Business View Magazine | March 2020

242 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2020 to clean up environmental contaminants in the soil on the construction site. Environmental pollutants from previous property owners originally made the property unsafe and undesirable for redevelopment. The Delhi Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, which has a long history of cleaning up contaminated properties, worked with The Gillespie Company to ensure that the proper steps were taken to turn the once blighted property into a site ready for commercial development. It’s all a part of the Delhi DDA’s efforts to create a vibrant downtown area that attracts residents, businesses, and jobs while boosting local property values. “We were the first township in Michigan to get a gold designation in the Green Communities Challenge,” states POTW (Publicly Owned Treatment Works) Director, Sandra Diorka. The Michigan Green Communities Challenge is an annual program administered by the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Association of Counties, and the Michigan Township Association redevelopment sites available to fill in along the Realize Cedar project, and we built the infrastructure backbone on which the private sector can make the investments and finish the vision. And we’ve already seen some return on that infrastructure investment: Esker Square.” Esker Square is a $12 million, three-story, mixed- use development that will house apartments, retail, and office space on Cedar Street. The project is the first private development as a result of the Realize Cedar initiative and will likely pave the way for more privately-financed development. “Esker Square is precisely the type of private investment that we were hoping would be attracted by the infrastructure backbone that we established,” says Miller. Delhi is also a community that places a strong focus on sustainability and environmental stewardship. The developer of Esker Square, The Gillespie Company, partnered with the Delhi Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality