KALAMAZOO -- After years of planning and incremental advances, the city of Kalamazoo is poised to open an environmentally friendly business park on the once badly polluted site of an oil refinery on the city's southeast side.

Mayor Hannah McKinney, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and city officials will host a phalanx of dignitaries in a ceremonial opening of the Davis Creek Business Park, on about 18.5 acres of land on the north side of Cork Street, at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Built on the former Lakeside Refinery site and billed as the area's ``first business park with roots in sustainability,'' the Davis Creek Business Park is to be a mixed-use brownfield redevelopment project ``that integrates business development with sustainable, environmentally sensitive site design,'' the city said in a press release.  

Since the mid-1990s, federal and state governments have spent more than $12 million to clean up pollution on the property, which includes about 53 acres of land. The site was used for oil refining and bulk fuel storage from the late 1930s until it was abandoned in the early 1990s.

No tenants have been announced for the park, and details of how it is to be used were not disclosed.

Attempts by the Gazette to contact Marc Hatton, redevelopment project manager for the city of Kalamazoo, were unsuccessful.

The most prominent feature of the park is to be a site-wide stormwater-handling system that will direct stormwater from each development site through vegetated swales. The water will eventually be filtered through an enhanced wetland before being discharged into Davis Creek, according to the city.

The ceremony is open to the public.

Saturday, October 20, 2007
BY AL JONES
ajones@kalamazoogazette.com
388-8556