LANSING – Detroit was approved Tuesday as a Next Michigan Development Corporation, allowing it to issue renaissance zones and other inducements to bring in business.

The designation, approved by the Strategic Fund Board, allows it to bring the tax-free zones and other inducements directly to the board without first applying to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Detroit would be the last Next Michigan corporation (current law allows only seven and six others have been approved), but it could be the first to bring a business for renaissance zone designation. Officials from MEDC and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation said the application for the renaissance zone is already in process and should be completed and brought to the board in the coming months.

“It would provide Detroit with all of the essential tools we need to really optimize the industrial resurgence we’re seeing,” Virginia Wilkinson with the DEGC said in asking the board to approve the designation.

MEDC officials said other Next Michigan designees had used tax abatements and other incentives, but not the renaissance zones.

INDUCEMENTS: The board also approved a $1.2 million Michigan Business Development Program grant for the FEV Group for a new headquarters, tech center and engineering services facility in Auburn Hills. The $27 million project is expected to generate 250 new jobs and was competing with a site in South Carolina.

JR Automation Technologies, LLC, based in Holland, was approved for a $2.2 million MBDP grant to purchase an additional facility in Holland Township. The $5.6 million project is expected to generate 250 new jobs.

Covisint Corporation was granted a forbearance on its MBDP grant. The company had missed its December deadline for 10 new jobs because an audit found some of the jobs did not count, but MEDC officials said the company was expected to make its next deadline. The company had not yet collected any of the grant funds, but without the forbearance, the grant could have been revoked.

The Hazel Park Brownfield Redevelopment Authority was approved for $5.75 million in tax capture for Tri-County Commerce Center’s industrial development planned for 36 acres at the former Hazel Park Raceway. The company is planning $36 million for a 575,000-square-foot building.

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