The DeNooyer family of automobile dealers has been a part of the Michigan landscape for more than 70 years and now they own a piece of Benton Charter Township landscape with extremely high visibility along Interstate-94, but have yet to reveal exactly what plans they might have for that property.
Benton Township Superintendent Kelli Nelson told Township Trustees tonight that the DeNooyer Automotive group, which is based in Kalamazoo, has completed the deal to purchase the property that was the long time home to the former Benton Harbor Holiday Inn Holidome and other lodging facilities until it was demolished to rid the community of the blight it had become.
DeNooyer family members were first identified back in July as having taken an option on the nearly 10-acre parcels in the southwest quadrant of the I-94 interchange with M-139 in Benton Township. Since that time, they have been performing their due diligence on the property that they had settled on a price of $390,000 for according to Benton Township Attorney Jessica Fette.
After beginning that process, representatives of the auto dealership group asked for, and received, a 45-day extension on the period in which they could continue their investigation, during which they had also planned to perform environmental assessment testing in light of a former gasoline service station which had occupied a small portion of the acreage.
Later in the assessment process, DeNooyer reps also sought the assistance of the Berrien County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to recapture some of the costs of the environmental testing on the site.
Benton Township had purchased the prime property in order to demolish the seriously decaying hotel which had become a significant eyesore on a major gateway into the community. The building was demolished and turned back into an open field before being placed back onto the open market. The cost to the township to get the property ready to sell had been tabbed in July at just over $62,500 by Township Superintendent Kelli Nelson. After real estate commissions the township is in line to profit by nearly $300,000 for their work to get rid of the blight.
DeNooyer, meanwhile, gets a prime chunk of real estate, which was discovered by a couple of family members who have summer homes in Bridgman and figured that the land would be a good investment one way or another. Officials from the auto dealer group have said since day one that they don't have any immediate plans for the property, although that might well change now that they have taken ownership of the land.
I captured the photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market.com shortly after DeNooyer took an option on the property in July, but the car carrier semi shown in the photo was simply using the space for a rest stop and to my knowledge is not linked to the DeNooyer dealership.
