• Demolition will start in April in a 90-home subdivision in Genesee County to make room for a state-funded ‘megasite’
• Most houses have been sold and emptied, with township officials saying that creates a hazard
• Concern for remaining homeowners and the lack of a use for the site leaves critics saying the site should not yet be cleared

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MUNDY TOWNSHIP — Demolition will start this month on a suburban Flint subdivision where most of the houses were bought with $261 million in state money to fund Michigan’s first speculative megasite for development.

The planned razing of dozens of empty homes is the latest step in a yearslong effort to prepare the site for a large-scale development that has yet to materialize.

The process has been contentious among much of the community — including some homeowners who have neither sold nor moved out — but is supported by regional business leaders and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration. 

Mundy Township officials are requesting the demolitions in Maple Creek Preserve, saying that “dozens of these properties are unoccupied and, in many cases, have become uninhabitable,” after power and water services were eliminated.

“Prolonged and increasing vacancy constitutes a serious threat to public health, safety, and welfare,” Township Manager Chad Young wrote in a March 17 letter to the Flint and Genesee Economic Alliance.

The move is controversial, however. State Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, contends the state — which is suffering from a housing crisis and still awaiting a deal for the megasite — should step in to halt demolition.

“The idea that we need to destroy these houses, which is just a small portion of the (megasite’s) overall two square miles, is something that I believe is irresponsible and a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Carra said March 28 while meeting with township residents at the site.

Maple Creek Preserve is at the northwest corner of about 1,300 contiguous acres in Genesee County near Flint’s Bishop Airport. Documents obtained by Bridge Michigan show the property has been earmarked for large-scale industrial development since 2022. 

But as a recent Bridge investigation into the secret megasite deal found, homeowners did not learn that their properties would be targeted for purchase and demolition until two years later. Read the series:

• Michigan’s secret $261M plan to raze homes for megafactory that never came
• Homeowners ‘hijacked’ by Michigan megasite: Sell or live next to factory
• Michigan Gov. Whitmer pushes for subsidies, as $261M megasite awaits deal
• Genesee County leaders still bullish on megasite’s potential, despite setbacks

Most of the megasite costs covered by the state will be used for property purchase and demolition. While economic developers characterized the land as largely agricultural, it also is home to 165 houses and a public elementary school. The immediate area also is residential, with well over 1,000 additional homes surrounding the site.

Since 2024, the economic alliance, working with the Michigan Economic Development Corp., has been buying the Maple Creek houses along with other properties. Today, it owns all but a handful of homes and it controls the neighborhood association.

When cleared, the megasite is expected to “create job opportunities and economic activity that will benefit our entire region,” Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the economic alliance, said in a statement.

Acquiring homes

The megasite property was first proposed with about 981 acres, comprising farmland. 

However, Bridge’s investigation showed that negotiations with Western Digital in 2024 resulted in the semiconductor-maker telling the state that it wanted the full two-mile span — including the subdivision, despite the option offered by the state of setting it off with berms.

It doesn’t make sense to tear down “perfectly fine houses,” said Carra, the GOP state lawmaker, who argued the planned demolitions conflict with Whitmer administration efforts to address a housing shortage. 

Michigan spent $275 million on a housing plan in 2024. Whitmer also announced a $1.4 billion plan to build and rehabilitate housing across the state, saying Michigan was short about 119,000 homes.

“It’s not only a waste of taxpayers’ dollars, but an injury to the community,” Carra said. 

In Mundy Township, the state eventually came to an initial deal with Western Digital’s public spinoff Sandisk, planning to give it the megasite as part of a $27 billion subsidy for a $63 billion semiconductor production complex.

However, that deal fell through. Sandisk walked away in July 2025, when details first became public. 

As the economic alliance approached homeowners, some resisted. Today, Rhonda Miller is among just a few people who decided not to sell.

She’s wary of the development plans and says the neighborhood shouldn’t come down around her when she still owns a portion of the common areas, like the roads. 

Construction traffic already is moving through the neighborhood, Miller said, adding that she expects her living conditions to worsen when construction starts.

“They’re still collecting HOA fees,” she said of the economic alliance-controlled board. “While there’s zero maintenance being done.”

Pushing ahead the demolition

Documents provided by Mundy Township show that local officials have been discussing the state of the neighborhood since early in the year.

Chief Matthew J. Bade of the Metropolitan Police Authority wrote February 19 that he’d been told that demolition was initially planned for April 2027.

He recommended a shorter timeline, possibly with “additional security measures around the subdivision.”

On the same day, a township building official wrote to Young that plans to demolish up to 90 properties in February had been delayed until March, but with “additional uncertainty … until total ownership of all properties is obtained.”

That created a problem, the official wrote, with trespassing, squatting and vandalism possible, along with delayed emergency response for remaining residents.

In response, Rossmaessler told Bridge, demolition of the subdivision is now beginning in April. Dozens of other homes around the megasite’s perimeter already have been demolished as razing continued over the winter.

Lurvey Construction of Flint is contracted through October for the tear-downs. Undetermined so far is the degree to which materials could be reused; some of the houses were built within the past five years. 

“We are regularly communicating with Genesee County Habitat for Humanity to determine their use for materials, including everything from windows to doors to foam board,” Rossmaessler said.

Carra, a frequent critic of business subsidies, told residents he wanted Attorney General Dana Nessel to step in and halt any demolition plans. He’d also urged a similar move in late 2025.

However, a spokesman for Nessel’s office told Bridge that she “cannot issue” the kind of injunctive order a court could.

The megasite remains marketed for advanced manufacturing. Rossmaessler said recently the economic alliance wants it to be home to at least 2,000 jobs, and it is not considering the property for data centers. 

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