GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids city officials will be following in the footsteps of Detroit mega-developer Dan Gilbert as they seek out a new type of tax incentive for the city's 201 Market redevelopment.

Negotiations have been underway for seven months with bi-weekly phone calls between Grand Rapids city officials and the Indianapolis firm of Flaherty & Collins over the city's 15.8-acre riverfront property. Those talks have included discussions of what tax incentives the city can offer, said Interim City Manager Eric DeLong.

The city is attempting to sell the land to the developer, which plans to build four buildings in three phases, according to plans obtained by MLive. The plans show a grocery store, luxury hotel, multiple mixed-use residential and retail buildings, a riverfront plaza and walkway along the Grand River.

With a number of crucial city departments located on the property now, city officials are hoping the sale price of the property will cover the cost of relocating them.

Kara Wood, economic development director for the city, said she is hoping to present financial plans and designs for the development to the Michigan Strategic Fund soon as the city seeks out a new kind of tax incentive -- "transformational brownfield" funding -- to make the project possible.

The Michigan legislature passed the "transformational brownfield" program in 2017. Supported by Gilbert last year, the Detroit developer is now the first to gain approval from the Michigan Strategic Fund for $618 million in the "transformational" tax incentives for a $2.2 billion development in downtown Detroit, officials from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced Tuesday.

Wood described the incentive program as a "brownfield on steroids."

Projects are eligible for the transformational brownfield program if the developer meets a certain threshold for investment in a community relative to its population. In Grand Rapids, a developer has to invest, at a minimum, $100 million in a project to be eligible for the program, according to the MEDC.

Once the application to the Michigan Strategic Fund is submitted, details of the 201 Market redevelopment proposal will become public, Wood said.

So far the project has been handled behind closed doors. Talks between the developer and the city have been private, and the Grand Rapids city commission has been kept in the dark as to the status of the project. Tuesday, May 22, the commission was asked to approve a year-long extension with a firm -- Jones Lang LaSalle Americas -- that has been in charge of facilitating the deal.

First Ward Commissioner Jon O'Connor and outgoing Third Ward Commissioner Dave Allen weren't happy that the body hasn't been updated by city staff.

"We gave them a year to do this, and we still don't have anything that's been presented," O'Connor said, expressing his frustration with the process.

Allen shared that sentiment: "We're dealing blindly here," he said.

Without knowing where negotiations stand, O'Connor said he doesn't know if the city will be able to relocate its departments for the ultimate sale price of the property.

DeLong attempted to smooth things over.

"In the end if it doesn't all come together, we aren't going to do it," DeLong said. "It all will come together in the end -- or it won't."

Ultimately the commission approved extending its contract with JLL for an additional year -- which does not come at additional cost. The original contract cost $335,000.

JLL is still tasked with finding a new site for the city to relocate its garbage and recycling trucks, its snow plows, road salt stockpiles and its fleet maintenance garage. DeLong said officials have toured several possible sites.