[DetroitSky]

Vecino, new Detroit restaurant inspired by Mexico City, set to open Friday

A new restaurant that was to open last fall is set to open Friday, bringing the essence and traditional flavors of Mexico City and Oaxaca to Midtown Detroit.

Called Vecino, which means neighbor in Spanish, the new Modern Mexican Midtown eatery will offer an "agave-forward bar" and open-hearth kitchen while also touting Michigan's first corn nixtamalization program, a traditional kernel-to-masa preparation process.

Owned by Adriana Jimenez, Lukasz Wietrzynski and Colin Tury, a Detroit-based designer, Vecino is the first project from Midwest Hospitality. Jimenez founded the Detroit-based hospitality company.

“We consciously look for ways to connect through shared experiences like unique foods, cultures, and traditions — all of which inspire the ways we eat, drink, and share stories with our friends and neighbors," Jimenez, who was born in Mexico City and raised in Southwest Detroit, said in a news release. "From community-style seating to shared plates, we’re bringing that sense of community found in Mexican culture.”

On Third and Alexandrine streets in Midtown, Vecino is in a restored 1926 corner building that's stood vacant for a half-century. The restaurant was originally slated to open in November 2023.

State panel approves $231.7M in tax incentives for Henry Ford Health project

The Michigan Strategic Fund board on Tuesday approved $231.7 million in tax incentives for a portion of Henry Ford Health’s development project and agreed to create a renaissance zone for a 600-room hotel room to be built next to Huntington Place in Detroit on the former Joe Louis Arena site.

The developer, Palace Sports & Entertainment, LLC, DP Amsterdam, LLC, Henry Ford Health System and Michigan State University requested incentives for the Future of Health Transformational Brownfield Plan, a $773 million investment in the city’s New Center neighborhood and part of a broader $3 billion plan that includes a hospital expansion.