No applications yet in Muskegon

MUSKEGON — Last year the federal government allocated up to $20.8 million in ARRA bonds for use by private investment projects in Muskegon County, but apparently no formal applications have been received.

“We don’t have any in hand yet,” said Karen Benson, business development manager at Muskegon Area First, which was asked to administer the ARRA bond application process on behalf of Muskegon County.

Benson said there have been inquiries from “people that have verbally said they have things going on” and are interested in the bonds.”

She said she could not divulge any details about the interested parties.

Last October, she said fees entailed would probably make the ARRA bond financing impractical for any project costing less than $2 million.

Last week she said there have been inquiries from existing businesses in Muskegon County and “two or three” inquiries from outside the county, by parties “that may be looking to do projects here, but “nothing has come to fruition yet.”

She said it takes four to six months to process an ARRA bond application, and since those bonds have to be issued by Dec. 31, the middle of the year “will be kind of the drop dead date” for applying.

She said it was possible some parties had applied directly to Muskegon County, but Bonnie B. Hammersley, Muskegon County administrator, said no applications had been received for ARRA bonds for private ventures.