[ad_1]
SAGINAW, MI — When the sun goes down, the old grain storage silos stand dormant in the dark, towering within eyeshot of Saginaw’s Old Town nightlife district.
In the daylight, the 70-year-old structures remain nearly as invisible to some passersby, even in the long shadows cast by the 150-foot-tall, concrete-and-steel façades.
There were times — in the past — when Mark Flegenheimer could not see the silos either. It’s been years since the massive storage depot was used for its original purpose. Left unattended and rusting along the riverside rail tracks, the series of massive cylindrical structures somehow became simultaneously an eyesore and invisible.
“When I tell people about the project, some are like, ‘Where? Huh?,’ and they get this kind of blank look on their face,” said Flegenheimer, the retired president of Michigan Sugar Company. “I don’t know if people block out the silos or what. They’ve been there so long, doing nothing.”
But Flegenheimer sees the silos now. That “project” he tells people about: It’s a vision of the structures’ future, and it involves making the world look at them. With awe.
“It will be iconic,” the Saginaw Township man said.
Flegenheimer and a partner in the plan are in the late development stages of a $750,000 project they said by next spring will transform the addled site into the canvas for a colossal piece of public art; the second-largest mural in the United States, by their estimation.
Already, the developers are in the late stages of contracting the job to a Madrid muralist, famous for applying his brush stroke to once-abandoned structures across the world.
“Think of it in these terms: What is it that Saginaw has on a national basis — if not a worldly basis — that is considered the very best,” said Larry Preston, Flegenheimer’s development partner. “This will give us that. So, from that perspective — iconic? — yes, it will be iconic.”
Nostalgia for the future
Flegenheimer found the inspiration for the idea during a trip five years ago to his alma mater, DePauw University. From his student years at the private college in Greencastle, Indiana, he recalled silos there he remembered once as eyesores.
“Then I came to town to make a presentation to a class, and as I was coming over a hill, I was greeted by these silos that now had this gorgeous mural on them,” he said. “I told myself, ‘If the folks in Greencastle can pull this off here, we can do this in Saginaw.’”
There remains plenty of work to do on the ground first in Saginaw, both Flegenheimer and Preston admitted.
“But this is going to happen,” Flegenheimer said. “There’s very little doubt about that.”
Perhaps the largest remaining hurdle involves raising the necessary capital to finance the project. After all, $750,000 isn’t pocket change.
Both developers, though, possess regional connections and experience with investments in those communities.
Before his retirement less than one year ago, Flegenheimer spent a quarter-century as the CEO of Michigan Sugar Company, the multimillion-dollar Bay City-based business with operations that expanded through 20 Michigan counties and Ontario. And Preston for nearly two decades worked as CEO at Tri-Star Trust Bank, which he co-founded and led to develop locations in Saginaw, Frankenmuth, Midland and Lansing. Now he serves as chairman of the board of directors at TempleArts, a nonprofit arts advocacy group tied to downtown’s Temple Theatre and Saginaw Art Museum.
For their mural project, the developers said they secured early investments from 10 organizations including the Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation, Dow Chemical Co. Foundation and Huntington Bank.
They’re hoping for public investment too. They hope this summer to announce details — including a financial goal — for a GoFundMe-style public fundraising campaign.
“We’d like to think of this as a regional effort because, based upon what we see with other major murals, these become an attraction for people all over the country,” Preston said. “Arguably, we’re going to have the finest one in the country.”
Such a high expectation involves calculations tied both to the size of the planned mural and the world-renowned reputation of the prospective artist, he said.
The mural artwork would cover 360 degrees of each towering, cylindrical silo at the site. Altogether, the surface area adds up to 70,000 square feet.
Flegenheimer said his research showed that figure would rank the Saginaw mural second in the nation in terms of square-footage size, behind only the Toledo-based, 170,000 square-foot Glass City River Wall mural, which also repurposed old grain silos as a canvas.
Flegenheimer said he consulted with developers involved in the Ohio mural, hoping to learn from challenges they faced before completing their project last fall.
‘Something truly phenomenal’
One of the pieces of advice provided by the Toledo crew: Hire one artist with a singular vision.
“If you tried to have different people doing different things, and then tried to coordinate all of that, it could take forever; maybe more than a year,” Preston said. “We’re going to take four weeks to paint it.”
There is no art design yet for the planned Saginaw mural. Flegenheimer said the that detail remains part of the ongoing negotiations with Okuda San Miguel, the Madrid muralist known simply as Okuda by arts aficionados.
His style of work, though, offers some idea of how the silos could appear after he applies his final brush stroke.
Okuda’s résumé includes painting the Kaos Temple in Llanera, Spain. His work appears on structures in Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, India, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Peru and Ukraine. Those works often include geometric-shaped abstract figures, colored in bold and bright tones.
Flegenheimer said the mural “would not be representational” of any existing Saginaw iconography or symbols. For example, it would likely not include portraits of recognizable buildings or landmarks tied to the community.
Instead, Okuda would offer the developers an original artistic piece, painted in his vision.
“He basically says, ‘I’ll let you look at what I’m preparing, but I get to make the final decision,’” Preston said.
The developers covet Okuda because of his prestigious reputation, but also, there aren’t many alternatives with experience handling a project of this scale and complexity, Flegenheimer said.
“There’s probably 15 or 20 muralists in the world that do these massive works,” he said. “Okuda’s one of them. We’re not going to skimp on this part of it. We want to do this right, to make it lasting.”
Painting the silos would serve as one of the final steps in the project.
Some of the initial steps already are completed, the developers said, including securing usage of the aging silos.
Neither Flegenheimer nor Preston owns the structures. To turn them into canvases, the developers said they secured an easement agreement with SkyWeb Networks, the Saginaw-based Internet provider that owns the property on South Lyon, near Court. The company uses the facilities because of their 150-foot height, installing antennas at the zenith to boost cell phone signal coverage.
The structures could continue to serve that function while doubling as an artistic monument, the developers said.
And here’s a third purpose, they said: Their project would help ensure preservation of a piece of Saginaw’s past, providing deterrence from demolition plans for at least a few more generations.
The silos represent one of Saginaw’s once-flourishing industries, said staff with the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History. The long-defunct Frutchey Bean Co. built most of the existing structures on the property in the 1950s to store grains and beans. The property’s history stretches back even further — to the 1850s — when the company was known as Brand and Hardin Milling Co.
“I’ve been thinking for years, man, what are we going to have to do to tear these silos down,” Preston said. “But this idea of turning them into a mural is so much better. Why tear them down when we can turn them into something truly phenomenal.”
Setting the stage
The project’s $750,000 price tag would cover more than a painting contract, Flegenheimer said. The cost would include the application of primer paint to the silos’ surface as well as the demolition of other structures on the silos’ surrounding property, which he hopes to make more accessible to visitors.
The developers said they want to complete that leg of the project this year, in advance of the creation of the mural next year. That final process, they anticipate, could span four weeks in the spring.
Flegenheimer said he expects the mural will be completed in time for the 2024 Canadian Hockey League Memorial Cup tournament, which The Dow Event Center in downtown Saginaw will host for the first time in late May. Business leaders estimate the 2-week-long international competition will generate $25 million of commerce and attract hundreds of spectators to Saginaw.
It’s a circumstance that presents a perfect stage, Flegenheimer said, to show off what could become iconographic imagery the public associates with Saginaw for future generations.
“This is a great opportunity to change the whole look and welcoming feel for people entering Saginaw,” he said.
Want more Bay City- and Saginaw-area news? Bookmark the local Bay City and Saginaw news page or sign up for the free “3@3″ daily newsletter for Bay City and Saginaw.
Read more from MLive:
Board changes empowered public criticism of ousted Saginaw County leader, officials say
SVSU board OKs largest tuition increase in 12 years
Next effort to axe Saginaw tax caps could come in 2026 elections, mayor says
[ad_2]
Source link