Downtown Flint Hilton Garden Inn

About the project

The Uptown Reinvestment Corporation (URC) is a nonprofit development organization started in 1999 and dedicated to revitalizing downtown Flint, Michigan. The URC's mission is to bring together all downtown interests in a broad-based coalition; support existing businesses and encourage entrepreneurial business development in the downtown Flint business district; enhance the public infrastructure and improve aesthetics; increase downtown residency; develop the downtown into an attractive area for business, employment, and entertainment; and improve and revitalize the downtown district. The URC's reinvestment strategy is premised on the idea that many small, locally based initiatives and decisions will, over time, result in sustainable and significant improvements for downtown without the need for massive, single-project developments.

URC is located in Flint, Michigan. The geographic focus of its work is the downtown business district, centered on Saginaw Street south of the Flint River and bordered by Interstates 475 and 69 to the east and south.

URC and LISC partnered on the adaptive re-use of a former bank building in downtown Flint. A $4.07 million LISC construction loan enabled URC to transform the building into a 102-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel, which features a restaurant and lounge, meeting spaces, and more. The project created 75 construction jobs and 70 permanent jobs within a low-income, predominantly minority census tract.