Business View Magazine
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the economy starting to bloom.”
In anticipation of new residents coming to Bay City
for the new jobs, Finn says that, as part of its master
plan, the city has recently completed a comprehensive
housing study. “The city has been around for a long,
long time and we have a lot of houses that date back,
in many cases, over a hundred years,” he says. “We
have a lot of issues with some of the older housing and
this study develops a very good concept, step by step,
of what the city needs to do over the next five to ten
years to remain not only strong commercial-wise, and
industrial-wise, but also residential-wise.”
Meanwhile, the private sector in Bay City is also be-
coming residential-wise. “We’ve got two new down-
town developments that are re-using existing historic
buildings,” Finn relates. “One is being converted into
condominiums with 44 units. These will be market-
rate housing right in our downtown area, two blocks
from the river. The other one is the old Chemical Bank
Building that happens to be a 125-year-old National
Park – certified historic structure. We have a developer
that is working towards restoring this historic building.
The first level will be commercial with a fine restaurant
and the rest will be condominium units on the upper
floors also at market rate.”
Finn is especially proud that the city’s stakeholders
are all inclined to preserve some of Bay City’s historic
buildings. “A lot of communities, over the years, have
knocked down a lot of historic buildings and have
come to regret it,” he laments. “We have chosen not to
do that. We’ve looked at how we can re-purpose and
re-use them.”
In addition, Finn happily admits that the city is not
alone in pursuing its revitalization goals and gives
