RACER Cleaning Up Old GM

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Consider it a race to clean up and sell properties once owned by General Motors.

The RACER Trust, formed in March 2011 as a result of GM’s bankruptcy, is pushing to move some prime remaining sites. RACER is an acronym that stands for Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response.

That becomes clear from a WardsAuto interview at RACER’s Management Briefing Seminars exhibit with Patricia Spitzley, deputy redevelopment manager. “When we started out, we were the third-largest holder of industrial property in the United States,” she says.

RACER began with 315 properties at 89 locations in 14 states covering 44 million sq.-ft. (4 million sq.-m) of space and 7,000 acres (2,833 ha). So far 31 transactions, which include 21.7 million sq.-ft. (2 million sq.-m) and 1,990 acres (805 ha), have been completed, she says.

Funded with $773 million from federal and state sources, RACER does not simply sell or lease the former GM properties.

It’s also responsible for demolishing and cleaning up the sites in collaboration with the EPA and state environmental agencies and returning them to “industrial” standards.

Cleanup takes $500 million of the total budget. The remainder covers administrative costs and items such as taxes, security and heating, Spitzley says. “We’re operating within our budget,” she says.

RACER also consults local groups and authorities on how the properties will be used and to ensure the new owners live up to jobs they pledge as part of the transaction. RACER currently has 6,500 jobs pledged, she says.

“We can’t just sell to a developer,” Spitzley emphasizes. “The transactions also must include economic development.”

The properties include a par-3 golf course in New Jersey and the massive 217,000-sq.-ft. (20,159-sq.-m) former GM Powertrain complex in Massena, NY, where $126 million has been spent to clear and remediate the property.

Piece of Buick City Sold

Like many of the manufacturing sites, Massena involves cleaning up unhealthy toxins and assuring safe groundwater for nearby communities.

In some instances, RACER sells pieces of larger sites.

At the leveled former 395,000-sq.-ft. (36,695-sq.-m) Buick City complex in Flint, MI, 20 acres (8 ha) was purchased by American Spiralweld Pipe, which is building a water pipeline between Flint and Lake Huron. It’s constructing a 180,000-sq.-ft. (16,722-sq.-m) facility and will employ 50 to 60 people.

“This is the first new manufacturing facility built in Flint in 10 years,” she says.

An attorney who once served as press secretary for environmental issues in the administrations of former Michigan Govs. John Engler and Jennifer Granholm, Spitzley says: “My job is community outreach to help recover these plants. Generally they were the largest employer in the area. We have one shot to make sure we bring in the investment on the front end.”

In one bit of irony, the “new” GM has taken office space in a building on its former plant site in Kansas City, KS, now operated by North Point Development, Spitzley explains. And another unusual coincidence: Elio Motors, a maker of 3-wheel vehicles, is ensconced in a former GM pickup assembly plant in Shreveport, LA.

A barren patch of former GM operations in Pontiac, MI, is expected to be reborn as the M1Concourse, a condo development targeting classic-car owners.

Meanwhile, a 56-acre (23-ha) former GM site in Indianapolis is being considered for a new city/county government complex, she says.

“We’re now ahead of schedule on a number of cleanups, so we’re open for business,” Spitzley says.