FLINT, MI - A new, 100-room hotel and full-service restaurant may soon fill the long-vacant Genesee County State Savings Bank building on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint.
The proposal was brought before city council on Wednesday, Sept. 20 in hopes of passing a resolution to set aside parcels of land at the site of the old bank on the corner of S. Saginaw and Kearsley in Flint.
Amy Hovey, representing the Uptown Development Corporation, told the council that the organization has been in talks with a Hilton Garden in hopes of bringing the hotel chain to Flint.
With an estimated 100 rooms and full-service restaurant, Hovey said Uptown has met with the Flint-Genesee Job Corps and intends to provide internships and potentially full-time positions to those in the program.
"This project is different in that it will continually be bringing money from outside the city and outside the state, people who aren't from here, to spend their dollars in the city of Flint," Hovey said.
She said financing for the project is still in the discussion phase with the state, but that Uptown hopes to secure a property tax exemption under Michigan's Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act (OPRA) for the hotel.
Council voted to discuss the resolutions for the property's future further at its next meeting on Monday, Sept. 25.
The newest potential development is an addition to a recent influx of projects - including work at the Capitol Theatre, Ferris Wheel building, and Mott Community College's culinary school - in various phases in downtown Flint, which are expected to pump more than $100 million in renovation work to the city.