“Lemons to Lemonade”

Military Base Closure and Transformation Into Thriving

Industrial Park

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices

Nashville, TennesseeSeptember 19, 2005

Jim Hettinger, President and CEOBattle Creek Unlimited, Inc.

Lemons to Lemonade

• Battle Creek and Battle Creek Unlimited

• Fort Custer Military Training Base• Steps taken• Results• If you are on the BRAC 2005 list

• Battle Creek, Michigan– 54,000 population

• 3rd largest city in Michigan (land mass)

– Primary employment sectors• Breakfast cereal processing• Automotive-related manufacturing• Government and military

– By the late 1970s…• Military base closure• Durable goods producers shut down facilities• Unemployment approaches 18%

Lemons to Lemonade

• Battle Creek Unlimited, Inc.– 1972: created to oversee orderly

transformation of Fort Custer– Private, nonprofit, IRS 501 (c) 3– Community based board of directors– Gradually assumed most functions

associated with an economic development entity

Lemons to Lemonade

• Fort Custer Military Training Camp– Construction began in 1917

• Capacity for 35,458 troops

• 1,282 buildings including a hospital

• 9,139 acres– 1919: training 90,000 troops– 1936: 24,000 troops arrive

for training– 1940: 14,000 acres with

7,000 stationed troops and 3,000 civilian workers

– WW II: 300,000 troops pass through for training and mobilization

Lemons to Lemonade

• 1959: Custer Air Force Station and North American Air Defense– 1,000 personnel stationed with families

• Service clubs, pool, gymnasium, indoor tennis & boxing, softball, golf, base exchange, bowling alley, auto repair shop, laundry & dry cleaning, dispensary, and lodging quarters

• 1960: Job Corps Center for high school dropouts to learn job skills

• 1965: Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, orders closing of Fort Custer

• 1968: Formal closing ceremony

Lemons to Lemonade

Lemons to Lemonade

• What steps did Battle Creek take?– Acquire 3,000 acres of

abandoned military land– 1972: Determine highest

and best use– 1976: Establish Customs

port of entry – 1978: Foreign-Trade Zone

#43– Relocate manufacturers

from landlocked, antiquated downtown sites

Lemons to Lemonade

• Establish Tax Increment Finance Authority

• Re-use of abandoned structures• Upgrade existing infrastructure• Market for foreign direct investment• Market airport properties

Lemons to Lemonade

• 34 underground storage tanks• Lime pits• Buried training aircraft, circa 1960s• Radar structure to withstand bombing raids• Large steel water storage tanks, gravity

flow water system• Wooden sewer lines• Ordnance, live and deteriorated• Remove and clean up railroad tracks• Demolish 1600 structures• Numerous concrete pads and foundations

Lemons to Lemonade

• Fort Custer Industrial Park– Marketed and

managed by Battle Creek Unlimited

– 95 companies, 10,000+ jobs

– Investment from US, Japan, Germany, Austria, Denmark

Lemons to Lemonade

• WK Kellogg Airport– Michigan Air

National Guard– WMU College of

Aviation– Duncan Aviation– WACO Classic

aircraft manufacturer

– 2nd-fastest growing airport in Michigan

Lemons to Lemonade

• Present challenges– Another BRAC – Post-9/11 opportunities and challenges

• Globalization• Information technology

Lemons to Lemonade

• If you are on the BRAC list – Develop consensus– Acquire property– Work with a planning consultant– Line up local units of government– You will be one of many development

projects nationwide– It won’t be painless

Lemons to Lemonade

Questions?

Lemons to Lemonade

Battle Creek Unlimited4950 West Dickman Road

P.O. Box 1438Battle Creek, Michigan 49015 USA

Telephone: 269-962-7526Fax: 269-962-8096

www.bcunlimited.org