Our City Business

The Owosso area economy has an industrial legacy that began with furniture and agricultural service occupations in the mid 1880’s with a gradual change to a variety of industries served with five different rail approaches to the city before the end of the century.   Most of today’s industries are suppliers of parts for larger corporations elsewhere.  Electronics, furniture, air quality control products, transportation, and injection molding of plastic parts dominate the industrial mix of about 40 factories in the Mid-County area.  The service economy is bolstered with the presence of Baker College, Memorial Health Care Services, Davis Cartage, and Indian Trails Bus Lines.  Although the industrial workforce is comparatively higher than other Michigan cities at 24% of the workforce, there has been a steep decline from the early industrial era as the service sector increases its presence in education, insurance, real estate, and health care.  The transition into the service sector has been slow for those who lost industrial jobs. Owosso’s unemployment rate chronically hovers about 10%. 

Downtown Owosso is the historic commercial center of Shiawassee County where three state highways converge.  The central business district retains 30 blocks of commercially developed properties.  The business mix is varied with 40 retail outlets amidst a total of 250 businesses.  Over 100 downtown buildings are historic and multi-story commercial structures.  Westown is another historic commercial center with its heritage as a rail service center—hotels, restaurants and stores.  Today it is a bustling center on its own with historic character.  Dutchtown is a service area for southwest Owosso and as with the other commercial centers, it retains high occupancy rates.

Current Development Projects

Public/Private partnerships have been a hallmark of Owosso’s current development projects.  From the 1995 retention and expansion of Woodard’s outdoor furniture factory and the new downtown hotel, the Comstock Inn, and through 15 Brownfield redevelopment projects since 1985, Owosso has been actively rebuilding itself in all sectors-- industrial, commercial, institutional and residential.  The city has been aggressive about land acquisition and holds two major properties today—1) the former Hotel Owosso about to be demolished and redeveloped into a new multi-story and multi-use structure, and; 2) the Osburn Lakes residential development site a traditional neighborhood design project with some open space clustering elements about vast forested wetlands.  Five brownfield redevelopment projects, all on former industrial sites are in process and all but one have developers awaiting environmental and land tenure clearance to become active sites again.  Owosso is also engaged in quality of life upgrades, most recently with a one-mile loop trail in the downtown along the Shiawassee River.  Another 4-mile trail system is in early construction work at Collamer Park a natural area 167-acre regional park.  Refreshingly, the City is beginning to experience private development pressure and a different project perspective and role is evolving that requires updated ordinances to accommodate planned unit developments.