GRAND RAPIDS, MI - An automotive salvage yard that has been at the corner of Ann Street and Turner Avenue NW for the past 87 year may be cleared to make room for two new industrial buildings.

A partnership headed by Visser Development Co. is proposing to redevelop Grand Rapids Auto Parts, a 5.87-acre salvage yard that has long occupied one of the most city's visible gateways along US-131. The project also would include a limousine rental business at 331 Ann Street NW.

The developers plan to build two new industrial buildings on the site. Visser Brothers president Bill Mast said they have signed a purchase contract for the business are working with a tenant to lease one building. A second building would got up after the first is completed.

But before they commit to the $9.8 million project, the developers say they need $1.7 million in tax breaks over the next 14 years to help clean up the site, which has two cement block buildings and is littered with hundreds of inoperable cars and trucks.

According to their application to the city's Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, the site contains "various metals, volatile organic compounds and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons on those parcels in exceedance of generic residential cleanup criteria."

After the soils are cleaned up, "one foot of clean fill will be imported to the site to provide a barrier from remaining contamination," the application said.

"An additional two feet (i.e. three feet total) is expected to be imported to the site in order to raise the site to alleviate any concerns related to proximity to the Grand River, and to allow on-site stormwater management to have more depth, thereby handling the necessary capacity utilizing a smaller surface area of the property."

In 2006, city planners approved the site for a seven-story hotel, three restaurants and other retailers. Those plans failed to materialize as the economy entered the Great Recession.

The latest plan for the site seeks to capitalize on a shortage of industrial space as manufacturing enjoys a resurgence in West Michigan.