St. Joseph City Commissioners are considering the approval of a new tax abatement to support the proposed Marquette on Lake Boulevard residential and commercial development downtown.
At their regular meeting on Monday, commissioners heard from Community Development Director Kelly Ewalt that the Marquette’s developers, the Rienks Group, are seeking the establishment of a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone for the parcels at 315 Lake Boulevard and 508 Pleasant Street. Ewalt told us the NEZ would enable the property owners to get a 15-year break on their property taxes, filling a gap not covered by the brownfield tax increment capture already planned there.
“It cuts the mills that they’ll be charged,” Ewalt said. “So it’s not — they’re not going to be paying as much property tax on it.”
Michigan Growth Advisors Managing Director Joe Agostinelli, working as a consultant for the Rienks Group, told commissioners this would cut the millage rate for the apartments portion of the development to half of the state’s average millage rate. It would not apply to the condos or commercial space.
Monday’s presentation was only informational, but Mayor Brook Thomas told us this NEZ proposal will have to be reviewed by commissioners.
“There’s still a long way to go with that whole thing,” Thomas said. “This is just one of those tools that our city has been able to take advantage of. There’s been several other things that we’ve approved over the past, I don’t know, several months with this project coming along. So I’m excited to see where we go from here. We’ve got more to approve in future meetings, so we’ll kind of see where it takes off.”
Commissioners were not asked to take any action just yet. The next step would be for Rienks to apply for the NEZ certificate, and then commissioners would consider establishing the zone. That could happen next month.
The Neighborhood Enterprise Zone would only cover the parcels of land to be part of the Maquette development.
If approved, this would be the first time the city of St. Joseph has ever established a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone. A proposal to do so back in 2011 failed due to citizen pushback.
As we’ve reported, the Marquette on Lake Boulevard, if completed, will stand at 80 feet tall, containing 68 apartments, 32 condos, a rooftop deck, commercial space on the ground, and two stories of underground parking with 180 spaces. Back in October, Peter Reinks of the Reinks Group told commissioners he was expecting financing for the Marquette to be in place in early 2026 and ground to be broken around May or June of 2026. The project would be complete two years after groundbreaking.
