A corner lot in downtown Ubly that has been poisoning its own soil since a 1985 storage tank rupture is finally getting a second life. The State of Michigan has awarded a $350,000 brownfield redevelopment grant to clean up the former Dunk's Garage site at 4496 North Washington Avenue and help transform the vacant auto repair shop into a new café.
The contamination traces back to an underground storage tank that ruptured while workers were removing it in 1985, releasing petroleum, organic compounds and heavy metals into the soil and groundwater beneath the 0.38-acre property, according to the State of Michigan. The site has hosted commercial activity since 1901, having served over the decades as a blacksmith shop, an oil and fuel depot, a gas station and finally an auto repair shop, according to reporting by Mid-Michigan Now. The building has sat empty since 2023.
Cleaning up that legacy hasn't come cheap. Between 1992 and 2025, the state's Bay City District Office spent more than $1 million on environmental assessments, removing liquid contamination and running a soil vapor extraction system at the site, per the state's announcement. A tri-county economic development coalition representing Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola counties also chipped in roughly $77,000 in federal EPA Brownfields grant funding for preliminary site investigations.
What the New Grant Actually Pays For
The freshly awarded $350,000 will fund hoist removal, asbestos abatement, limited demolition, soil excavation and disposal, installation of a vapor mitigation system, groundwater management, and further environmental assessments at the property, the state says. Those steps are meant to clear the way for converting the 2,900-square-foot building into food-service space. The property's owner plans to invest up to $425,000 in renovation costs on top of the public cleanup money, per Mid-Michigan Now.
State documentation describes the planned business as a local café expected to generate 4.5 full-time equivalent positions, split between three full-time and three part-time jobs. Construction and cleanup are expected to wrap up by spring 2029, a multi-year horizon that reflects both the scope of the environmental work and the scale of the project for a village this size.
A Small Village Betting on a Big Cleanup
Ubly is a village of 836 residents spread across 1.32 square miles inside Bingham Township in Huron County, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, a population that had actually slipped 2.6% from 858 residents a decade earlier. For a community that size, $350,000 in state money paired with $425,000 in private investment represents a substantial commitment to reviving a single downtown corner.
The grant comes through EGLE's Brownfield Redevelopment Grant program, which operates under Part 201 of Michigan's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act and can award up to $1 million per project to local entities cleaning up contaminated properties, provided they can show economic benefit through job creation or private investment. The agency says more than half of its total annual budget goes toward supporting local community projects, protecting public health, and encouraging economic growth and job creation statewide. Much of that funding pool flows through Michigan's Renew Michigan program, which received $77.6 million for environmental remediation, contaminated site cleanup, waste management and recycling for the current fiscal year, according to ASTI Environmental.
Part of a Larger Statewide Push
Ubly's award is one piece of a larger $6.2 million package EGLE announced Wednesday, supporting seven brownfield cleanup and redevelopment projects across Michigan, including sites in Lansing and Saginaw. It's a reminder that the Dunk's Garage story, while deeply local, is playing out alongside similar efforts in cities many times Ubly's size.
Several details about the project remain unsettled. State documentation does not name the café's eventual operator, and it is unclear whether local zoning approvals or additional municipal tax increment financing through a local Brownfield Redevelopment Authority will be used to help offset the village's redevelopment costs going forward.
