By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The Livingston County Veterans Services Committee is pursuing a new site to hopefully relocate its offices and better serve local veterans.

The Committee met virtually Wednesday evening and discussed priorities for 2021, which includes signing a lease for a new office by the end of February. Also at play are $104,215 in grant funds that were awarded in 2020 by the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency for office relocation and expansion. Those funds must be expended by April 30th or could be forfeited. The grant is to be utilized solely for the goal of enhancing and improving county veteran service operations to connect veterans with their benefits. Director Mary Durst commented that she felt it was best to go ahead and pick a good spot and hope it works out, otherwise there is high risk of losing that money.

Veterans Services is currently located in the County’s East Complex building at 2300 East Grand River Avenue in Howell. Some past sites being considered for a new space fell through but two new sites in Genoa Township were identified. The first was the Iron Grip Ninja building, located next to the Secretary of State’s Office in the Genoa Square development totaling 5,000-square-feet. The other was the old Flag Star building in the Howell Grand Plaza near Latson Road that totals 3,120-square-feet and has a new roof and was described as a solid spot. Those were deemed the most promising as they’re already empty and basically a blank slate.

Members favored the Iron Grip Ninja building for various reasons including better visibility, larger square footage and less retrofitting required. Around $9 per square foot is proposed for the space, which was said to be around $3 less per square foot than anything else the committee has looked at. The lease would be roughly $65,000 a year, or $5,416 a month in rent, with 2% annual increases and the first three months of rent free. It was further stated that the space already has two bathrooms and water fountains, which was estimated to cost roughly $40,000 to build out of pocket at a different site. The building was said to have more useable space in general to expand offices and better accommodate wheelchairs. There’s also dedicated parking and a classroom that could be used for things such as VA presentations or classes. A built in garage door would allow the department’s van to be kept indoors in the winter and the space used for different activities in warmer months.

For the old Flag Star building, that lease was pegged around $4,160 per month. The Iron Grip lease would cost roughly $1,256 more a month but was also stated to have the cheapest price per square foot they’ve been able to find anywhere so far.

Committee Chair Joe Riker commented that the company lowering the square footage cost to get the price closer to where they wanted plus all of the different benefits including I-96 frontage, the garage door and potential to do more with the extra space all come into play.

Member Bruce Hundley also preferred the Ninja location, noting the thousands of people going in and out of the Secretary of State’s Office and said he liked the idea of the office being by Kohl’s and coffee shops, which get a lot of traffic. Although there might not be cars going up and down directly in front of it, he noted they would have signage on Grand River as well as the back of the building with I-96 frontage.

Various negotiations for the property and lease still need to take place, including discussions about insurance, taxes and maintenance. A motion was approved unanimously for the director to pursue a letter of interest for the Iron Grip Ninja property.