Saline MI
8-17-2015 1:52am

Downtown Saline's Most Invested Property Owner Weighs in on the Issues

He lives in Ann Arbor and his office is in Ypsilanti, but Bill Kinley has his finger on the pulse of Saline more than most Saline residents. Recently he spoke to the Post about his vision for the city.

Kinley owns numerous Saline buildings, including Murphy’s Crossing, Merchant Square and Brecon Grille. He is co-owner of The Oaks shopping center. In addition, his construction company built the City Hall/police station building and the Brecon Village Memory Support Center.

He also has holdings in other Washtenaw County towns, but he says, “there’s probably more of a critical mass in Saline than anyplace else.”

It all began in the early 1990s when he learned about the potential of the buildings now called Murphy’s Crossing. He thought of entering a partnership with the owner, but decided, “it wasn’t going to be a good match.” About a year later the owner decided to sell it.

“I guess it just seemed like an opportune time for the building and my construction company and I really liked Saline,” Kinley said. “Saline is just a wonderful welcoming community. I’m from a small town in Ohio that has some farming history and certainly Saline has that so I felt immediately very much at home and liked everybody I’ve dealt with all along the line, so it’s been a good match.”

The Murphy’s Corner buildings were in a sorry state in 1994 when Kinley bought them. The building that now houses Mac’s restaurant was mostly vacant and when it rained, water leaked all the way through to the basement.

Kinley’s company completely removed the crumbling brick on the back side of the Mac’s building, making it look like a dollhouse before the wall was rebuilt. They also dug the basement of Mac’s about 18 inches deeper and extended it, creating a new basement beneath the adjacent buildings on South Ann Arbor Street. This extension included the public bathrooms now below Maureen’s flower shop.

The work on Murphy’s Corner required considerable coordination and compromise with city officials. Both Kinley and the city believe that the result was a win-win.

This experience gave Kinley a positive view of Saline’s government.

“The city is well run, it’s got a very conscientious city manager and mayor and council and they’re very carful with their money,” Kinley said.

So what does he think of the city’s future?

There are many things he likes about Saline’s growth so far. He feels that the expansion of Evangelical Home combined with the Brecon Village facilities are a good draw for seniors to the area. He thinks shopping in Saline, especially for home goods and decorative items is exceptional. And of course Saline has great restaurants.

The high tech companies, such as Quantum Signal and the businesses located above Mac’s have come to Saline partly because of the coffee shops and eateries. Kinley says downtown office space is in high demand.

But he also says more needs to be done to draw people in. He is happy with the recent opening of Salt Springs Brewery, which he believes will draw in a younger demographic.

“The key is to have enough activities, eating and drinking establishments, places to shop that draw people that then are there for one thing and take advantage of another,” Kinley said.

Of course these people will need a place to park. Kinley was an early advocate for enforced parking time limits, but not all of his tenants agreed. Parking enforcement has been a subject of much debate for the past several months in city council.

“What they have moved to recently - and that is to expand the all-day spaces in parking lot 2 and in parking lot 4 - I think is a good move,” Kinley said. “I am very very adamant that employees and owners of businesses in my buildings and by extension, I think, all the businesses downtown, the owners and employees should park way away from the customer parking.”

Kinley would also like more parking places and he sees the best opportunity in the northwest quadrant of the four corners, in back of Key Bank. He says that lot 5 on McKay Street is overlooked and underutilized and it could be significantly expanded.

More than 15 years ago, the city removed a structure and cobbled together parts of properties from several landowners to create the large parking area known as lot 2 behind Murphy’s Corner.

“They assembled all that land, did a great job of planning all that, putting in all underground utilities and suddenly there’s great accessible public parking,” Kinley said.

In Kinley’s view, that kind of careful planning, creativity and political willpower could be applied to the area behind Key Bank. It is already “a sea of asphalt,” but much of the area is poorly utilized and not available for public parking.

Most residents look forward to a renewed Michigan Avenue, but many are dreading the reconstruction process set to take place next year. Kinley says he doesn’t want to sound Pollyannaish, but he is not too worried.

“I think that they’re doing very careful planning for promotional ways to let people know that downtown will still be open for business,” Kinley said. “My belief is that it will be less a challenge for businesses than might be imagined.”

He noted that many downtown businesses already have convenient access from the back. For example, Merchant Square has access from city lot 1 and Murphy’s crossing from city lot 2. Those lots will remain open during the construction.

City Council has recently debated rehabilitation of the plaza area called Merchant Park, behind Reincarnations. Tree roots have raised the pavement and some retaining walls are crumbling. This property is owned by Kinley and leased by the city for a dollar a year.

Kinley says that he is making a financial contribution to the project, but what is ultimately done will be up to the city.       

   

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