Unity Studios faces eviction, shame
By the following May, Allen Park would have Unity Studios on the ropes. Wayne County was undoubtedly listening, as they had contributed a $3 million Recovery Zone bond (on top of $25.3 million Allen Park borrowed in general obligation bonds). The city issued a “Notice To Quit,” which was part of a lease default procedure which could lead to eviction.
Mayor Gary Burtka began to distance his comments from the studio itself, focusing on the surrounding property as a whole.
Arguments over back rent payments began to tense both parties, with each ensuing argument resulting in more industry uncertainty: locally as well as the statewide level, where legislators were starting to consider scaling back available film credits. Patience was still recommended as the solution. “The laws were put into place,” according to legislator Doug Geiss. “We need to let them gel.”
It would only take until September 2010 for the announcement to come that Unity Studios elected an opt-out clause in their contract and moved their operations to the Wayne State University campus. No new buildings of note had been constructed, and Allen Park would be responsible for all the remaining bond payments, while Unity still owed the city $764,535. This, along with depressed economic conditions, would force Governor Rick Snyder to issue an Emergency Manager declaration in 2012, the third such issuance in Downriver history. Joyce Parker, former Emergency Financial Manager in Ecorse, would take the reins of the city operations until 2014.
Oversight final straw for troubled Pinnacle
In June 2010, the Huron Township School District – almost matter-of-factly – called the Huron Township offices to complain about a tax payment oversight. The oversight was huge: Pinnacle Raceway had not contributed a dime of taxes to the schools. So the matter would be simply resolved, with notices filed to Pinnacle and the taxes paid? The answer would be no, on a disturbing technicality. Wayne County showed the tax bill was paid up. It would all come down to the Wayne County Land Bank: a misfiling of the Pinnacle land to such, and as a result, a gross misclassification. Pinnacle’s ownership technically could not exist in a land bank format which, in this case, was still a Brownfield Zone. In spite of tax records declaring arrears, there was legally nothing to pay. But this would not prove to be the end of this matter.
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