EPA Region 5 – Consumers Energy Corporate Headquarters, Jackson, Michigan

Before Redevelopment (Red dot indicates the same building in both pictures.)

After Redevelopment (Red dot indicates the same building in both pictures.)

Grand River - Before Redevelopment

Grand River - After Redevelopment with Riverwalk and Sculpture Garden

Plaza in Front of Post Office

Aerial photography by Amy Torres, City of Jackson
Photography by Harry Sabourin, Consumers Energy

The Consumers Energy project transformed an abandoned and contaminated 15-acre brownfield site located in downtown Jackson into an urban campus consisting of new state-of-the-art corporate headquarters for one of the city's longest standing businesses, an amphitheater, sculpture garden and green space, river promenade, and additional parking areas. The Consumers Energy project demonstrates the importance of establishing meaningful partnerships and community support.

Jackson, Michigan is located at the junction of U.S. 127 and Interstate 94 in south central Michigan. Historically, the region's primary rail lines converged in Jackson resulting in a manufacturing-based economy that flourished from the 1870s to the 1950s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jackson experienced an economic downturn that caused most of the larger manufacturers to leave. As a result, Jackson's population plummeted from 55,000 to 30,000. Developers invested in suburban greenfields, adding to Jackson's economic difficulties.

Beginning operations in 1886, Consumers Energy has been one of the area's largest employers for decades. With the lease on their Jackson headquarters buildings expiring in 2003, Consumers Energy knew that constructing their new headquarters on a greenfield site would be an easy path to follow. Understanding the economic implications to the city in lost high-paying jobs, income, and property taxes, as well as the negative impacts to the commercial and retail business districts, Consumers Energy discussed consolidating their operations into a new, state-of-the-art downtown facility. The city proposed a downtown site, consisting of 36 parcels totaling 15 acres, as the future location for Consumers Energy's new corporate headquarters.

The project site was challenged by the presence of heavy metals (e.g., arsenic, copper, lead, mercury, chromium, selenium, and nickel), volatile aromatic compounds (e.g., benzene, ethyl benzene, xylenes, and C3-benzenes), volatile chlorinated solvents (e.g., tetrachloroethene and dichloroethenes), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Abandoned underground storage tanks were also discovered at the site. Building demolition involved working with asbestos-containing materials and lead paint.

Consumers Energy and the city of Jackson, in association with Jackson County, the State of Michigan, and several federal agencies, transformed a blighted city block in downtown Jackson into a $113-million urban campus including the new Consumers Energy corporate headquarters, a public amphitheater, sculpture garden, river promenade, two parking decks, green space, and over 700 new high-wage employees. The project included preservation of a Beaux Arts style U.S. Post Office that had been vacant for four years. The building was rehabilitated, restoring the exterior façade and the historic public lobby. As a result of this significant public/private investment in the community's future, the marketplace has responded with new restaurants and businesses offering a wider variety of goods and services.

Facing many challenges in building partnerships and securing funding, this award-winning project stands today as an example of how a single brownfields redevelopment project can revitalize an entire community.

For further information about this project, contact: Beth L. Fields at blfields@cmsenergy.com , or (517) 788-2269.

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