Apartment Complex, Day Care, Planned For Creamery Project

We have a better idea of what a proposed urban redevelopment project at Portage Road and Lake Street will look like. The former Kalamazoo Creamery project is moving forward. MLive reports of artists' drawings of the planned mixed/multi-use apartment complex with child care have been released.

The original plan was to have commercial use on the first floor. The latest reports says there will be 48 apartment units planned for the site, and a child care unit will be included. In 2018, the MSHDA Board approved loans for a $14.3 million development deal that included financial support from the Michigan Strategic Fund. The Kalamazoo YWCA was announced as the provider of day care for the project.

The City hopes the project will further help the struggling Edison neighborhood.

The site at Portage and Lake Streets started out as the Union Brewery, and then with the start of Prohibition, transformed into the Kalamazoo Creamery. It served up milk and dairy products, under the "Klover Gold" brand name, through most of the rest of the century before finally being razed in 2011.