Lansing, Michigan – FED Corporation has returned $4.83 million in unused state grant money for the proposed Clare Complete Health Park. This ends a development project that had been put on hold and had garnered the attention of state officials.
The money was part of a bigger grant that was granted in the 2023 fiscal year to help build a health and recreation complex in Clare. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was told by lawmakers to give the grant to Complete Health Park, a nonprofit group set up to run the project. The idea was to provide a place that would offer both health services and entertaining events for the local community.
After getting the grant, Complete Health Park hired FED Corporation, a Michigan-based contractor, to do development work on the site. Under the agreement, FED Corporation got more than $5.43 million in grant money to help with the project’s early stages, such as planning and getting ready.
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The project, on the other hand, did not go as planned. The MDHHS stopped the grant in 2023 after the Office of Inspector General looked into the nonprofit group in responsible for the project. Because of the suspension, large portions of the grant funding remained unused.
After that, state officials tried to get the money back that hadn’t been spent. MDHHS and FED Corporation came to an agreement that the contractor had to give back $4,834,201.41 in grant money that was not used. The Michigan Department of Attorney General helped with the negotiations to get the money back for the state.
Attorney General Dana Nessel stated that the money’s return shows how serious the state is about preserving public resources. She said that her office would keep working to protect public money and hold those responsible accountable when state funds are not used appropriately or at all.
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The money that was recovered will go back to Michigan’s General Fund, where it can be used for other state needs. Officials didn’t say if the Clare Complete Health Park project would be brought back with a different structure or funding approach.
The case shows how much more monitoring there is over state-funded projects and the ways that public money may be recovered when projects stop or fail to move forward as intended.