Beneficial Reuse of RACER Trust Properties Featured in Oakland Co. Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Progress Report

Sales and subsequent reuse of four former RACER Trust properties in Pontiac, Mich., are among eight projects featured in the Oakland County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority’s 2015-2017 Progress Report, a publication devoted to highlighting successful reuse of former industrial properties in the county.

The eight projects are expected to secure more than $270 million in new investment, create 1,900 jobs and add $45 million to the taxable value of the community.

Projects on former RACER Trust properties are:

• Challenge Manufacturing (former Pontiac Automation and Assembly), a $52 million investment with 400 jobs;

• M1 Concourse (former Pontiac West Assembly), a $43 million investment that has transformed the southern gateway to Pontiac;

• Dan’s Excavating (former GM Plant 25), a $1.75 million investment that includes a new 13,000 square-foot industrial building on formerly vacant land and 35 jobs created; and

• George W. Auch headquarters (former GM employee development center), a $5.6 million investment that includes a 20,000 square-foot office building and 10 new jobs.

“RACER Trust works very hard to find buyers who will make the investments necessary to maximize a property’s reuse potential,” said Elliott P. Laws, of EPLET, LLC, administrative trustee of RACER Trust. “We have been fortunate in Pontiac to secure several buyers with the vision to imagine a beneficial reuse and the resources to bring that vision to life. Together, these buyers are helping to revitalize the Pontiac area and helping RACER carry out its economic development mission.”

“Since its start in 2001, the Brownfield Redevelopment Program has made a dramatic positive impact that will have a lasting legacy in Oakland County,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. “The brownfield program ensures the development of sustainable communities through remediation and reinvestment in contaminated and abandoned properties. By partnering with private investors, our communities increase their tax base, facilitate job growth and utilize existing infrastructure — breathing new life back into areas that were unusable.”

About RACER Trust: RACER (Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response) Trust was created to clean up and position for redevelopment properties and other facilities owned by the former General Motors Corp. before its 2009 bankruptcy. RACER is one of the largest holders of industrial property in the United States and is the largest environmental response and remediation trust in U.S. history. When the Trust was formed, it owned properties at 89 locations in 14 states, principally in the Midwest and Northeast. The Trust was created by a settlement agreement in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court between the U.S. Government, the 14 states where the former GM properties are located, and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which owns land adjoining one of the properties in Upstate New York. For more information, please visit our website: www.racertrust.org.