Flint Commerce Center's First Building Fully Leased at Former Buick City Site

The first building at Flint Commerce Center, a 330,000-square-foot facility on the former Buick City site, is fully leased to Victory Packaging and Bunzl Distribution — a concrete sign of industrial activity returning to land that stood vacant after GM left.

For a city that remembers Buick City as a source of union wages, pensions and middle-class stability, however, the milestone raises a harder question than whether warehouse space has been filled: What kind of jobs will the new tenants provide, and can they help rebuild the economic footing this ground once gave Flint families?

The two tenants in Building 1 together employ just over 100 workers. Victory Packaging has created more than 50 of those jobs and plans to add 50 to 60 workers as new production lines come online. Victory Packaging is a packaging distribution and supply-chain services company that provides warehousing, inventory management, fulfillment and logistics. Bunzl Distribution is a specialist distribution and outsourcing company whose warehouses supply goods not for resale, including packaging, disposable supplies, cleaning products and safety products.

Those logistics and distribution operations represent a different economic model from the auto manufacturing complex that once occupied the site. At its peak, Buick City employed approximately 28,000 workers and still had about 12,000 during the 1994 strike. GM announced the shutdown in 1997, and the complex closed on June 29, 1999, when approximately 1,000 full-time employees and 200 temporary workers remained.

General wage data for Victory Packaging warehouse workers shows hourly rates around $20.09 for warehouse workers, $20.19 for forklift operators, $25.36 for truck drivers and $28.64 for local drivers. General Victory Packaging employee reports mention benefits including medical, dental, vision, PTO and 401(k), though those reports are not specific to the Flint location. GM hourly wages at facilities like Buick City were approximately $15.94 per hour in 1989; by the mid-1990s, GM's total labor cost for UAW workers was approximately $42 per hour, including wages and benefits.

Neither the city nor the developer has disclosed whether the Flint Commerce Center tenants are union-represented or whether local hiring is contractually required.

There has been some success in connecting Flint residents with the new work. A MiWorks job fair for Victory Packaging produced 16 new workers, 15 of whom were Flint residents. Leases at Flint Commerce Center encourage potential tenants to hold local job fairs for new workers. As the site expands, the test will be whether the city secured binding local-hire requirements or whether the leases rely on encouragement rather than enforceable commitments.

Building 1 is the first piece of a much larger redevelopment. Flint Commerce Center covers 350 acres of the former Buick City site. Developer Ashley Capital purchased the property from RACER Trust in 2023 and plans as many as 10 buildings, totaling approximately 3.5 million square feet of industrial and distribution space, projected to create approximately 3,000 permanent jobs.

The next phase is already advancing. The City of Flint approved the Baker Street vacation on February 23, 2026, clearing a major site-preparation step for the next building. Construction was targeted to begin in spring 2026, with the second building planned at approximately 325,000 square feet.

The first building's full lease proves redevelopment is moving forward. Whether the former Buick City site again becomes an economic anchor will depend on the tenants Ashley Capital brings into the remaining buildings — and whether the developer and city prioritize job quality alongside job quantity.