Team 1 Plastics Plays Role in Downtown Albion Revitalization

The downtown of Albion, Michigan, is a success story of revitalization. If you haven’t visited downtown Albion in a while, you may be surprised at the changes that have occurred, including the recent opening of its hotel, Courtyard® by Marriott. Downtown Albion has both established and new businesses, restored historic landmarks, public spaces, and a vitality that is exciting and enthusiastic.

Team 1 Plastics, a plastic injection molding company for the transportation industry, is thrilled to have had a part of the efforts and investment of the revitalization of downtown Albion. In a recent interview, Craig Carrel, President and Co-owner of Team 1, talked about the role that the company has had in the revitalization efforts.

“We have always been active in Albion projects,” Carrel said, “but the first downtown Albion revitalization project that we participated in was the Bohm Theatre restoration.” According to its website, interest in restoring the historic Bohm Theater began in 2010 with the incorporation of Friends of the Bohm Theatre. Team 1 Plastics was one of the first companies to make a major donation early in the project.

Investing in revitalization of downtown fits with Team 1 Plastics’ goal to be a Positive Community Member, one of the tenets of the company’s Championship Dream. And the city of Albion, with its business incubator and revolving loan fund, has been a key partner of Team 1 since the company’s beginnings. Carrel said, “The City has continued to support us through good times and bad, and we want to make sure that we are giving back to the community that has given us so much.”

Team 1 also believes that the strength of its team is highly dependent on the health of its local community — where the team members live. “If we want to have exceptional people available to join our team and to make Team 1 successful in the future, we need to have a strong Albion,” Carrel said. For Team 1 Plastics, the decision to invest in downtown Albion’s revitalization was an easy one.

The Bohm Theatre reopened in September 2013 upon completion of the restoration project. Support for the theatre has been so consistent that in January 2017, the theatre added a second screen.

But this was just the beginning, and more was to be done. Carrel said that Team 1 was invited to a meeting of key Albion stakeholders to discuss strategies to continue the revitalization of downtown. Looking at other communities’ experiences in revitalization, the decision was made to purchase several downtown properties and to package them for a key anchor project that the City could use to leverage other businesses to settle in the downtown area.

Carrel said, “Once again, we were one of the early donors with other key stakeholders: Albion College, Caster Concepts, Haas Trucking, and Decker Manufacturing. We were able to purchase many downtown properties, and through Albion College’s connections, secure the building of the Courtyard® by Marriott. This is a huge investment by a major hotel chain.”

Carrel also mentioned the major investment that Albion College made with the restoration of a downtown building, now called the Ludington Center. According to the College’s website, “the Ludington Center is a collaborative community space for Albion College and the business and civic endeavors of the City of Albion. More specifically, it is for college programming, professional events, business events, education and economic development-related programming.” In fact, Team 1 used the Ludington Center for its 30th anniversary celebration meal in April 2017.

And the strategy is working. “With these high profile anchor properties,” Carrel said, “a new brewery, a bakery, and other businesses are locating in downtown.”

Even with all these successes, more work remains. Carrel said that the revitalization focus has now expanded to include the downtown neighborhoods and is “looking for ways to continue this significant momentum so that in the next few years, we can look back and see that this was just the beginning of even more progress.”

One example of continuing this positive momentum was the kickoff of the State of Michigan’s Rising Tide initiative in Albion on March 9, 2018, which included a visit to Albion by Michigan’s Governor, Rick Snyder. Carrel said, “This kickoff meeting had the broadest representation of the Albion community that I can remember in a long time.” He added, “If we can continue to work together with such a diverse group of stakeholders, Albion will see significant growth for all its citizens.”

“Since the Bohm Theatre restoration, the downtown has been on an upswing, and more investment has been done in the past few years than in all of the previous 25 years combined.” Carrel concluded, “We are pleased that Team 1 has played a small role in the downtown Albion revitalization. It is a team effort and has involved many people and groups coming together for the betterment of Albion.”