BSD may take new tack on vacancies

By David Hohendorf

The governing board of the Birmingham Business District (BSD) on January 5, voted to reject the latest applicants for the now open contract position of retail recruitment and move forward on a possible new path to finding a way to tap the expertise of the real estate community for filling vacant commercial space in the city's downtown area.

The BSD has been attempting to find a new retail recruitment firm to replace the most recent firm, CC Consulting, that had the contract until earlier this year when the tense relationship between the firm's principal, Cindy Ciura, and the city ended with the BSD withdrawing a one-year contract extension offer.

CC Consulting since 2019 had been acting on the city's behalf to help fill vacant retail spaces in the downtown of Birmingham.

The BSD Business Development Committee had suggested in April of this year that the contract with CC Consulting be extended one year but questions were raised about longstanding terms of the contract and the BSD board agreed to tighten up some portions of the contract, including codified terms of who the company would report to in the BSD structure as well as setting forth more specific goals of the types of businesses the city would prefer to see in the commercial mix of the downtown.

Past contracts with retail recruitment firms generally paid about $75,000 annually, including a monthly amount and performance commissions.

Although the BSD had offered a one-year extension of the contract with CC Consulting, principal Ciura objected to some of the new terms and questioned whether the city had paid her all funds due under a prior contract. The interim director of the BSD at that time, assistant city manager Jana Ecker, said that the city reviewed past payments to the firm and the city actually paid more than the annual cap of the contract allowed and no further payments would be made.

The BSD board ultimately decided to withdraw the earlier contract extension offer. At the same time, the BSD voted in August to promote the open position and received only two applications by the September deadline.

At the meeting Thursday, January 4, Business Development Committee co- chairperson Mike McKenzie told BSD board members that the committee was recommending that those responding to the latest RFP effort be rejected because they were “suboptimal.” McKenzie also said the panel was looking into creating an “incentive-based program” for local brokers in an effort to build a recruitment team approach to fill retail vacancies. The new possible approach will be reviewed by the city attorney and a new “scaled-down RFP” would be issued in the future.

McKenzie also said the committee was almost done with an analysis of the existing mix of retail in the downtown area which would be part of future efforts to bring businesses to the downtown area.

The BSD board approved on a unanimous voice vote the committee's recommendation to reject proposals received by the September 28 deadline.

Long Lake sewer project to take longer

By Lisa Brody

To the despair of drivers in Bloomfield Township, the Long Lake Road sanitary sewer replacement, which began September 9, is taking longer than expected, with Long Lake Road not projected to be reopened until the end of January.

It was scheduled to be reopened in late November.

The roadway is fully closed for a stretch just east and west of Groton Road, Pine Tree Trail and the western jog of Franklin Road.

According to communications from Bloomfield Township, as the project progressed, it changed to also include replacing the water main within the project area. Originally, it included replacing the failing sanitary sewer. Current projections are that the sanitary sewer work was completed by the end of December, and the water main should be completed and put back into service. Next, Long Lake Road will be patched and reopened to regular traffic prior to the end of January.

According to the township's engineering and environmental services department, restoration work, such as the paving of Pine Tree Trail and Groton Road, as well as the replacement of the safety path along the south side of Long Lake Road and replacement of trees and grass will not be completed until spring 2023.