City Commission Approves Additional $600,000 for Heritage Tower

Just a month after approving $3.6 million to help the recovery effort for a downtown Battle Creek building, the Battle Creek City Commission looks to add a little bit more.

A few hours before the City Commission meeting Tuesday night, a resolution was added to the agenda which would allow the City Manager to seek a supplemental Program-Related Investment loan from the WK Kellogg Foundation for $600,000; that money would then be loaned to the owners of the Heritage Tower for their work to renovate the building.

Battle Creek Mayor Mark Behnke tells 95.3 WBCK Wednesday morning that the resolution passed the night before 8-0; he says that "we may not have to use the money", and that the extra funds are just there "in case there are cost overruns".

This follows a similar resolution which was approved in March for a $3.6 million loan, and a $5 million loan approved in December 2017.

Heritage Tower has sat vacant since 2008, and efforts to renovate it have been taking place for the last few years; the goal is to transform the upper floors into 85 apartment units, with restaurant and retail space occupying the first two floors. The entire project to fix the tower up is expected to cost more than $30 million.

You can see a quick tour of the inside of the structure as of February by going here.