By Elena Durnbaugh
Assistant Editor
Posted: August 1, 2023 9:07 AM

Pontiac has existed as the forgotten seat of Oakland County for decades, but local leaders and state lawmakers are hoping an injection of state funding will reverse years of disinvestment and financial woes for the city.

As part of the general enhancement grants included in the budget passed by the Legislature last month, Oakland County is receiving $50 million for downtown revitalization efforts – the biggest single grant to one community – plus an additional $5 million available to Pontiac. The city is also receiving $10 million to rebuild its Martin Luther King overpass bridge and $2 million for its community health program.

The $55 million toward downtown revitalization will be used to move some county offices into the city center. That level of funding is nearly the size of the Pontiac's entire budget, which is between $60 million and $80 million.

"Investing in older, central cities is important both from a quality-of-life standpoint, but also from a social justice and economic justice standpoint," Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel said in an interview. "The county's substantial investment in the heart of downtown is in large part about reversing decades of bad policy on the part of the county that was largely influenced by racism. By reversing that history it's staking a claim that its rightful place is in the heart of the county seat."

County government has been absent from downtown since the 1960s, and under the tenure of L. Brooks Patterson, the county executive's office was moved out of Pontiac into neighboring Waterford Township.

The idea of moving some county employees back into downtown Pontiac came up during County Executive Dave Coulter's first year in office. Coulter said he thought it was a great idea to show commitment to the city and inspire confidence in business owners and developers.

"Now, I'll be honest, I didn't anticipate something this large," he said. "I was thinking about a department that might move to a building there to put a flag in the ground."

The influx of cash into Oakland County and Pontiac due to the American Rescue Plan Act changed Coulter's perspective. He recalled a conversation with Greimel in early 2023 about what sort of transformational projects could be done in the city.

"He said, 'I'll tell you what would be impactful, Mr. Executive: We've talked about moving some employees downtown since you got here, but the county hasn't had employees downtown since the early '60s. And if there was a way to have a significant presence of county employees and investment downtown, I believe that could be a catalyst for others,'" Coulter said. "There was possibility to do something that would be a radical change to the office space in downtown, which is what we're talking about, and it just went from there."

Now, Oakland County plans to purchase the Ottawa Towers, the former General Motors building and the Phoenix Center parking garage. Both are in the heart of downtown Pontiac.

Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) and Rep. Brenda Carter (D-Pontiac) immediately understood the difference that an investment in Pontiac could make, Coulter said.

"They were incredible champions," he said.

Carter has lived in Pontiac for nearly three decades, and she knew as well as anyone that this is not the first time there have been efforts to pump life back into the city.

"There have been several attempts to revitalize downtown Pontiac, but it needed a major infusion of feet on the streets," she said. "There's been nothing that really sustains an impact for a long period of time, but actually moving these offices down…will revitalize the businesses and give them new hope, which is something they haven't had in a very long time."

For decades, Pontiac has been ignored, Moss said.

"Pontiac was our county seat but was very much neglected by our previous county executive. The local government was an emergency manager appointed by the state, and it just didn't get a lot of attention," he said. "It was a blue city in the middle of a Republican (county). And so now, all these years later, all of the pieces are there for Pontiac to get its deserving attention after years of neglect from the state, the city and the county."

In 2009, General Motors shut down its assembly plant in Pontiac, which was a devastating blow to the economic fabric of the city.

"I saw the economic decline that happened after the manufacturing community had to unfortunately leave Pontiac," Carter said. "Pontiac was a GM town, with lots of good paying jobs. We had good schools, we had great businesses, we had a vibrant downtown, but as with any community, not just Pontiac, once the manufacturing sector left, the community became a ghost town."

From 2009 until 2016, the city was operated by an emergency manager appointed by the state.

"It's fair to say a lot of factors went in those shortsighted decisions that have been made over the last half-century or more," Greimel said. "Certainly, a general disinvestment in central cities, a bad-driven infatuation with suburbia were factors, but also, I think a very systemic, racist view of majority-Black cities and the downtown environment in Pontiac."

Pontiac also was a victim of various well-intentioned urban renewal projects.

In the 1960s the Woodward Loop was built around the city. Also known as Wide Track, when it was built in 1964, The Loop, up to six lanes wide in places, was hailed as a modern success. The one-way roadway was an effort to untangle bottlenecked traffic created by GM workers and tractor-trailers carrying auto parts to the city's bustling factories. But instead, it shuffled people away from downtown.

Last year, the Department of Transportation agreed to unwind the Woodward Loop. The construction will take place during 2024-25, and the roadway will be transformed into a two-way boulevard with sidewalks, traffic signals and bike paths. The goal is to create a pedestrian friendly boulevard that will decrease traffic speeds and reconnect neighborhoods to downtown.

The Phoenix Center– an amphitheater, parking garage and plaza located downtown – is another example of urban renewal gone wrong. It was built in the 1970s at the edge of downtown, and like the Woodward Loop, it divided the downtown and separated the heart of the city from the surrounding area. The amphitheater on the roof has not been fully functional for about 15 years.

"That ugly, concrete structure bifurcated our downtown into two halves and really disrupted the walkability," Greimel said.

The facility was the cause of legal battles for more than a decade, which centered around the parking deck and the deck's adjoining office towers. The court cases were settled in 2021.

Many of Pontiac's challenges were heightened by neglect from the state, Moss said. That's coming to an end.

"Some of the crises were amplified by state actors, especially when it was in emergency management," he said. "I feel very strongly, as the senator for Pontiac, that Pontiac's day has arrived."

Now, the goal is to get people back into the city.

"We're fixing The Loop so that it's two-way, slower, so there's more ingress and egress into downtown Pontiac so that it makes it easier for people to get in," Coulter said. "If we can get this project on top of that and add 500 or more county employees into the downtown, which gives foot traffic, which helps with restaurants and shops, I think that's a model that can be replicated in other communities that have faced similar challenges."

Coulter said the investment also would make Pontiac a more attractive place for young people and young families.

"The governor wants to grow our population, and so do I," he said. "So, how do we keep and attract young people? One of the things they want is an urban, walkable experience … this could be an attraction."

The county and the city are currently in negotiations about what parking will look like for the properties the city plans to purchase, and the county plans to close on the building next month.

The timeline for moving county employees downtown is less certain, but Coulter said the goal is to do that as quickly as possible.

"We've got to do it the right way," he said. "We will issue RFPs for all of this and be very transparent about the process. But our intent is to do that just as quickly as feasible."

Greimel said the city will be following the county's lead.

"The county is looking to very quickly begin renovation on the office towers, and they're looking to probably stage any actions when it comes to the parking garage because no matter what occurs with the existing parking garage … it will have to be staged in such a way there is a continuing adequate number of parking spaces."

Many of the tenants in the second office building are state employees with the Department of Health and Human Services, Greimel said.

"Our hope is that this substantially boosts demand for amenities like restaurants so that the existing restaurants have more business, and that hopefully more restaurants are encouraged to open in our downtown," Greimel said.

Already, business owners have taken notice of the plans and are exploring starting new enterprises downtown, he added.

"It's a new day in the city," Greimel said. "The county's willingness to invest in the city, as well as the Legislature's willingness to invest in the city, is a testament to their confidence in the new administration and the new city council. And certainly, as these projects get off the ground, it will be a very visible indication to residents and businesses alike that the city is moving forward, and we are improving the quality of life and the investment climate in the community."

The attempt to revitalize downtown is different from attempts of the past half-century because this time, the city, the county and the state are working together on a cohesive vision, Moss said.

"There have been a lot of challenges that Pontiac has faced, and I think a lot of them have been due to lack of revenue sharing, due to other mismanagement and certainly due to an emergency manager who made decisions that the city is still reeling from more than a decade later," Moss said. "This is a bookend moment to really correct some wrongs that were driven by the government."

The money coming from the state for downtown enhancements and for other projects, like repairing the city's Martin Luther King bridge and the investment in community health, is a commitment to correcting past wrongs, Coulter said.

"Pontiac is not alone in being a community, like others in the state, that have seen a great amount of disinvestment over the last decade," he said.

Other cities across the state could use what's happening in Pontiac as a model, Carter said.

Additionally, the investment is crucial for economic growth, Greimel said.

"It's about improving the business climate in the state," he said. "We're not going to have successful regions or successful counties unless the historic cores of those regions and counties are lifted up and are successful. … By investing in historic downtowns, it will make it easier for the state and for southeast Michigan to recruit the best and brightest, and to retain the best and brightest here in the area."

The funding for Pontiac demonstrates the priorities of state leadership, Greimel said.

"The state's budget is very much an expression of progressive values and about its concern and compassion for everyone in the state, not just a select few," he said.

The goal is to provide the city with the support it desperately needs to thrive, Carter said.

"It's been a ghost town for so long, that it's taken away their hope," she said. "What we are doing now, by bringing all this support back to Pontiac, is bringing back hope."