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MUNISING -- Much of the news coming out of Munising lately has been good news.  Fourteen new businesses are on the town's horizon, and that number could be on the rise.

Two Munising area brownfields are currently being sought after by prospective businesses.  The planning is still in the early stages, but the city is doing everything it can to move the process along.

The first property is the city's old garbage dump; it's actually in Grand Island Township but is still owned by the city of Munising.  It's sat virtually unused since the late '60s.  Because of its toxic past, the lot is considered a brownfield, but one local businessman hopes to turn the brownfield into a greenhouse that produces orange tomatoes, and lots of them.

"We can grow 25 pounds of tomatoes per square foot.  It'll be an organic, soil-base growth.  So we're talking a little over 1.2 million pounds of tomatoes," says John Hust, the prospective "Tomato Man."

"If we can help the tomato factory by giving them the property for one dollar, we're wholeheartedly behind it because nothing is happening there right now," explains City Commissioner, Bob Beaubrey.

Building on brownfields is a growing trend in Michigan.  In Marquette, Founders Landing is being developed on one.

"They don't post any particular threats, but they do have to be addressed.  And that's what the idea for the Brownfield Program is:  to re-use these sites that have been used before instead of going out to greenfield sites and developing new," explains Mac McClelland, Manager of Brownfield Redevelopment for Otwell Mawby Consulting Engineers out of Traverse City.

Through the Brownfield Program, businesses can get reimbursed for a lot of the development prep-work:  removing old structures, solving environmental issues, things like that.

The old fire hall in Munising is on another brownfield, but it could soon be transformed into a $3.5 million commercial development.

"We're looking at the potential of mixed-use development.  We've got some verbal commitment from some national franchise, retail and fast food," says Bromley Hall of Hall Contracting.

The two projects benefit Munising in a multitude of ways; for one thing, they could create around 50 new jobs for the area.  Additionally, the city will see the tax revenue that they bring in.  And possibly most importantly, the city will have access to locally grown tomatoes 12 months a year.