A new plan is in the works at the site of the BC Cobb power plant in Muskegon, which was shut down in April. Consumer's Energy received proposals from five bidders and now one of those developers has been chosen.
"Future use" studies indicate the 300-acre site should somehow be related to expanding the port.
The City of Muskegon rezoned the site to be a waterfront related zoning area. That means, whatever is built, will only gain approval if it deals with a port-related activity. The substation will stay in the same location and Consumers Energy will still own the ash storage facilities.
"Even if we do divest this and have a company acquire it, we're going to remain involved in the community," Consumer Energy Senior Public Information Director Roger Morgenstern said. "We're going to still help the community transition because we're not-- we as a company are not going anywhere.
"The Cobb plant will be gone but we've been in Michigan for 130 years, we've been in Muskegon I would guess probably close to 100 years. So, we're still going to be apart of the community and we want to make sure this happens in an orderly way and in a way that helps benefit all of Muskegon."
Not much is known about the bidder except that Consumers Energy said it has experience in redeveloping industrial sites.
Consumers said this company supports the needs of the Muskegon community as well as the site's future use studies.
The negotiations with the developer should be completed within the next six months. The site will need to be cleaned up before it is demolished in early 2017.