Business View Magazine | March 2020

241 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2020 Block Imaging; aerospace manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney; and RSDC, the largest metal coil and blank processor in North America. Delhi is also a community that continues to grow and develop. One recently completed project, called Realize Cedar, was the result of 20-plus years of community planning, some innovative financing options, and a strong dedication to public/private partnerships. The township’s role was to redevelop the Cedar Street Corridor by improving sidewalks, street parking, and roadways to create a safer, more walkable community for residents, businesses, and visitors. “It was a complete renovation of our major commercial corridor,” explains Township Manager, Tracy Miller. “We asked the various tax jurisdictions that participate with us in our Downtown Development Authority, which utilizes Tax Increment Financing, to help in funding the project by extending the duration of our tax capture period, and all but one of the jurisdictions agreed (which in this day and age, is almost completely unheard of). But we were successful in that because of our demonstrated capacity to implement the project. And, ultimately, as a result of our Downtown Development Authority projects in the past, we have been able to demonstrate a marked increase in taxable value, which benefits the taxing jurisdictions. So, they generally viewed it as a pretty good return on their investment and they agreed to allow us ten additional years of tax capture. Once we had those agreements secure, we bonded so that we could raise roughly the $7.5 million we needed to do the project.” “But at the end of the day, it’s the private sector that creates development,” Miller continues. “All we can do, as a municipality, is create an environment that’s conducive and supportive, and that is what Realize Cedar was all about – place-making and creating an environment that residents had been wanting for 20-plus years. We’ve invested a ton of money doing land assembly so that there are reasonably-sized DELHI CHARTER TOWNSHI P , MI CHIGAN Energy Generating Digesters Holt’s first LEED Certified Building