A Comfort Inn lease was signed in 1990 and the Fairfield Inn was approved in 1994.

Lodgco Management LLC and Alpine Holdings LLC are the two developers proposing a Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites and several office buildings to complement the park’s mission. The project started before Van Der Wende took over, but he said it would advance his vision in a positive manner.

“Its timing is good because we do have a mission now,” he said. “We have plans that frankly we did not have in previous years that are widely supported from a large group of stakeholders.”

Confusion

The CART was created in 1981.

Then called University Park, it was to focus on economic development and research in two major “phases,” or land areas, according to documents obtained by Central Michigan Life via the Freedom of Information Act.

The first phase, closer to the university, was lease-only. The first major breakthrough for Phase II land came in July 1987, when CMU sold land to the CME Corporation, an automotive parts company that makes windshield-wiper motors for Hyundai, which is located at 2945 Three Leaves Drive.

The partnership between the city, university and Middle Michigan Development Corporation was to attract businesses that desired a partnership with a doctoral/research intensive university.

According to an executive summary prepared for the CMU Board of Trustees, MMDC’s role is to “identify and promote development opportunities within the CART.”

University Park’s name changed in December 2001 to The Center for Applied Research and Technology at Central Michigan University.

Van Der Wende said the name may serve as a source of confusion to outsiders.

“What would a reasonable person think?” he said. “If you go back to the beginning though, it was development and research. I’m kind of taking this a bit back to our roots. I don’t know of any university SmartZone that is exclusive to research or to high tech. We’re trying to clarify that.”

However, Van Der Wende said his predecessors did focus a lot more on the park’s research opportunities. He said he is trying to create a better-rounded park that includes aspects other than research.

“We want to create new economic benefit while also advancing the academic mission of the university at large,” he said. “We can do it a lot better there, and a lot more economically than a lot of these companies can do it themselves.”

Unfair Competition?

Companies that leave the private sector to enter the tax-friendly land area have frustrated private developers like Glenn Blystone, who co-owns Blystone & Bailey 619 Mission St., a Mount Pleasant accountant partnership.

“I’ve lost two projects to the university park,” Blystone said. “It’s not fair for the private sector to have to compete with general commercial development in the park.”

Van Der Wende said the park attracts businesses that can benefit the university and enhance the park’s mission.

This should feed into the private sector,” he said. “Largely speaking, we’re creating jobs and a competitiveness of individuals and companies that doesn’t exist today. That’s more people, more dollars for the economy … we’re trying to create jobs, not take jobs away from any particular sector.”

Operation

Van Der Wende is responsible for attracting new companies to the park and making sure they receive necessary funding from outside sources.

His salary is paid by the Dow Chemical Company, which increases Dow’s relationship with CMU.

“Long term, what’s good for the state of Michigan and what’s good for this region is good for Dow,” Van Der Wende said.

Many of the businesses the park attracts are “pre-seed companies,” which have an idea, but no business plan or funding opportunities. Van Der Wende tries to seek grants from area research companies or other sources that would help the entities afford rent.

CMU-RC is given $500,000 per year from CMU, some of which Van Der Wende said is contributed back to the university when tax dollars are collected from the CART.

The city’s Tax Increment Finance Authority gathers property taxes from the park and contributes 75 percent – more than $120,000 – back for maintenance of the park.

Most of the businesses currently in the park fall under TIFA, Van Der Wende said. However, TIFA has been replaced by the Local Development Finance Authority, which contributes another $80,000 from property taxes to be used for attracting companies and additions to the park.

“The TIFA moneys today are largely spent to upkeep the park that’s there,” Van Der Wende said. “The LDFA moneys are largely invested. There’s not a lot of LDFA money today because there has not been a lot of new building.”

The objective of CMU-RC is to be a non-profit benefit to the university, he said.

“My objective is that this thing is a break-even,” Van Der Wende said. “We don’t accumulate profits.”

In the future

Van Der Wende said the current proposed hotel and office building development would accelerate his mission for the CART. But he said with or without the project, the park will continue to grow.

The proposal was in the works months before he took over in April, but he said it fits his mission and would contribute a large amount of LDFA money, which would allow continual development. According to documents prepared by MMDC, the proposal would allow for an estimated $1,413,000 to be used for developing the CART after capture by the LDFA.

“This is a unique opportunity, this is a good opportunity – it complements very well,” Van Der Wende said. “If this one doesn’t go through we would hope other developers would work similarly with us because that’s a fabulous opportunity for our students.”

With more pre-seed and phase one companies in serious talks with him about moving into the park, Van Der Wende said the park should be in much better shape than in the past.

“When you look at the park in recent years, you have to say anything of this size is a lot bigger than what’s been done,” he said. “I certainly hope it’s not the only one, or I will not have considered myself successful and I’m not accustomed to that.”

editor@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: Daniel Monson