Inside Michigan’s secret $261M plan to raze homes for megafactory that never came

Mark Rood wanted to know if the rumors were true: Was a massive factory coming to his Genesee County community?

So in March 2023, he attended the Mundy Township Board of Trustees meeting, asked his elected officials — and was met with silence.

“Everybody kind of looked at each other,” Rood recalled. “They said, ‘We can’t talk about it.’”

What City Manager Chad Young and then- Supervisor Tonya Ketzler didn’t say was that they had already spent 14 months talking with state and county officials who were assembling a megasite just south of Flint Bishop Airport. In fact, they had signed nondisclosure agreements related to the project nine months earlier, records show.

Such secrecy lasted more than two years during one of the biggest economic development gambles of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s tenure — a $261 million speculative effort to assemble a 2 square-mile megasite to attract high-paying jobs to Genesee County without a company’s commitment.

Known as Project Grit, the project so far has acquired about 155 homes and demolished close to half. But backers have yet to attract a factory, leaving a township torn by distrust and lawmakers demanding answers.

Taxpayers “bankrolled the leveling of a community,” said state Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell.

A four-month Bridge Michigan investigation found that state and local officials repeatedly concealed information from residents and even lawmakers. The deal involved more than 100 nondisclosure agreements, allowed 10 residents to buy homes in the megasite zone without acknowledging the houses were targeted for demolition and offered up to $27 billion in incentives to a semiconductor manufacturer that ultimately walked away.

Bridge obtained dozens of emails, reports and correspondence showing that officials knew that more than 160 homes could be acquired to build a megasite for at least two years before all impacted residents and neighbors were informed of the plans.

By the time Rood asked his question, all parties were deep in negotiations, emails indicate.

Michigan had offered an incentive package for a semiconductor company. Economic officials had assured the state Mundy was “committed to rezoning” for the deal. And township officials repeatedly met developers at least twice, including lunch at Warwick Country Club.

State and local officials blame the secrecy on Western Digital spinoff and its spinoff, Sandisk, whose plans to build a $63 billion semiconductor became public when the deal fell apart in July.

“Genesee County has been through a lot, and we need more good-paying jobs,” according to a recent presentation by Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the Flint and Genesee Economic Alliance, which leads the local effort to assemble the property. Rossmaessler declined an interview request by Bridge.

Some secrecy is common with economic development to allow confidential information to be disclosed during negotiations, said Maureen Krauss, president of the Detroit Regional Partnership economic development group.

Still, the Mundy plan involved record amounts of taxpayer money and had “absolutely no transparency at all,” state Rep. Brian BeGole, R-Perry.

Lawmakers who approved funding were told in 2024 public meetings by state economic development officials that the project would only involve “some demolition” of “structures.”

“This project doesn’t fundamentally change the character of the area,” Michigan Economic Development Corp. COO Christin Armstrong told reporters in April 2024.

In fact, while the area is a few miles from the airport, it is highly agricultural and residential. Just across the road, one of the state’s largest homebuilders has plans to add 259 homes.

Whitmer and her staff did not return numerous messages seeking comment.

Danielle Emerson, spokesperson for the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said the public had multiple opportunities to offer input.

“We are proud of the public process over the last several years,” she said, adding the megasite shows “Michigan can compete with any state.”

Residents ‘don’t pay attention’

The project grew out of desperation.

In fall 2021, Ford Motor Co. shocked Michigan by announcing it would invest $13 billion in electric vehicle plants in Kentucky and Tennessee. That prompted Whitmer and bipartisan leaders to set aside $1 billion in new corporate subsidies to compete with southern states for big manufacturers.

Two weeks before Rood’s question in 2023, the township board had approved a so-called “overlay” zoning that accommodated the project.

Notices were posted online, at township hall and in a weekly newspaper, but Mundy officials did not otherwise notify the public.

A township newsletter that spring didn’t mention it. Mailings did not go out; the township manager said they weren’t required.

People “just get so lax about government until it affects them,” then-supervisor Ketzler told Bridge. “They don’t pay any attention.”

Still, township attorney Jack Belzer had told officials not to answer questions at meetings, according to the board minutes.

Emails and reports obtained by Bridge show Rossmaessler and Flint business leader Tim Herman of the Flint & Genesee Group by early 2022 had identified Mundy Township land for energy projects pushed by then-President Joe Biden.

As the state dialed up its land search, a Consumers Energy official told the MEDC that the Genesee County property could be worth considering for a big deal.

Emails show Michigan officials were talking to automakers, including Stellantis and Ford, about using the land. Acreage needs could have spared most homes.

The first land targets were farmers and a church, “relatively easy” due to the few number of sellers, said Ridgway White, CEO of the CS Mott Foundation, which was an early megasite funder. (Editor’s note: The Mott Foundation is one of several funders of Bridge Michigan. The foundation had no influence in reporting, writing or editing this story.)

Early maps made it look like a factory complex would be tucked behind houses and a school. Still, a list of all properties across the 2 miles were listed in the first grant award from the state in May 2022, noting at least some could be added to the farmland.

Weeks later, Michigan offered Western Digital a $16.9 billion deal to build in Mundy Township.

Local opposition

Rood’s question to the board ignited a quest for information. Residents, saying they were surprised by the zoning, began jamming township meetings beginning in May 2023.

Don Ludwig, a homeowner in the zone, started a Facebook page. Sue Dishaw became a leader in a “No Megasite” movement that drove to disclose facts and push environmental safeguards.

Both “tried to shine a spotlight on facts early on” as distrust brewed, township farmer Chad Morey recalled.

“It took them six months or more just to get the basic information.”

By fall, 1,600 Mundy area residents had signed a petition seeking a moratorium on EV and semiconductor development. The township took no action, again telling organizers there was no specific business filing a proposal.

Residents heard that over and over for two years.

“We’ll tell you more when we’re allowed to,” Ketzler said at one board meeting.

As opposition grew, the state and economic alliance followed a marketing plan to line up supporters representing the largest employers and institutions in Genesee County.

Among the NDAs was one signed by Moment Strategies. Documents show the marketing company was hired by MEDC for $161,000 to “ensure all (state megasite) outreach and community engagement efforts are aligned … and mitigate any opposition.”

Dishaw started to challenge the community letters in support of the project publicized by the economic alliance, calling them generic and focused solely on job gains.

“Everybody supports jobs,” Dishaw said. “But what they didn’t say was they were going to tear down 165 homes, a school, a church” or cause upheaval to bordering neighborhoods.

Behind the scenes, Western Digital pulled out of talks in 2023, emails indicate. The state kept up site marketing.

Home sellers were bound by nondisclosure agreements and didn’t answer neighbors’ questions about what was happening. Many owners told Bridge they were approached by knocks on the door and verbal offers.

“They bought the farmland,” Rood recalled, “and then they basically just told people, ‘Well, we’re going to pay a lot of money for your houses or you can have this factory in your backyards.’”

Bridge reviewed dozens of sales. Most farmland sold for around $15,000 per acre, about 2.5 times the state average with one deal at $30,000 per acre. Many homes sold for about $450,000, roughly at least 150% of the estimated online value.

Some sellers jumped at the deals but were bound by NDAs that kept prices private. Others held out longer, saying they couldn’t afford to replace their existing homes and pay uncapped property taxes for the amounts offered.

“No Megasite” signs popped up, soon followed by bulldozers. Work continued; behind the scenes, the developers pushed to land a company before federal incentive funding for big energy deals ran out.

Then Western Digital came back.

Full speed ahead

The returning semiconductor giant unleashed a breakneck pace for the megasite in spring 2024: The company’s representatives asked Michigan to submit a new offer, emails show.

This time, Western Digital promised 6,800 new workers plus 450 or so Japanese workers on visas. The fab campus would cover 13 million square feet, its tallest building maybe up to 12 stories high. It plotted out 20 years of investment then valued at $49 billion. Suppliers could be added to the mix; maybe they could get tax-free benefits, too, company representatives teased.

And the “fab” site wanted at least 1,300 acres in a cleared footprint. That would require the demolition of a school and clearing the entire Maple Creek Preserve subdivision, in addition to the rest of the houses.

The MEDC set up a strike team to land the deal, “which involves bringing the entire 1,300+ acre site to shovel ready status by August 2026,” emails indicated.

This is when the MEDC lined up for two big grants from SOAR in 2024 to move the site forward: $9.25 million came in April, quickly followed by $250 million in May.

That April, Michigan offered Western Digital an $18.5 billion package, documents show. By the end of May, the company had asked for more and the state upped its offer to $24 billion. The “give” was filled with record-setting tax breaks and cash that lawmakers had yet to even approve. The biggest portion was a 50-year tax-free zone worth at least $18 billion.

“This is an amazing opportunity,” Rossmaessler wrote, adding: “This is a community that’s ready to move, and we have leaders that are adept and willing to work with industry.”

It would have been a massive development in a county whose population has fallen nearly 50,000 residents since 1980 to 403,000. Nearby Flint still reeled from the water crisis.

“A robust public relations and community engagement plan is in place to get in front of potential issues,” the MEDC told the company in its offer.

The state’s PR plan added detail: Officials were planning “which stakeholders we can mobilize to neutralize opposition.”

All signs were encouraging. So was reaction from community leaders, like township supervisors and county board leadership who learned more about the deal in private briefings.

“Keep playing our game,” the MEDC’s Josh Hundt wrote in a text in spring 2024, “and it’s ours to win!”

Incentive policy

Large business subsidy deals “will always be in the public” thanks to public votes to appropriate the funds, MEDC CEO Quentin Messer Jr. told Bridge early this year.

But there was plenty of behind-the-scenes negotiating.

Boosters of the deal dubbed themselves Team Michigan and ranked all 148 legislators on how likely they’d be to pass bills for the subsidies, according to an outreach plan document.

A total of 61 lawmakers were deemed “unlikely” supporters and provided little information. Those most likely to support the deal — nearly all of them Whitmer’s fellow Democrats — were listed as “first-tier” supporters.

The highest ranking was “legislative champion.” They signed NDAs, were involved in negotiations and included Sen. Sarah Anthony and Rep. Angela Witwer, Democrats who chaired appropriations committees that approved the megasite’s $259 million in incentives.

That’s more than 15 times what the state spends to market tourism. When the subsidy came to a vote in June 2024, no questions came from legislative committee members.

Two weeks before the votes, MEDC staff and Rossmaessler appeared during hearings in the House and Senate.

“Has there been any incentive offer extended to any potential end users for the site?” Rep. Bill Schuette Jr., R-Midland, asked during a hearing.

Hundt replied the state was working with “multiple companies” and said any incentive “would depend.”

He did not mention the $24 billion counter-offer made to Western Digital two weeks earlier, when documents indicate Whitmer touted the state at the Detroit Athletic Club to a room of company representatives.

Rep. Donni Steele, R-Lake Orion, asked whether the state would get its money back from the megasite.

“I’d hope we’re not giving it away,” she said.

She didn’t get an answer.

The state had already offered all 1,300 acres to Sandisk for free.

Maps shown to legislators showed no detail about homes and a school in the megasite’s path.

Falling apart

Rossmaessler texted concern to Mundy Township’s manager at 4:28 a.m. Nov. 6: “Are we absolutely screwed?”

Overnight, Donald Trump had won the presidency, putting federal subsidies for semiconductor factories in question. Republicans took back the state House, ending the Democratic trifecta in Michigan and opening a door to more cash-for-jobs deal scrutiny.

And Jennifer Stainton became the first Republican to win as Mundy Township supervisor in a century, beating Ketzler on an anti-megasite campaign and immediately canceling township NDAs.

Other signs of change were brewing. The US was recovering from the pandemic semiconductor shortage.

Then, “it took forever for the company to apply” for federal funding, Rep. Jasper Martus, D-Flushing, said of Sandisk.

Bureaucratic red tape kept Biden from signing off on it.

Township residents, though, were still discovering the reach of the megasite. In Maple Creek Preserve, site condo board members hosted a drain commission official in fall 2024 to hash out a long-ago title problem.

The concern was moot, the official said, because the megasite would take over the community.

Rhonda Miller and her neighbors were shocked.

None knew that in April, “Team Michigan” told Sandisk that, together, they could decide what would happen: they could systematically acquire Maple Creek and other nearby homes, or isolate it from the factories, maybe with “water features or berms.”

Sensitive to “incompatible uses,” the company wanted the subdivision gone, documents show.

By early spring 2025, the economic alliance took over the condo association board as it assumed ownership of 70% of the properties.

The group in charge of making offers to homeowners and winning over a company for the megasite also represented homeowners in a neighborhood. Although many houses remain standing in the subdivision, only a handful of residents haven’t moved out.

The complex project rolled on, the state turning over $61 million of the subsidy in May 2025 to cover dozens of pending property sales and demolitions.

Residents looked for clues and advocates. The state and the economic alliance forged ahead, the development letter of intent transferring to Sandisk after Western Digital spun it into a separate public company.

The community destruction, Ludwig said last fall, had been tough to stomach for an unknown company. Sandisk was identified only in July when it walked away from the megasite and the offer had climbed to $27 billion.

Behind the deal, supporters recall the shock and devastation.

“It was a huge blow,” recalled White of the Mott Foundation.

Conclusion

Even without a factory, work trods on.

In late February, a landmark farmhouse came down on the southeast corner of the megasite.

Heavy equipment is moving in March from east to west, still clearing the land. Holdout property owners like Julie Asselin remain, but are dwindling in number.

MEDC spokesperson Emerson told Bridge that “landowners are free to engage in the free market and sell their property, or not,” when presented with an offer.

However, the government “spending taxpayer money to buy people’s land in hopes of landing an aspirational and so far nonexistent factory is hardly the free market at work,” James Hohman of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free enterprise think tank, told Bridge.

The number of holdouts are dwindling. One owner was on the list of core properties from the very beginning, but still insists there won’t be a deal.

Asselin showed up at a recent Mundy Township board meeting upset. Another holdout, she lives on Maple Road where she said she doesn’t want to sell her 10 acres, but the site-clearing is getting close. And the road is in shambles, worsened by truck traffic.

She goes to the meetings to keep an eye on decision-making that she didn’t watch as the megasite launched during her late husband’s illness.

Asselin is skeptical of the state’s job claims, since automation and technology changes come fast. And she’s dismissive of Whitmer’s claim of a statewide housing shortage: “Then,” she asks, “why are you ripping all these houses out?”

The next deal could be smaller in value than Sandisk, Rossmaessler said, but the economic alliance is sticking to its criteria of finding a company to invest at least $2 billion and hire at least 2,000.

“We want to keep talking to members of our community about our efforts to prepare this site for a future project.”

Amid criticism of megasite secrecy, some local officials maintain that signing NDAs was their best move to know what was coming.

“We knew we couldn’t stop it in court,” former supervisor Ketzler told Bridge. “We had to protect our citizens as much as we could.”

“You’re not going to stop manufacturing in Mundy Township or anywhere in Genesee County,” she added.

White rejects that the NDAs created secrecy. But he said he hopes that, as the site progresses, “we do it in a better way” and involve the community.

Residents unfamiliar with the government “said that we made it easy for manufacturing to go in there,” Ketzler said. She said “nothing could be further from the truth,” adding that the behind-the-scenes negotiations helped taxpayers and would have ensured corporate payments to replace lost taxes.

Others counter that the state-funded property takeover is affecting regular people, residents of Michigan who may not bird-dog local government.

“We all want the information,” said Morey, the local farmer. “That information should have been communicated back to the residents and not kept behind closed doors.”

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This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.