Celebrating RACER Trust on the Floor of the U.S. House

RACER Trust was surprised and thrilled by the supportive and complimentary words of U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on July 22.

Congresswoman Stevens’ district includes Pontiac, a community with several high-profile redevelopments of former RACER Trust properties.

Her full remarks, as published in the Congressional Record:

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate RACER Trust, based in Detroit, for its extraordinary work turning abandoned industrial sites into engines of economic growth across Michigan and this country.

Following the Great Recession, the RACER Trust was established to clean up and redevelop over 7,000 acres of shuttered properties. In fact, it was created by the team that I had the privilege of working on in the Obama administration, the U.S. Auto Rescue Task Force. RACER Trust has reimagined the process to meet challenges facing long-held industrial sites. I have also gotten a chance to visit many of these sites through my Manufacturing Monday program. They include Williams International, United Wholesale Mortgage, Challenge Manufacturing, and the M1 Concourse featured here, all of which are located in Pontiac, Michigan. These were shuttered industrial plants that are now beacons of light in our community, and we should celebrate their success.

RACER thanks Congresswoman Stevens, who has introduced legislation to remediate and redevelop more former manufacturing properties across the U.S., building off RACER’s record of success in the positioning, cleanup, sale and reuse of former General Motors Corp. properties. As RACER’s Administrative Trustee, Elliott P. Laws, said when the congresswoman announced the Revitalization Efforts for Sustainable Transformation and Remediation for Thriving Communities Act (RESTART Communities Act), “The RESTART Communities Act of 2024 provides important tools to promote community-focused solutions on a national scale, including training and educational programs to equip the next generation of leaders with the skills they will need to carry these initiatives in the future. As a member of the White House staff at the time, Representative Stevens was a key figure in building the framework of RACER Trust and has watched as RACER’s application of its mandate has resulted in tens of thousands of new jobs and significant reductions in risks to human health and the environment. We are pleased to support Representative Stevens in her efforts and urge members of Congress to pass the RESTART Communities Act of 2024.”