Kildee tells Land Bank doubters: 'We told you so' at opening of Flint's Oak Street Apartments

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp., got a chance to say, "I told you so," during an appearance in Flint Friday, Sept. 26, and didn't let it pass.

Speaking at a grand opening for Oak Street Senior Apartments, Kildee, the former chairman of the Genesee County Land Bank, remembered back to 2005 -- a time when the same property was boarded up and empty and the Land Bank accepted it as a gift from the Flint School District.

Kildee said a Flint Journal story at the time raised questions about the Land Bank's ability to redevelop the old Durant Hotel, Great Lakes Technology Center, and what was then a shuttered Oak School as well as maintaining hundreds of other abandoned properties lost through tax foreclosure.

Kildee has been a leading advocate for land banks such as the one he helped to form here in 2002.

"We told you so ... All three of those buildings have gone from being a drain on our tax base to successful redevelopment,” Kildee said. "You have to have a vision. You have to have a plan."