DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[Velvet_Highground]

Pistons plan 2026 groundbreaking on new Detroit apartments

The Detroit Pistons organization says it still plans to develop hundreds of new apartments in the city's New Center area, even as attention lately has shifted to its proposed $50 million WNBA facility development on the east riverfront.

The Pistons are partners in a $3 billion New Center development that won approval last year for local and state incentives and involves collaboration with Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University.

As part of that development, a Pistons-related entity is to develop three nearby apartment projects over several years totaling 662 units.

Construction of the first project, a new six-story, $79 million building at 725 Amsterdam St. with 154 mixed-income apartments, was originally anticipated to start in the second quarter of this year and finish in 2027, according to the timeline of the development's "Transformational Brownfield" incentive.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/busine...w-center-detroit-apartments/86745718007/

Henry Ford - MSU Research Center
https://www.freep.com/story/money/busine...w-center-detroit-apartments/86745718007/

[airforceguy]

Renaissance Center to lose another big tenant to nearby office space

Urban Science is leaving the Renaissance Center, another blow for the struggling downtown Detroit skyline landmark that is targeted for a $1.6 billion-plus overhaul.

Detroit-based Urban Science is downsizing its office footprint to about 35,000 square feet in the Dan Gilbert-owned One Campus Martius building. Its new offices will be next door to Hudson’s Detroit, where General Motors Co. will be moving its longtime headquarters in January. Construction on Urban Science's 15th-floor space in the One Campus Martius building is expected to begin later this fall and wrap up in the spring.

Urban Science is a data-mapping company focused on the automotive and car dealership industry.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/urban-science-leave-renaissance-center




Major retailer coming to block across from Hudson's in downtown Detroit

Timberland is opening a downtown Detroit store next month.

A spokesperson confirmed the New Hampshire-based maker of boots, shoes and other outerwear is opening Nov. 14 in about 1,400 square feet in the Traver Building at 1217 Woodward Ave. Grand opening activations are planned for the weekend of Nov. 15-16.

It's the company's first standalone store to open this year, the spokesperson said. The store is another notch in the city's retail belt, having lured the likes of Apple, Alo, Tecovas, Gucci, Savage X Fenty, GW Home, Free People and others to the downtown core in the last few years. Signs had been pointing to Timberland opening a downtown Detroit store — literally. There is a sign on the Traver Building's door identifying Timberland as the user.

Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real estate company owns the Traver Building just north of State Street, across from the Hudson’s Detroit development.

“Timberland’s new prototype store on Woodward Avenue represents more than great design — it reflects a commitment to people, place and purpose,” said Jennifer Skiba, vice president of retail leasing at Bedrock, in a statement. “Their dedication to craftsmanship and community mirrors Detroit’s own sense of pride, creativity and connection.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate-insider/timberland-open-downtown-detroit-store

[The North One]

Detroit Land Bank chief: Detroit is running out of derelict homes to rehab

Detroit is running out of abandoned homes.

Over the past decade, thousands of abandoned homes have been salvaged and rehabilitated, providing Detroiters access to affordable housing options. While the declining number of abandoned homes may sound like good news — and it mostly is — it presents an unfamiliar problem: there’s simply not enough housing. To meet current and future housing needs, Detroit must create thousands of new units each year. We can no longer rely on rehabilitation alone to expand the city’s housing supply and support housing affordability.

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/cont...nd-bank-vacant-lots-housing/86565255007/

[DetroitMan]

LuxWall to move ahead with Detroit glass factory despite loss of federal grant

LuxWall Inc. CEO Scott Thomsen said the glass manufacturer will move forward with its Detroit factory despite the federal government cancelling a $31.7 million grant intended to support the project.

However, the Department of Energy’s decision to nix the funding — part of a sweeping plan to slash Biden-era awards — could delay the ramp-up and job creation at the Southwest Detroit factory, Thomsen told reporters Tuesday.“Right now, we’re in the process of appealing just like everybody else,” the CEO said following a tour of the under-construction site. “You have to always be careful because we built our business plan on it, so it’s important and has a big impact. It could delay expansion or how fast you ramp…”

Thomsen said that the project, which would create 276 jobs if all goes according to plan, will continue despite the pullback of the grant, which was announced in November 2023. He said that the funding was a catalyst for expansion, but the project is too important to stop.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/manufacturing/luxwall-move-ahead-detroit-plant-despite-doe-grant-cut

[airforceguy]

Detroit's Cody High School breaks ground on new building

Students at Detroit's Cody High School celebrated the coming of a new era, along with school district leaders and Cody Comets alumni, where generations of students have proudly walked the halls since 1947. Dakota Johnson, the Class of 2028's president, told 7 News Detroit the current building is "very outdated. They got old windows. The ceilings are falling apart."The district said there's also no air conditioning, but that's one of many new features going into the new building currently under construction next door.

https://www.wxyz.com/news/detroits-cody-high-school-breaks-ground-on-new-building

[DetroitMan]

A few updates on restaurants opening around the city next month...

Toastique coming to Detroit
Washington, D.C.-based Toastique all-day brunch restaurant chain will open a location Nov. 8 in downtown Detroit, according to a news release.

Siblings Nour Kanaan, Sarah Kanaan, Hanadi Kanaan, Aya Kanaan, Abbas Kanaan and Zeinab Ballout are the franchisees and will run the business in a Bedrock property at 89 Monroe St.

It’s the second Toastique location in Michigan, following an Ann Arbor location that opened in August 2024.


Toastique's menu features toast with avocado, salmon, crab, peanut butter and more as well as all-natural smoothies, cold-pressed juices and smoothie bowls.

The fast-casual chain has 56 locations across the country and lists 13 more locations as “coming soon,” including the Detroit store.

Cheesecake maker lands first brick-and-mortar home
An Oakland County-based, woman-owned dessert business has found a home in Detroit.

For the Love of Cheesecake owner Cortney Hamilton will open a retail store at 18685 Livernois Ave. in Detroit’s University District, according to an Oct. 18 social media post. The business will take over a space previously occupied by Waffle Cafe Detroit, which closed in July.

Hamilton calls her daughter the motivation for the business. “My true drive, inspiration, and motivation is my baby girl AKA little Mz. Cheesecake,” Hamilton said in the post. “Ever since she was born, I’ve taken For the Love of Cheesecake to levels I never imagined.”

Hamilton did not respond to Crain’s request for more information.

The self-taught baker launched her business in 2016, operating pop-ups at places including Eastern Market and Bucharest Grill. Hamilton also has a spot inside Ford Field that’s open during Detroit Lions home games and was chosen as a food vendor during the 2024 NFL Draft.

For the Love of Cheesecake sells a variety of whole and personal-size cheesecakes, party trays and cupcakes.


Chick Fil A opening on east side
Detroit's first standalone Chick Fil A restaurant is slated to open this fall on the east side of Detroit.

The fast-food outlet is set to open Nov. 13 at 17761 Mack Ave., according to a Google search. The Atlanta-based company also has a location inside the Detroit Medical Center near Midtown.

The Mack Avenue location has been met with some tension. City of Detroit officials in May ordered a work stoppage on the demolition of the site that previously housed a Buick service center. City officials said a contractor did not give advanced notice of the work to neighboring property owners. The demolition continued later that month.

Chick Fil A announced in February 2024 plans for a downtown Detroit location at 660 Woodward Ave. in the First National Building, but has not disclosed an opening date.

The chicken sandwich giant has 31 locations in Michigan, the first of which opened in 2015 in Lansing.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/restaurants/toastique-open-first-detroit-location

[airforceguy]

Transformation of former Arthur Murray dance studio on Detroit's east side begins

Developers, politicians and other dignitaries gathered Wednesday for the latest project to move forward in the area, the more than $15 million redevelopment and expansion of the Arthur Murray Building in the East English Village neighborhood.

The development will include 32 new apartments — including affordable units for Detroit residents — along with 8,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space to be occupied by Activate Detroit, a community development and entrepreneurship support organization. Led by W. Emery Matthews, CEO of Detroit-based Real Estate Interests LLC, the project will take a more than 70-year-old building — home of the world’s first Arthur Murray Dance Studio franchise location — and bring new housing at a variety of income levels, between 60% and 80% of the region’s area median income, which would be between $42,420 and $70,700 for a single person in Wayne County.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/former-arthur-murray-dance-studio-redevelopment-begins

[airforceguy]

Downtown Detroit Chick-fil-A update

The Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurant planned for downtown Detroit is getting closer to opening.

The location planned for a ground-floor space inside the Bedrock-owned First National Building at 660 Woodward Ave. across from Campus Martius Park will open by the end of this year or early next year, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based chicken sandwich giant said in an email to Crain’s.

The restaurant was announced in February 2024, with an initial opening date of spring 2024.


Chick-fil-A has 42 locations in Michigan, the first of which opened in 2015 in Lansing. It has one Detroit location, inside the Detroit Medical Center, and a standalone restaurant is slated to open later this month at 17761 Mack Ave. on the border with Grosse Pointe.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/restaurants/chick-fil-nears-downtown-detroit-opening

[airforceguy]

RenCen redevelopment gets first public money — and is now on the clock

The Downtown Development Authority board unanimously signed off on a total of up to $75 million in reimbursements to Bedrock LLC and General Motors Co. for several pieces of the $1.6 billion or so project first floated a year ago this month. It’s a small piece of what’s expected to be a much broader public financing package; the project’s backers have said it would not happen without lawmakers raising the cap on the Transformational Brownfield Program, a reimbursement incentive that largely comes from the state.

Lawmakers are still in conversations about how and whether to accomplish that. The program's $1.6 billion cap on post-construction tax captures is almost entirely spoken for, with $30 million or so remaining, Crain's reported last month. The $75 million consists of two tranches: $20 million that the DDA would reimburse for demolition of the RenCen’s 1.5 million-square-foot retail podium; and another $55 million the DDA would reimburse for the creation of public plazas on Jefferson Avenue and Atwater Street, creating new roads running through the site, as well as pedestrian paths and promenades.

The reimbursements would come every six months after demolition and construction costs, according to staff for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., which staffs the DDA, during Wednesday’s meeting.

Jared Fleisher, president of Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock, said demolition of the podium is expected to cost a little more than $20 million, and the $55 million would reimburse only a portion of the roughly $137 million needed for the civic spaces project.

The RenCen proposal includes the demolition of the 300 and 400 office towers that sit closest to the Detroit River, freeing up some five acres of land for new park space along the water.

In addition, the 727-foot Marriott hotel tower — the state’s tallest building — would have its approximately 1,300 hotel rooms reduced to 858 rooms, with approximately 200 rental units on the top 20 floors replacing the lost rooms. There would also be an observation deck.

The 100 Tower would be turned into 384 units of housing, while the 200 Tower would be renovated as modern office space.

The DDA funding is contingent upon approval of a transformational brownfield plan by March 31, 2027, by the Detroit City Council and the Michigan Strategic Fund. In addition, the funding would not be awarded if there are more than 18 months of delays from the anticipated June 30, 2027, start of the podium demolition and the anticipated June 30, 2028, start of the public space improvements, according to a DDA board memo. The reimbursements would take place between 2027 and 2033.

None of the $20 million in demolition funding would go toward tearing down the 300 and 400 towers, executives said. Each tower could cost north of $50 million to raze.

In addition to the redevelopment of the RenCen itself, the broader vision includes converting the 20-some acres of largely surface parking lots east of the complex into a new waterfront athletic and entertainment district likened to New York City’s Chelsea Pier and Chicago’s Navy Pier.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/rencen-bedrock-general-motors-public-funding-approval

[airforceguy]

City, state reach deal to lease Belle Isle Boathouse to developer

The city of Detroit and the state of Michigan have come to an agreement on a deal with developer Stuart-Pitman Inc. for a lease will allow work to begin on the $30 million-plus Belle Isle Boathouse plan.

The lease agreement is expected to go before the Detroit City Council for final approval late this month, leaders said.

Pending additional sign-offs from the developer and the state, the lease would give the developer and its affiliates management control of the historic Belle Isle Boathouse site for the next 50 years, said David Carleton, principal of Stuart-Pitman.

The lease agreement will give Stuart-Pitman the right to redevelop, operate and program the Boathouse site, Carleton said. The developer is looking to begin work on the structure’s roof next year.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estat...eal-lease-belle-isle-boathouse-developer

[airforceguy]

New affordable housing development breaks ground at historic Brewster-Douglass site

An $80 million affordable housing development broke ground Friday, bringing 211 affordable units to the Brush Park area on a site that was once home to the first federally funded housing project in the country.

The Brewster-Douglass housing project was built in 1930 and demolished in 2013 and 2014. The vacant site has been the subject of a variety of development plans since.

The Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center near Mack Avenue and I-75 that remains on the site was the gym where legendary boxer Joe Louis trained and Motown singer Diana Ross played as a child. The new Brewster Wheeler Apartments project builds on the city’s affordable housing goals while also developing a long-vacant site close to downtown Detroit and the three professional sports facilities.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/developers-break-ground-historic-brewster-douglass-site

[airforceguy]

Detroit-based theater company A Host of People acquires former church

Since 2014, Detroit-based A Host of People has produced ensemble theater in venues across the Motor City and beyond. And soon, the theater company hopes to have a home of its own.

On Saturday, AHOP announced it has acquired a 14,000-square-foot vacant church located at 6000 30th St. on the city’s west side. The company held a reveal party in a heated tent where they hosted performances and offered attendees flashlight-led tours of the building, which it hopes to rehab by late 2026 or early 2027.

The plan is to transform the building into not just a performance space for its own productions but a community resource with a rehearsal studio, shared workspace, and a shop. The project is anticipated to cost more than $1 million.

https://www.metrotimes.com/arts/arts-sto...a-host-of-people-acquires-former-church/

[DetroitMan]

Stanton Yards development merges art, nature on Detroit River, envisions ‘thriving new community destination’

The Stanton Yards project aims to transform a storage- and service-based marina site into a 13-acre cultural gathering place for the community, featuring over 80,000 square feet of commercial and creative space, 85 boat slips, and public waterfront parkland.

The Stanton Yards site, formerly known as Gregory Marina, includes former marina showrooms, marina storage buildings, service shops, and an old theater. The site has a substantial hardscape and no public access. The Curises purchased the property in 2023, according to the project developers.

The first portion of Stanton Yards is projected to open by fall 2026, said Simon David, the project’s lead designer, and the principal and creative director at OSD, a New York design firm specializing in sustainability.

Little Village, in Detroit’s East Village neighborhood, aims to foster an inclusive community centered around the arts. It’s named this year as one of Time magazine’s “World’s Greatest Places.”

A former 100-year-old Roman Catholic church transformed into an arts and community hub, The Shepherd, anchors Little Village, along with an art education and exhibition facility, the LANTERN.

“Stanton Yards is a natural extension of the work we’re doing in Little Village and will connect to other Detroit arts-driven projects like the Shepherd and LANTERN,” Anthony Curis told Planet Detroit.

“We are transforming a cluster of vacant storage buildings into a mix of cultural, commercial, and hospitality-driven spaces, while reimagining the grounds into a network of pedestrian-accessible spaces and parks for the Detroit community to enjoy.”

Curis declined to comment on the estimated cost of the Stanton Yards development.

https://planetdetroit.org/2025/11/detroit-riverfront-cultural-hub/

[Zapatan]

Ren. Center renovation actually looks cool despite losing two towers

[DetroitMan]

Midtown project for food, apartment space seeks tax break

The Five and Dime is a $2 million joint project of Detroit Rising Development and Facilities Management Group. They’re seeking to redevelop a vacant building at 3700 3rd Ave. into a multi-tenant food and beverage collective with 10 single-unit apartments on the second floor.

The project will seek a 12-year tax exemption, according to city records. Jonathan Hartzell, co-owner of Detroit Rising Development, described it as a platform for small startup vendors and a collective environment fostering collaboration and shared efficiencies.

City records show the building has been vacant for the last decade. Restoration work includes significant upgrades to plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems, new windows, floors and some demolition.

https://www.bridgedetroit.com/five-and-dime-midtown-detroit-development/

[sentinel]

Seems really shortsighted and wasteful to demolish two Ren Center towers. Like, they really couldn't find anyone to sell them to, even at a steep discount? If I was a savvy developer, I would try very hard to buy them for as little as possible, spend actual money refitting them for residential or hotel use (or both); would probably cost just as much if not a little less than the estimated $50 million to demolish EACH tower, just to transform the MEP and create amenity spaces of each building, in order to transform them to residential. It's just such a massive shame.

[SperamusMeliora]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Seems really shortsighted and wasteful to demolish two Ren Center towers. Like, they really couldn't find anyone to sell them to, even at a steep discount? If I was a savvy developer, I would try very hard to buy them for as little as possible, spend actual money refitting them for residential or hotel use (or both); would probably cost just as much if not a little less than the estimated $50 million to demolish EACH tower, just to transform the MEP and create amenity spaces of each building, in order to transform them to residential. It's just such a massive shame.

I couldn’t agree more. If the chief complaint about the building is that it’s disconnected from the downtown, get some infill development and connect it. The 3 blocks to the east of the RenCen is largely vacant land (roughly 30% parking structures and 60% surface lots). They should develop that area (preferably as mixed use with some more park space) and mothball the 2 towers. Then after the area to the east is complete and is actively contributing to the city‘s economy, decide whether the towers can’t be saved.

Also, isn’t there still the I-375 project?! That should make Jefferson feel less insurmountable to cross and possibly generate even more development to extend downtown closer to the riverfront.

[airforceguy]

Packard Plant site project to have manufacturing, housing, indoor skate park

Publicly unveiled during a Monday morning press conference on the site around East Grand Boulevard and I-94, city leadership and the development team said there is an agreement to build a 393,000-square-foot new manufacturing facility on 28 acres, as well restore and convert an existing Albert Kahn-designed building into 42 units of live/work housing plus the skate park and the Museum of Detroit Electronic Music.

The redevelopment spearheaded by Mark Bennett and Oren Goldenberg is proposed for 28 acres of the 40-acre now largely demolished Packard Motor Car Co. auto factory along East Grand Boulevard near Interstate 94. During a Monday morning news conference, Mayor Mike Duggan said the effort to repurpose the 117,000-square-foot Albert Kahn building on the south side of East Grand Boulevard previously put off developers who wanted to raze the remaining structures on the property to build warehouse and industrial buildings.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/packard-plant-redevelopment-announced

[Velvet_Highground]

I really don’t like demolishing the two Ren Cen towers I don’t particularly like the complex but it’s an iconic Detroit and for that I do have love for it. From even postcard perfect banger shots it’s disjointed and its presence dominates the entire skyline from the SE. Think it’s a bit like how some New Yorkers felt about the Twin Towers before 9/11 when they were a bit controversial.

Get the economic, political and historical reasoning not wanting to repeat mistakes of the past voters were starting to question the incentive system and the Ren Cen renovation funded by state and federal subsidies was very much on the ballot. All that said I think it’s a mistake for better or worse the Ren Cen took over the place in the heart of the city that the Hudsons Tower held. GM moving back downtown in 1996 was the beginning of the revival of downtown despite the initial failure is an understatement catastrophe the Ren Cen was for downtown it was renovated and turned into a net positive.

City leaders are afraid of repeating the same mistake that killed the downtown office market in the 70’s when the new Ren Cen a disconnected self sustaining fortress sucked up so many tenets it caused mass vacancies leading to abandonment and furthered blight. Spending the past 30 years working to reverse that saving downtown a large portion of which was 10-20 years away from being knocked down.

There’s a fine line where the pendulum swings too far to the other direction when making the kind of hard choices that spurred the frantic redevelopment efforts, tearing down the Lafayette Building in 2011 for example hard to say where that lands. Using we will tear down the two waterfront towers should be a development tool the stick so to speak while leaders should take an approach like they have with 375 by not rushing into this. Sure if nothing can be done in the private sector and no additional partners are willing to step in as hopefully in a few years when perhaps we will see better economic prospects okay we can’t just leave it to decay.

Really cool to see this particular mixed use plan for the Packard Plant it harkens back to the original 2016 contest in some ways but feels realistic enough to see it happen in today’s economy. I don’t like the parallel once again that it took a demolition to spur saving the remaining offices and set up redevelopment but Michigan Central Depot was on the chopping block until it wasn’t anymore. The Ren Cen for all its flaws is the symbol of big city Detroit our regional wealth power and mistakes as well seeing it saved and brought into the 21st century on stable footing for the future would awesome. I hope that there is an element of the stick built into the demolition plans as there has often been with the city’s revival making people stand up and take notice that if they have the means and don’t try that our greatest landmark will be lost in its original form.

Though it does need to see the riverfront development project as part of a larger plan to tie it in with the rest of the city. My guess is that this larger development aspect may be part of the hold up. Just renovating the building won’t fix its isolation problem. Unfortunately we lost a lot of the east riverfront in the botched riverfront casino deal 20 years ago a vibrant community at the time that now needs to be rebuilt. The irony of the first great downtown screw up aside from the freeways could potentially lead to the now loved Ren Cen being partly demoed due to the last real big downtown screwup sans fail jail.

[Velvet_Highground]

A bevy of housing projects in metro Detroit get boosts from $5M in grants


The Preserve on Ash

4401 Rosa Parks, a $25.8 million ground-up development in Detroit's Woodbridge neighborhood with 40 one-bedroom and 20 two-bedroom apartments which broke ground in May. Developed by Cinnaire Solutions and Woodbridge Neighborhood Development, the project received $850,000 from the FHLBank.

The Gesu Senior Housing development near Livernois and McNichols roads in northwest Detroit received a $700,000 subsidy from FHLBank. The 36-unit project is a split venture between Gesu Parish Detroit and Bingham Farms-based MHT Housing Inc., and received about $1.65 million in federal tax credits earlier this year.

The Lighthouse Campus Housing Opportunity Center, among several projects underway by Pontiac-based nonprofit Lighthouse MI, received a $1 million grant from FHLBank for 92 affordable housing units in the Oakland County city.

Efforts to revive a vacant 12-story building along a rejuvenating Dexter Avenue corridor in Detroit's Russell Woods neighborhood got underway in May. Now, the 77-unit, $28 million Russell Woods Senior Living Community will benefit from a $962,500 grant from the FHLBank.

The 53-unit Archdale Senior Apartments is being co-developed by Cleveland-based CHN Housing and Detroit-based Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance, and received a $1 million grant for 53 housing units. Located in the west side Detroit neighborhood of Cody Rouge, the project is still in the predevelopment process awaiting gap funding, according to Kenyetta Campbell, CEO of the CRCAA.

The third phase of the Preserve on Ash development in Detroit's North Corktown neighborhood, received $750,000 grant for 60 affordable housing units. Owned by The Community Builders, an affordable housing company operating around the eastern U.S., the project is a multi-phase development set to bring nearly 200 housing units to vacant land north of the Michigan Central Station in Corktown.

As well, several other projects around the state, including some in Flint, Port Huron and West Michigan, received FHLBank grants.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estat...using-projects-see-5-million-plus-grants

Went to school with the son of one of the co-owners (at least for a time) shame they never leveraged the massively improved location to make improvements on the building the Leland has been the Leland for as long as I’ve known it. Party downstairs sad rooms upstairs.

Leland House tenants face possible removal over owners' unpaid utility bills

Tenants of a long-struggling downtown Detroit high-rise are hanging by a thread as the building's owners navigate bankruptcy.

The people, many of whom are low-income, living in about 40 units of the 20-story Leland House building at 400 Bagley St. at Cass Avenue were informed Friday that they might need to move out of the building due to a pending electrical shutoff by Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. But Monday, the building's owners said they secured bankruptcy financing that would allow for paying the utility company $43,000 toward a down payment for owner-accrued past-due charges, as well as continue making improvements to the building, per the conditions of a consent decree with the city.

The rub? The building's owners say they are unsure that they'll have access to the funds to meet the Wednesday deadline to pay DTE.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estat...ts-face-removal-over-owners-unpaid-bills