About 700 acres was zoned industrial back in 1969 and planning meetings were on the front page of the local newspaper at the time.
Going back to the 1960s, numerous public meetings highlighted this property as an attractive location for industrial development, including an extensive Township Master Planning process in 2022 that planned the entire 2,000 acres as industrial for future land use.
A timeline summary of the development of BlueOval Battery Park and the MAJOR Campus is below:
1960s: Zoned Industrial: A private developer (Robert Gerholtz) asked that his property (over 700 acres) be zoned industrial (later owned by Ceres Partners), and it’s been zoned industrial ever since. Private and public efforts to recruit businesses to the site begins. (Link to 1969 Article).
1990s: Missed Opportunities: The Gerholtz Property was marketed to companies, most notably Alro Steel, but failure to recruit businesses to the site continues.
2006: 425 Agreements: To improve economic development coordination between Marshall Township and the City of Marshall, the two local governments work together to enact a 425 Master Agreement.
2000s: High-Profile Missed Opportunities: Option agreements for some key parcels begins. Toyota and Volkswagen visit in the early 2000s but the site was not yet competitive and Marshall lost out to other states.
2018: MEDC Marketing Partnership: The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) begins partnering on the site and produces a report documenting size, scope, maps of the future Blue Oval Site. The report is marketed on MEDC Zoom Prospector and MAEDA’s website.
2018: Options Agreements: MEDC provides funding for land acquisition and the owners of Ceres, Glotfelty and Bauer properties agree to enter option agreements (a total of 1,100 acres under option).
2019: MAEDA Website: A MAEDA webpage is officially dedicated to the Megasite and the MEDC promotional video of the Megasite was posted on that page. The video and market sheet are highlighted at Chamber community meetings. The property was marketed as a 1,600 acre site (now including 500 additional acres owned by the Sackrider family) in the video and promotional materials.
2019: Public Hearing on Strategic Site Planning: Calhoun County received funding from MEDC for strategic site planning of the Marshall Megasite. Calhoun County has a public hearing that outlines the Megasite in a map and accepts the funding.
2019: Chamber Economic Outlook Public Meeting: Burns and McDonnell lead a public discussion of the Marshall Megasite – that includes what is needed for strategic site planning and a presentation of the 1,600-acre site.
2021: Site Planning: Burns and McDonnell are hired to do strategic site planning and they do a public kickoff meeting to hear feedback from stakeholders from Marshall Township, City of Marshall, Calhoun County and other regional stakeholders.
2022: Township Master Plan: Future land use planning process under Marshall Township turned all MAJOR Campus properties (2,000 acres) into industrial zoning – public hearings completed in November 2022.
2022-23 425 Public Hearings: Township, City and County have multiple public hearings on 425 transfers and road abandonment. Most of the 2,000 acres of the MAJOR Campus is transferred to the City of Marshall for infrastructure development.
2023 Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan: Ford announces that the Michigan automaker has chosen the Marshall Township location as the site of their next EV battery manufacturing facility.