Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is poised to sign a $62.8 billion budget bill that includes a $30.3 million allocation to the city of Saginaw toward a $100 million plan to develop its riverfront into a medical hub only rivaled in the state by metro Detroit and Grand Rapids.
The funds would go toward infrastructure improvements, which include moving overhead power lines into the Saginaw River, so the region can develop the dilapidated properties surrounding Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital, Covenant Healthcare’s 643-bed acute care hospital, on both sides of the river downtown.
“Poverty is real here — urban and rural,” said Veronica Horn, chair of the region’s economic development agency Saginaw Future and president of the Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve long known we need to improve health care access and services. When the autos started to decline here, we felt the pain 10 years before Detroit. We have been fighting for years to not just get economic development here, but for services in our community and to our rural and urban populations.”
Details of the plan are scant as the city looks to partner to develop the properties and expand the area, designated the “Medical Diamond,” which extends from Court Street to the south, Ascension St. Mary’s to the east, I-675 to the north and Covenant Medical Center to the west. But the allocated funds are earmarked to incentivize Central Michigan University College of Medicine, which already operates in the area, to expand along the city’s riverfront.
Officials believe the public funds will help move the logjam and spur not only CMU, but others to move forward on the plan more than two decades in the making. It’s hoped new investment will transform the area and attract more medical education, services and investment that holds the potential to give Saginaw a much-needed economic boost.
Read More: Saginaw looks to ramp up ‘Medical Diamond’ with $30M boost