Detroit could become a center of locally grown food and put large swaths of vacant land back on tax rolls under a proposal to create the city's first large commercial farm.Businessman John Hantz of Detroit, in an exclusive interview with the Free Press, unveiled his plans for Hantz Farms -- a concept that would convert hundreds, even thousands, of vacant parcels in the city into urban agriculture.
Offering jobs and an ability to produce fresh fruits and vegetables locally, Hantz Farms could help Detroit "become a destination for fresh, local and natural foods and become a major part of the green movement," Hantz said.
Detroit already is home to hundreds of smaller community gardens. But Hantz's proposal is the first to envision large-scale commercial farming.
He said he could grow everything from Christmas trees to fruits and vegetables, with amenities such as a cider mill or horseback riding available.
With an estimated 40 square miles of vacant parcels, Detroit offers many sites where, in theory, a big farm operation might work. Hantz, a resident of Detroit's Indian Village district, is tentatively looking at a blighted area near Eastern Market, but exact boundaries would depend on whether he wins the city's cooperation.
A look at the plan
George Jackson, the city's chief development officer and president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said he is evaluating Hantz's proposal.
"I'm going to look at this as I would any development deal," Jackson said.
Land assemblage remains a key question. Hantz owns several parcels in the city, but the vast majority of the acreage he needs for his project is
still either owned by private parties or is tax-foreclosed land owned by the city, county and state.
Hantz envisions the city, county and state donating the land to his project or selling it at a nominal cost. The payback would come in increase
d tax revenues once the farm is up and running.
Hantz is chief executive of Hantz Group, a network of financial services firms based in Southfield. He also owns the Detroit Ignition of the Xtreme Soccer League.
Vacant land solution?
Matt Allen, onetime press secretary to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, manages the project as senior vice president of Hantz Farms.
Allen said Hantz Farms is a good solution for vacant land.
"What is it worth to the city just sitting there? Nothing," he said. "Part of the approach to this is that, the larger this becomes, the benefit gets greater and greater faster."
Even as a concept, the idea is controversial.
Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, called Hantz Farms "a challenging and exciting opportunity."
But Rebecca Salminen Witt, president of the nonprofit Greening of Detroit, said small community plots do more good for Detroiters, helping knit communities together.
"Folks are hoping for, wishing for, looking for a silver bullet to the vast expanses of vacant space that we see in the city," Witt said. "And because of that, they want to say, 'Great, we'll just plunk a couple-of-hundred-acre growing operations here a
nd there.' "
Allen responded that there ought to be a place for both community gardens and commercial farms in Detroit.
"There's more than enough land to go around," he said.
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