Ypsilanti nails down demo grants for Water Street

Water Street is about to coming tumbling down. Or, at least the decrepit buildings on the 38-acre parcel just southwest of Ypsilanti’s downtown.The city has now officially received three, $200,000 EPA grants to pay for the demolition and environmental remediation of the land. That money along with a $250,000 neighborhood stabilization grant will give the city $850,000 to start swing wrecking balls and feeding building eaters.”We’re hoping to get most of them down by the end of the year,” says April McGrath, assistant city manager for Ypsilanti.The city paid millions to combine 42 parcels of residential and industrial land into one large redevelopment project along the Huron River. Those plans floundered after the developer, Joseph Freed & Associates, pulled out and left the city holding the bag on millions of dollars of bonds.The city is now talking to developers who want to build a strip mall and multiple unit housing on the site. Not exactly the kinds of projects the downtown hoped for but the best they could attract in this damaged economy.Source: April McGrath, assistant city manager for YpsilantiWriter: Jon Zemke