Real Estate and Development
Real estate and Development stories in and around the city of Detroit.
Only one Detroit City Council member — Angela Whitfield-Calloway who introduced it — supported a resolution to make the RenCen a historic district, subject to additional restrictions that would have helped preserve all of the towers.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan sent the following statement:
Designating the Renaissance Center as historic office buildings would have killed any realistic hope of redevelopment and pretty much guaranteed Detroit would have five empty towers sitting on the riverfront for the next 30-40 years.
Thanks to Detroit City Council’s strong stance today, the Mayor’s Office and Council can now move forward to explore all alternatives and develop the best solution for our city’s future.
The current proposed plan by General Motors and Bedrock is to demolish two of the towers, rehab one as more modern offices, another as residential, and improve hotel amenities.
Devon O'Reilly joins in to round up some of the interesting stories and places around town.
Timestamps:
00:21 - Introductions, mentioning that Fat Tuesday is approaching and our favorite flavors of Paczki
03:
12 Things To Know Around Metro Detroit
One of the most impactful stories long-term on Detroit isn't in the core of downtown, but up by the New Center and TechTown.
The Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences Research Center is will be a seven-story, $335 million building that will be home to various medical research teams devoted to cancer, neuroscience, cardiometabolic diseases, and immunology — as well as the Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute.
I saw that major visible progress is being made and wanted to share a little update.
You can find it on Third Street, south of the boulevard and across from the Pistons Performance Center.
Part of the wider $3 billion Henry Ford and MSU partnership, this should be ready in 2027.
The Prince of Brightmoor Norris Howard is in, and we discuss a recent push to turn the RenCen into a historic district to save all of the towers. Is that the best way forward?
Plus,
The spot I visited Tuesday was Brush Park Apartments.
It's a $19-million development with 53 affordable units and 3,800 square feet of commercial space at 269 Winder in Detroit.
The second is in Midtown. It's named MLK on 2nd, at 3515 Second Avenue.
That $11.5-million project has 33 units and also features ground-floor commercial space.
Out of the combined 86 units across both developments, 63 will be deeply affordable for those earning 60 percent area median income (AMI) or below, with the remainder being available for households earning 80 percent AMI or below.
The projects, funded through various partnerships including CVS Health, Fifth Third Bank, and government programs, aim to make sure Detroiters can afford to live in desirable neighborhoods.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said that more than $1 billion of affordable housing has been built in the last five years.
A litte Townie Talk with Fletcher Sharpe...
Topic timestamps:
02:10 Fletcher appears on One Detroit and talks about the hug that broke barriers in baseball
04:28 - Seva is closing. We
I saw visual progress is being made on the former United Savings Bank in Detroit's Capitol Park.
It's undergoing significant remodeling to an art deco-inspired design, and the addition of four new floors. Two stories will be for commercial space, and the rest will have 25 residential units.
Designed by Albert Kahn and opened in 1921, the building's facade was ruined by a "facelift" in the 70s that removed most of the windows.
The developers of 1133 Griswold Street are the Detroit-based RKP Group.
How the building looked in the 1920s, vs. just before renovation, then the rendering for the future.
Outlier Media's Aaron Mondry joins us to talk about his in-depth reporting about foreigners investing in Detroit through cryptocurrency.
More, as part of his series on the "Speculators of Detroit": https://outliermedia.org/crypto-real-estate-realt-cryptocurrency-detroit/