DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[airforceguy]

This water-filled hole might finally get its long-planned apartments

Developer Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services Inc. based in Detroit filed plans with the city seeking site plan approval to build a long-planned apartment development totaling 96 units over two four-story buildings facing St. Aubin Street just north of Lafayette Street. The roughly 1.5 acre parcel is adjacent to the Lafayette Park/Mies van der Rohe historic district and therefore requires approval by the city’s Historic District Commission, with a hearing scheduled for Aug. 13.

The proposed apartment units would be part of the long-in-the-works Pullman Parc project — where existing for-sale townhouses have been selling for years — and be situated on land that has been a large, water-filled hole for more than three years.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/planned-apartments-water-filled-site-show-signs-life

[airforceguy]

Zoning reform pushed to ease burden of developing new housing in Detroit

The city’s Planning Commission is set to hold a public hearing Thursday afternoon as part of a new zoning initiative that would allow more housing in large swaths of the city “by-right” and promote “infill housing development on vacant lots that aligns with existing neighborhood character,” according to a Planning Commission memo. The proposed ordinance amendment also would allow for development with fewer parking spaces along many of the city’s busier thoroughfares that offer “high-frequency transit lines,” per the memo.

All told, the R2 zoning that would be amended covers about one-third of the city’s land that’s currently zoned for residential use, and roughly 50% of that land sits vacant, according to a slide presentation. City officials are quick to point out that the zoning change as proposed isn’t about changing the city’s skyline with new high-rises beyond the central business district. Rather, it’s about simplifying the process to bring about more variety of housing types — think duplexes and triplexes — in areas where much of that already exists but is not allowed or is difficult to produce under current zoning.

“The way we describe this is allowing developers to build housing that aligns with Detroit's existing homes and neighborhoods,” said Andrea Taverna, the city’s deputy COO. “We're trying to allow housing that is similar in type to what is already out in the neighborhoods.”

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/zoning-reform-pushed-ease-burden-developing-new-housing

[airforceguy]

This huge downtown Detroit property has new owner, new vision

Southfield-based Blackacre Management LLC closed on the purchase of the Executive Office Plaza — which is sometimes referred to as the Detroit Office Plaza — property at 1200 Sixth St. just south of Michigan Avenue late last week for $5 million, according to a news release. The complex consists of about 613,000 square feet of space across three towers with 11, 13 and 21 stories and is expected to undergo a residential, hotel and commercial conversion, Dalen Hanna, who runs Blackacre Management along with Maha Banno, said in an email.

Blackacre Management is putting together the finishing touches on a project in Pontiac, but this will be the developers' biggest project to date. Preliminary studies say a redevelopment could include 335 apartments, 115 hotel rooms and about 35,000 square feet of commercial space in the existing buildings, and there is about 8 acres of surface parking that’s in play as a ground-up construction effort, Hanna said.

A vision for the parking space has not been determined.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/detroit-executive-office-plaza-has-new-owner-new-vision

[DetroitMan]

Destination park on Detroit's west riverfront sets opening date

The $75 million Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park will open in late October — three and a half years after work to develop the destination park on Detroit’s west riverfront began.

At the same time, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy will open a boardwalk 17 feet from the river’s shore in front of Riverfront Towers west of downtown Detroit and other parts of the west RiverWalk that will connect to the new waterfront park. Visitors will be able to travel almost 5 miles along the Detroit River from the east RiverWalk near the bridge to Belle Isle west to the former Joe Louis Arena site, over the new boardwalk, into Centennial Park and up the Southwest Greenway trail to the Michigan Central campus in Corktown.

The Ralph Wilson Park — named in honor of the foundation’s namesake and announced on the 100th anniversary of his birth Oct. 17, 1918 — is set to open the weekend of Oct. 25-26 with a weekend of free activities. “This park is absolutely going to be a destination for folks to come … whether they're walking there, riding their bike, they're from the adjacent neighborhoods or from the greater metro Detroit area ... or even further out,” Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CEO Ryan Sullivan told Crain's.

It will be "one of the most iconic public spaces in the country and will represent a massive step towards the completion of our vision for 5.5 miles of perpetual public access to our revitalized riverfront,” Matt Cullen, chairman of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy board of directors, said in a news release. “Our community owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Wilson Foundation for launching this vision for Detroit, as well as to the many partners that joined them in turning this vision into a reality, such as William Davidson Foundation, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, Delta Dental, Erb Foundation, DTE Foundation, and all of the other benefactors who have made this achievement possible.”

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/nonprofits-philanthropy/ralph-c-wilson-centennial-park-open

[DetroitMan]

Detroit soccer club's $150M stadium development to go through community benefits process

The Detroit City FC men’s and women’s soccer organization will begin its long-anticipated trek through the city’s Community Benefits Ordinance process for its new 15,000-seat stadium in Southwest Detroit.

The first public meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 21 at Mexicantown CDC Mercado at 2826 Bagley St., and the second is set for 6 p.m. Aug. 28 at the same location, according to a flier posted to the city’s website. The meeting flier includes specific details on the project that had not yet been previously disclosed.

The flier says the development is expected to cost $150 million and include 76 units of affordable housing wrapped around a 421-space parking deck, plus 8,500 square feet of retail space. The flier also says public funding associated with the project includes a brownfield reimbursement for demolition of the former Southwest Detroit Hospital property, which the stadium will replace, as well as unspecified “other city and state support for infrastructure and programmatic build out.” The stadium itself would be privately financed, according to the flier.

Crain's has requested an interview with Sean Mann, the team's co-owner and CEO.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estat...adium-will-go-through-community-benefits

[DetroitMan]

I-75 cap project inches forward with new feasibility study

Downtown Detroit Partnership has chosen infrastructure consulting firm AECOM to lead a feasibility study for a series of three caps proposed to cover Interstate 75 through downtown Detroit.

Over the next year, the feasibility study will refine technical designs and implementation strategies developed during public meetings that the organization hosted in 2024. The study will move the project closer to being construction-ready, Eric Larson, CEO of DDP, told Crain’s. AECOM will develop a design for the three lids so that project leaders can begin applying for state and federal grants for the construction portion of the project.

Following the study, “we will be about 30% designed,” Larson said. “And have what ultimately is the most important aspect, and that is a real, clear understanding of the vision for the community.” After the 12-month study period, final deliverables will include design concepts, updated budget projections, construction phasing and maintenance recommendations for the project.

​​The three caps under consideration would be located in the heart of downtown Detroit and help connect venues north of the freeway to the southern side — namely Little Caesars Arena, Comerica Park and Ford Field, as well as the under-construction University of Michigan Center for Innovation.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/transportation/aecom-develop-designs-i-75-caps

[DetroitSky]

It's mindblowing to me that Olympia is still showing off new renderings with their "proposed" skyscrapers like people believe they'll actually be built.

[DetroitMan]

The new Detroit City FC stadium has a name, AlumniFi Field. I really like the design of the stadium.

Here's what DCFC's new Detroit soccer stadium will be named — and look like

On Monday evening, the Detroit City FC men’s and women’s soccer organization announced that AlumniFi, already a major financial sponsor, had purchased the naming rights for the teams’ proposed 15,000-seat stadium in southwest Detroit at Michigan Avenue and 20th Street. The event was held Monday evening at the Mexicantown CDC Mercado on Bagley Street, which is also where upcoming Community Benefits Ordinance meetings will take place for the $150 million stadium expected to open in 2027.

In addition to the stadium, the project would include 76 units of affordable housing wrapped around a 421-space parking deck, plus 8,500 square feet of retail space. "We are working every day to build a home worthy of Detroit, sized for this community and that fits into the fabric of this neighborhood; that supports existing businesses by creating greater economic connections between the communities of Corktown and Mexicantown; a venue that serves as a platform for entrepreneurs, whether that’s in the concessions or the retail on 20th; a venue that creates more affordable housing opportunities here in the city; and of course creating a kick-ass venue to watch soccer," Sean Mann, co-owner and CEO of DCFC, told the crowd of team supporters, elected officials and the media.

AlumniFi is a division of Michigan State University Federal Credit Union.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/dcfcs-new-detroit-soccer-stadium-be-named-alumnifi-field

[airforceguy]

Demolition begins on long-vacant Mammoth department store

The city of Detroit began demolition Monday on the Mammoth Building, which had sat vacant on Detroit’s northwest side since the Mammoth Department Store closed in 2000.

The demolition comes after years of still-ongoing legal proceedings between the city and various building owners, beginning with a 2023 lawsuit seeking the property’s demolition or renovation.

“Three judges, two years and countless hearings brought us to the moment we are at today,” said Conrad Mallet, the city's corporate counsel, at a press conference next to the Mammoth Building on Monday. “This is never an easy process.” The city is fronting the $2.6 million in demolition costs for the three-story, 135,000-square-foot building at Greenfield Road and Grand River Avenue, with plans to seek reimbursement from property owners once demolition is complete. Detroit-based contractor Homrich, which began asbestos removal on the building in June, is leading the demolition.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/mammoth-building-demolition-begins


$10.5M Eastern Market project aims to open doors to big grocery chain deals

The nonprofit operator of Detroit’s historic Eastern Market began a $10.5 million project to renovate Shed 7 on Monday. It's the first new shed added to the market in 40 years and the first owned by the nonprofit, rather than the city.

The project will update the warehouse to create a fully cold-chain-compliant facility, providing wholesale distributors, growers, urban farmers and small food businesses with new opportunities to grow their business.

The goal is to complete the renovations by next spring in time for the 2026 growing season, said Eastern Market’s CEO Katy Trudeau. Historically, wholesale growers and distributors selling at Eastern Market between midnight and 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. on weekdays during the growing season have operated from the existing sheds, which do not have refrigeration or air conditioning. “There’s only certain grocery stores or restaurants or other farmers markets that will purchase that produce, knowing that…it's not fully chain compliant,” Trudeau said.

Additionally, farmers and distributors have to drive down to the market each night, unload their products and reload them back on the truck until the next day.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/nonprofits...-7-position-growers-business-big-grocers

[seabee1526]

Originally Posted by DetroitSky

It's mindblowing to me that Olympia is still showing off new renderings with their "proposed" skyscrapers like people believe they'll actually be built.

Just maybe they’ll be inspired by the UofM innovation center and the 13 floor tower once complete.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by DetroitSky

It's mindblowing to me that Olympia is still showing off new renderings with their "proposed" skyscrapers like people believe they'll actually be built.

It's not exactly Olympia. Those are Related's projects and their renders.

[airforceguy]

Once dotted with vacant mansions, Brush Park’s revival offers roadmap for Detroit’s future

Two years after Bourdain (who died in 2018) and LeDuff stood in that empty Brush Park lot, Detroit billionaire Dan Gilbert’s real estate company Bedrock LLC and various partners began work on City Modern, an investment of more than $100 million into a largely ground-up development consisting of hundreds of new housing units in six distinct styles of housing — both for sale and for rent — as well as as retail space and various other neighborhood amenities.

Bedrock announced the formal completion of City Modern late last month.
Today, the project between downtown and Midtown encompasses more than 8 acres over several city blocks along and in between Brush and John R streets just north of Comerica Park, consisting of more than 400 new residences across for-sale condos and townhomes and several apartment buildings. While most of the housing is new, Bedrock also preserved three historic Victorian-era mansions, converting them into five luxury condos.

Public records show professional athletes, manufacturing executives and nonprofit professionals are among those who have purchased condo units. All condos have sold, and many have resold, and apartment buildings have largely leased up.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/brush-parks-revival-offers-roadmap-detroits-future

[airforceguy]

Detroit eyes redevelopment of large detention center site

The city of Detroit is targeting 50 acres near a detention center on the east side for redevelopment as it runs low on industrial sites to land new projects.

The economic development department is looking to demolish the vacant half of the Detroit Detention Center complex between Mound and Ryan roads to make way for an automotive supplier or other manufacturer. A pending deal with the state, as allowed for in legislation passed earlier this year and approved by Detroit City Council last month, paves the way for the project, said Hassan Beydoun, group executive of economic development for the city.

It is one of the few remaining parcels that could lure a new manufacturing project to the city, which lacks shovel-ready industrial sites despite its abundance of old factory buildings. “Citywide, there’s a constraint issue no matter how you look at it,” Beydoun told Crain’s. “Everyone thinks we have all this empty land in Detroit and while to some extent that’s true, rarely do we have land compiled in a way that lends itself to large-scale industrial projects.”

The east portion of the 90-acre site is a functioning lockup facility, which holds arrestees in the city for up to 72 hours before they are transferred elsewhere. The west side of the site that is being targeted for demolition and redevelopment is vacant.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/detroit-eyes-redevelopment-large-detention-center-site

[DetroitMan]

Construction begins on Second Avenue Extension in Detroit

Construction began this week in downtown Detroit on the Second Avenue Extension, a project that is set to create a roadway connecting Second Avenue to the Detroit riverfront.

The extension will create a path from Congress Street to Steve Yzerman Drive, crossing over M-10 to provide direct access to the riverfront from Second Avenue. Currently, the end of Second Avenue is about a quarter mile away from the riverfront. The roadway, which will accommodate motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, is expected to open in summer 2026. Nearly half of the the right of way will be for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, as the project is "designed with walkability in mind," Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority CEO Bryan Crowe said in a statement to The Detroit News.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/l...-on-second-avenue-extension/85656063007/

[airforceguy]

Historic Detroit castle to become career training center

A former monastery in Detroit is about to be transformed into a facility for technical career training and growth.

The Detroit Training Center, an organization offering customized vocational training, is developing the historic Castle Rouge building at 23323 Schoolcraft Road as the site of its new headquarters and plans to fully move into the building next year. The new space will allow DTC to bring all of its operations under one roof. Currently, they operate out of three locations. The move will allow the organization's workforce development students to be in the same building as career counselors and other support for the first time.

“It's going to allow us to have more time with each student each day and better focus our employment and placement activities,” CEO Patrick Beal told Crain’s.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/detroit-training-center-convert-castle-rouge-headquarters

[DetroitMan]

$800M housing plan: Use carrots rather than sticks to incentivize higher-density zoning

Michigan would spent $800 million over five years to build or rehabilitate more than 10,000 housing units under a plan in which funding for developers and homebuilders would be available only in communities that make housing-friendly zoning changes.
The bipartisan MI Home Program proposal, which will be introduced in the Legislature soon, was unveiled Tuesday by the Michigan Municipal League, lawmakers and others. It was announced ahead of what proponents expect to be the reintroduction of competing "preemption" bills that would force changes in housing-related local zoning policies.

"If this is the priority we claim it to be, then we have to invest in it," Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said in a news conference at City Hall, across from the Capitol, where legislators are still debating a budget than was due over a month-and-a-half ago. Under the plan, the state would distribute $160 million annually ($145 million of it new funding) for five years as follows:

A continuation of $5 million in grants to local governments to update zoning regulations.
$95 million in years one and two, $145 million in years three through five for grants to pay for building or rehabbing residential property. A grant would be capped at $100,000 for new construction and $30,000 for a renovation — per dwelling unit — but could not exceed a third of the cost.
$50 million years one and two to create a revolving loan fund to address financing gaps.
A continuation of $10 million to an employer-assisted housing fund.
The two biggest pots of money would be available to developers in communities that adopt at least half of 14 recommended zoning policies. Those include reducing residential parking requirements to 1.5 spaces per dwelling or less; allowing duplexes; authorizing higher density near transit and employment centers; and reducing minimum lot sizes.

A unit that is sold would have to be at a price that is affordable for a household making no higher than 120% of the area's median income. A rental property's rents and fees could not exceed 30% of the monthly income of a household at 120% of the median income.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/politics-p...ousing-plan-has-incentives-change-zoning

[airforceguy]

How Detroit transformed an 'open-air drug market' into a chic enclave

David Di Rita remembers exactly what Capitol Park in Detroit was like roughly two decades ago.

When his and Stacy Fox’s then-fledgling real estate development company opened its first office on the 31st floor of the 38-story Art Deco David Stott Building around 2006, the tiny central business district enclave was a far cry from what it is today. “It was a bus station and open-air drug market surrounded by vacant or nearly vacant buildings,” said Di Rita, who is principal of the Detroit-based Roxbury Group, today one of the city’s most active developers in hotel and multifamily space. “It was a place that had been completely forsaken and forgotten, as bad as any square block in downtown in terms of abandonment and crime and public infrastructure.”

Richard Karp, another developer heavily involved in the effort to transform the area, agreed. “It was the corner of the rug under which all the bad things downtown were swept,” Karp said over lunch at a Griswold Street restaurant just south of Capitol Park. “There were dozens of drug dealers in the middle of the park. People would go four blocks out of their way to avoid having to walk through there. There were broad daylight, hand-to-hand drug transactions going on. Cops were looking the other way because it was a convenient place to just corral all the bad activity.”

Through a concerted, complicated and sometimes controversial effort involving the public, private and nonprofit sectors, today Capitol Park is now chock-full of pricey rental housing (with only a modicum of affordable units thanks in part to the timing of its ramp-up), chic architecture and insurance offices and a mix of date night and other restaurants that make it a fashionable draw for those in the city, from the suburbs and out of town.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/how-detroit-transformed-capitol-park-chic-enclave

[airforceguy]

Downtown office-to-apartment and hotel conversion seeks tax abatement

A proposed large-scale redevelopment of an office complex straddling downtown and the Corktown neighborhood in Detroit is seeking a tax abatement.

An affiliate of Southfield-based Blackacre Management LLC is working its way through the Detroit City Council approval process to get a 12-year Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act, or OPRA, tax break. The total value of the tax break is not yet known. Blackacre, run by Dalen Hanna and Maha Banno, is proposing to convert the complex at 1200 Sixth St. south of Michigan Avenue into about 350 apartments and a 114-room hotel, according to Detroit City Council documents.

The development team paid $5 million for the 613,000-square-foot property in late July. It includes a 21-story high-rise as well as an 11-story building, and the sale also included a large parking lot that could be redeveloped in the future as well.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/executive-office-plaza-conversion-seeks-tax-abatement

[airforceguy]

Affordable apartments, retail proposed for hot West Village neighborhood

A new "deeply affordable" apartment and retail building is in the early development stages in an increasingly popular Detroit neighborhood.

Detroit-based development organizations Arrive Community Development and Ethos Development Partners are slated to go before the city's Historic District Commission next week as part of a site plan approval process for their proposed 48-unit apartment building in the West Village neighborhood on Detroit's east side.

The developers, however, note that they're still working to build their capital stack — including federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits — and don't expect to break ground for at least a year on the proposed project, expected to be an investment of at least $20 million. Plans call for mostly one-bedroom units, as well as a handful of studio and two-bedroom apartments, and rents affordable to those earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income, or $21,210-$64,640 for an individual. The project would also contain 4,650 square feet of ground-floor retail space, which developer Zach Kilgore with Arrive Community Development said would have below-market rental rates aimed at Detroit-based entrepreneurs.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estat...-could-see-new-affordable-housing-retail

[seabee1526]

Originally Posted by airforceguy

Downtown office-to-apartment and hotel conversion seeks tax abatement


https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/executive-office-plaza-conversion-seeks-tax-abatement

They should ask for a people mover loop.