Accident Fund: If we build it, can they come?

Like just about everyone else in town, downtown worker Judy Putnam was marveling at the gorgeous new Accident Fund headquarters the other day when she got the itch to peek inside.

What’s the harm, right? It’s not the Sears Tower or the Empire State Building, but this is the closest thing we have to cool in Lansing. Surely they wouldn’t mind if someone wanted to see the lobby ... .

"No" was the courteous, but assertive answer from the paid security.

How about a tour? Putnam asked. 

Again, No. 

How about a short little gaze around the lobby?

No.

"I was a little irritated," she said. "We weren’t trying to roam around the building or kick the tires or something."

Her agitation was compounded by the fact a bucket of tax credits and special federal, state and local goodies were given to the Lansing-based workers compensation firm to keep it in the capital and renovate a deteriorating structure originally built to burn coal for electricity.

Consider this: The property of the old Board of Water and Light Building was constructed in a Renaissance Zone, meaning it is exempt from paying local property taxes for 15 years. That’s $9.75 million the city would get otherwise.

After 2025 or thereabouts, the $33 million it pays in future property taxes is given to the Lansing Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA) to pay for the costs of making the old power plant usable — moving the water chillers and tearing down that hideous parking deck that spanned Grand Avenue, for example.

The company got another $10 million in brownfield credits from the soon-to-be former Michigan Business Tax, which it can cash in on 90 cents to the dollar after the tax goes away. The historic tax credits used on the 105,000-square-foot building total around $11 million.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority awarded it a separate 12-year, $9 million tax credit, and the Department of Environmental Quality ponied up $3.2 million for public riverfront improvements, including the building of a public park on both sides of the Grand River.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also assisted in the cleanup to the tune of around $600,000.

And, to boot, the city used its bonding authority to build the $31 million parking ramp on the side of the new structure next door to the old power plant with the understanding that the money would be paid back over time.

Not counting the ramp, that’s $76.5 million in would-be state and local tax money that is either a) staying with the company or b) going into sprucing up seven acres of highly visible downtown riverfront over the next 30-some years.

Now, I understand the cost of not doing the project. I do. Not dangling these tax credits in front of the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan affiliate would have meant this $180 million project doesn’t happen. These incentives would have been spent somewhere else. Not Lansing.

It’d have meant the growing Accident Fund moves its headquarters into bigger digs in Delta Township or even Milwaukee. Its 632 jobs are out of Lansing and 500 other jobs aren’t coming downtown. That’s an $8 million loss in Lansing employee income tax money over 30 years.

Follow the dominos. Blue Cross/Blue Shield wouldn’t be moving into the Accident Fund’s old building next to Cooley Law School. Lansing now has two empty buildings to hide from.

God knows another tenant probably wasn’t coming for the Board of Water and Light Building. It was destined for a wrecking when the smokestacks showed signs of tumbling. 

But the use of the public’s resources does give us a little skin in the game. All Lansing and state taxpayers are partners in the fantastic success of this project. Marveling at the handiwork inside isn’t a big ask.

The Accident Fund’s media relations professional, Stephanie Schlinker, did end up offering Putnam a tour after the latter posted a disappointed Facebook post.

Schlinker wrote that the security guards can be a little intense, but they’ve had to contend with people making a beeline for the elevator or the stairs, which "tends to freak our employees out."

The company had considered doing regular tours, but opted instead to do public tours by request. Sarah Garcia (sarah.garcia@accidentfund.com) was put in charge of organizing all of that. The security guards are being briefed on what to tell Putnams of the future.

That’s great. The Accident Fund’s media tour in late March exceeded my expectations. My Facebook post that day read, "The three-sided view from the ninth floor makes you fall in love with the city of Lansing."

I’d hope others get to experience that feeling, too.

Kyle Melinn is the editor of the MIRS Newsletter. He can be reached at melinnky@ameritech.net.