Grand Blanc Marketplace getting much more than a facelift

GRAND BLANC, Mich. (WNEM) – More grand plans are on the way for the Grand Blanc Marketplace.

“We really are excited to get this project moving,” Grand Blanc City Manager Wendy Jean-Buhrer said.

Once construction is completed, the former home to Farmer Jack and Kmart will have three new buildings with the potential of holding 11 businesses.

It’s much more than the facelift originally announced.

“They informed us that they will be taking the building down to the ground, and that that was more cost effective for them,” Jean-Buhrer said.

The site at Bella Vista Drive and Saginaw Street has remained vacant since Kmart closed in 2014. Farmer Jack closed in 2007.

Last year, the city announced the site would be renamed Grand Blanc Marketplace. This year, it announced several tenants planned to move in.

But once general contractors were able to get a good look, they discovered the vacant buildings needed costly, extensive renovations to make that happen.

“I think once they got in there, they understood that the project was a little more involved than what they had thought and felt that the cost of steel and the cost of all the other just, it was just better to start all over and get a good building for what they wanted,” Jean-Buhrer said.

The work on the property will be done in phases beginning with the Farmer Jack building.

Workers will be removing asbestos from the building to prepare it for demolition.

Work on the Kmart portion is expected to begin next year once the construction of the first building is completed.

While the city does not have an estimate on how much the new buildings will impact the local economy, Jean-Buhrer is sure it will be a benefit to the community.

“It’ll create the job opportunities, it’ll bring in the tax base, and it will also bring in more retail choices,” Jean-Buhrer said.

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