The following comment was provided by Hartland Township – explaining their view why Turnin 2 abandoned its approved and under construction project. The Township’s current response is appreciated, and is provided without edit below (in blue type).
Previous HBA coverage regarding Turnin 2 relied on publicly available information reported by the Brighton Argus. It is now apparent that the likely reason why the project was abandoned went unreported – in fact, it is apparent that in order to shield the developer from reporting regarding financial reverses, the public was misled by the failure of the press or the Township to report the true facts. That this was done to avoid embarrassing the developer does not help – the result was misleading – the truth (perhaps gently presented) would have been better. However, HBA apologizes to our members if we contributed to the incomplete reporting of this story.
Turnin 2 was a proposed and approved softball complex on the south side of Clyde Road, west of US 23. The individual building the complex had 2 daughters whom were very active in softball and his dream was to build a state of the art complex here in Michigan so he would not have to travel as much around the Midwest for excellent facilities and competition.
The project was on course and actually started construction with the footings being installed. The site also had some steel and other building material delivered. The complex was going to have two state of the art artificial turf fields like those at UM and an indoor practice facility for off season training. The future use of that building was light industrial, which is in line with the future land use of that parcel at the time. I believe construction started in the fall of 2015. The complex was scheduled to open in fall 2016.
Turnin 2 had proposed lighting some fields and some of the neighbors had concerns. Turnin 2 withdrew the lighting idea as they had concerns over the cost to construct the lights and if they could receive a return on their investment. Their business model did not depend on lighting and it was not part of their original plan.
Unfortunately some personal issues out of the developers control halted the project in the spring of 2016. Due to that, the development of Turnin 2 was halted. The Township has worked with the developer and there are some new interested parties in the site to complete the building. The Township recently rezoned that 90 parcel to Light Industrial, consistent with the future land use map.