Whitmer’s semiconductor dreams near Flint become nightmare for neighbors

• Michigan has invested at least $260 million toward buying land southwest of Flint to create an industrial ‘megasite’
• Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is publicly lobbying for a semiconductor factory on the property, saying it could mean  thousands of new jobs
• Neighbors are angry that they didn’t have a say and that about 165 homes are targeted for demolition for a mystery company

MUNDY TOWNSHIP — Acres of farmland just south of Flint’s Bishop Airport seem as serene as any in Michigan’s small towns. 

That peace may not last. 

At 1,180 acres, the land is Michigan’s largest active industrial development site, and the state is in the process of acquiring and demolishing about 165 houses within it for a megasite to lure big developers.

The price tag: About $260 million in taxpayer money, according to state documents.

After investing at least $1 billion in subsidies for now-stalled electric battery factories, Michigan officials want to clear the site to land a semiconductor fabrication facility. Such a project could produce thousands of jobs making chips that help power phones, cars and computers.

“Let’s land and start building a chip plant in Michigan by the end of next year,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said the Mackinac Policy Conference — echoing a message she made a week earlier at Kettering University.

But like similar ventures with electric vehicle plants, Michigan’s plans for a fabrication site face significant headwinds. Some local elected officials now oppose the effort, and President Donald Trump says he won’t support direct federal funding for semiconductor facilities. 

“They’re going to rip down all these houses for a company that we don't know who it is,” said Steven Philips, who has lived across from the site for 30 years. 

“Politicians, starting at our township and the governor, made a choice that they’re going to do this. We had no say in it. At all.”

No deal has been signed yet, though signs point to interest from semiconductor giant Sandisk. Its CEO David Goeckeler and other company officials have registered with the state as lobbyists.

A large-scale project could help jumpstart manufacturing in Genesee County, where 55% of the workforce worked in the industry in 1990 and now only 13.7% do.

Neighbors worry about more than jobs. A deal to sell an elementary school within the megasite could happen this month. Who will sell their house next? What will life be like if the fields become factories?

Mundy officials have plenty of questions and ultimately would have to approve any details of any project.

Officials “can say they just don’t think it fits the spirit and intent (of what’s allowed),” said Chad Young, township manager.

Watching it take shape

Semiconductor fabs are highly complex manufacturing operations, used to make chips by etching silicon wafers with trillions of transistors to produce the microprocessors used in electronic devices like phones, computers and vehicles. 

The CHIPS Act in 2022 dedicated $52 billion toward increasing US production of the devices. Trump is renegotiating some of those grants — calling them “overly generous” — and says companies should manufacture chips in the US to avoid paying tariffs.

Michigan's biggest subsidy efforts have focused on EV battery plants — many of which are paused amid slowing demand. 

The chip industry is growing, and Michigan already is home to SK Siltron, which expanded near Bay City, and Hemlock Semiconductor, which is expanding with majority owner Corning Inc. in Saginaw County.

Related:

• Gretchen Whitmer’s big goal: A Michigan chip plant before she leaves office
• With Flint megasite deal, Michigan tops $1B in spending on development land
• Michigan invests $5M to turn 3 properties into 'build-ready' mega sites

The Mundy site, near rail, airports and highways, is nearly ready. Young said it has major utilities and industrial infrastructure. 

Public investment began years ago via the Michigan Economic Development Corp., which funded land acquisitions by the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance. At least $140 million in public money already has been spent buying land, documents obtained by Bridge show. 

“For Michigan to retain and gain a competitive advantage in business attraction expansion projects, it must assist with the development and enhancement of sites to make them investment ready and competitive for site selection," Quentin Messer Jr., CEO of the MEDC said in 2023.

In all, Michigan has allocated at least $260 million for land preparation, records show. At the end of April, the local economic development group owned 1,180 acres and had pending deals with 60 owners. 

“We have done something that’s very hard to do in Michigan – assemble more than 1,000 acres of land for a project,” Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance, told Bridge. 

Business leaders are “excited about the enormous potential,” according to a letter of support from 30-plus groups. 

Among them are labor groups and companies already working on the site, like Cooper Commercial and Lurvey Construction. Another is the CS Mott Foundation, which funded $750,000 of the megasite development, state records say.

The megasite’s size and access to utilities and transportation corridors have “put Flint back on the map,”  Mott Foundation President and CEO Ridgway White said in 2024. 

(Editor’s note: The Mott Foundation is a Bridge Michigan funder. It had no role in the reporting, writing or editing of this article.)

Waiting and wondering

The megasite became possible in Mundy in February 2023 after the township approved a special overlay district to the rural residential and agricultural zoning. Officials – who’d also signed non-disclosure agreements with the MEDC — said it would give the township some control over building sizes and appearances. 

News started trickling out as property owners sought deals and then houses started to come down. Opponents say they aren’t anti-job, but feel the project was conceived with little public input about how it would affect the community.

Frustrations prompted residents like Don Ludwig to organize more scrutiny and opposition, like discovering a wetland violation on the megasite recently cited by the state environmental authorities.

Residents might feel differently today about the jobs promises if “they had come to the community and said, ‘Hey, we're offering you two times the value of your home,’” Ludwig said. “I think I could have accepted it because I am for job growth. 

“But how it all went about was the wrong way.”

In November, frustration over the project led residents to oust the former supervisor, electing Republican Jennifer Stainton and other anti-megasite trustees. 

Stainton worries about possible water contamination and property values for homes left outside the acquisition zone. She also questions whether local taxpayers will subsidize companies further, beyond the state's outlays. 

“As soon as they tear a house down, the next door neighbor calls (to sell) because then reality hits. It is happening to them,” Ludwig said. 

“Nobody knows what's going to happen,” he said. “It's really no way to live.”

Next steps

Whitmer continues to lobby for the fab and has urged residents to contact state and federal lawmakers. She’s also pushing to renew state incentive programs, which have stalled amid growing skepticism about subsidies.

“We cannot sit on our hands while other states and countries without our manufacturing advantages pass us by,” Whitmer said during her Kettering address.

“Let’s add more tools to our toolbox to bring jobs home and keep them here.” 

Republicans in the Legislature haven’t said whether the caucus would support subsidies for a semiconductor facility.

“If I have it my way, we won't do it,” said Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments. 

He said state Republicans are moving “toward opposing corporate handouts, picking winners and losers, and what I believe is just a misuse of taxpayer resources.”

Either way, property development continues, with more purchases and demolition. If the site doesn’t become a fab, it “could be used by a variety of advanced manufacturers,” Rossmaessler said. 

Yet distrust isn’t abating among township residents, who say silence around years of planning has left many “in total shock and disbelief” that the government created the megasite, said Stainton, the Mundy Township supervisor.

Stainton went to a recent Swartz Creek school board meeting, begging officials to address the silence around the future of Morrish Elementary School within the megasite zone. 

Hundreds of children attend, with families unclear over whether the school will be relocated.

“As a responsibility to your community, you need to let them know something,” Stainton said, gaining support from some trustees.

Swartz Creek Schools Superintendent Rod Hetherton said an offer for Morrish is pending, possibly by the June 25 meeting. 

While Stainton actively monitors activities related to the project,  she also says she can’t take action “until they can put a plan in front of me and say, ‘This is what we want to build. This is what we're going to do.’”

The demolition may be accelerating sales of the smaller lots, Ludwig said, as people recognize how close the megasite is coming to their homes. He’s listed his house for $3.8 million after getting an offer for $475,000, to make the point that he didn’t want to move for the megasite. 

“I just keep watching,” Ludwig said, “and stay in limbo.”