October Review Newsletter
What happened in Detroit during the spooky month
Welcome to the first edition of the Detroit Development News monthly recap. I try to keep people updated on what’s going on around Detroit through pictures and descriptions on Twitter, but it doesn’t give me as much room as I’d like to add some commentary and anecdotes about certain projects, so I figured I’d do that here. I plan on trying to make this a monthly thing, at the very least, so if you want a fresh rundown of Detroit Development News in your inbox every month, subscribe and share!
University of Michigan Center for Innovation (formerly Detroit Center for Innovation)
We have life, and a new name, for one of the most exciting projects announced in the past couple of years. I say this for a few different reasons. One, I actually think this project will get done. Yeah, the Illitch’s are sort of involved, but they aren’t the lead developer and if you look at the one thing Olympia actually has delivered on, it’s the Wayne State Business School. With Related Co’s and the University of Michigan involved, I don’t think any amount of Olympia sandbagging can bring this down. Plus, you nearly have a complete picture of the capital stack already, given the $100m gift from Stephen Ross and the $100m earmark from the state, it appears just $50m remains in fundraiser efforts for the University. As far as big-time developments go, when you can already say you have 80% of your funding in place, it’s a pretty solid deal.
Secondly, I think higher education developments are truly force multiplies in cities, with both growing the economy and, hopefully in turn, population. While this isn’t the full University of Michigan, if it could host even 1000 students a year, I think it would have nearly unrivaled impact on the city. They are already planning a residential component to house the students, which could help lead to increased population long term for the city. With the rise of remote or hybrid work, there’s a national trend of “college towns” retaining talent after graduation because the students don’t have to move away to find a job.
Additionally, this will hopefully end the sea of parking that is the area behind the Fox currently. If we can get at least the main building, a residential building, and probably a parking garage, “Foxtown” could start to resemble somewhat of a neighborhood. The United Artists Theater redevelopment, along with the Park Avenue Building (which may or may not be stalled), should provide some additional housing. I think a decent amount of parking remains, as there is still a demand for it, but if we see increased demand for housing and offices in the area as an offshoot of the UofM investment, maybe that will change.
Henry Ford Health: The Future of Health
All the praises that I have for higher education developments carry over to this project, with the addition of a major healthcare development. The development by Henry Ford Health includes contributions from Michigan State University to create a 335,000 SF research facility within the newly expanded campus. At one point, there were also discussions about a full fledge medical school on the campus, but those are not in the immediate plans as far as I know. There are currently discussions, however, to expand the MSU Medical School to include departments that are going to be directly connected with Henry Ford Health, so the full-on medical school may still be in the cards.
While the research facility with MSU gets a thumbs up from me because it brings more higher education to the city, it’s but just one small part of this billion dollar plus development. Included is a new hospital tower across Grand Boulevard, next to the Harris Cancer Pavillion. Within the new tower (and among the campus), there will be an expansion of the operations already going on withing HFH, along with some new additions and expansions. Included in this is the world-renowned Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, which you’ll recall, is the institute where Dan Gilbert did his rehabilitation after his 2019 stroke. In an interview after his stroke, Gilbert noted that Detroit needed a similar facility, but wasn’t sure how he could bring it to the city. Looks like he figured it out. In addition to Shirley Ryan, Gilbert will fund the newly formed Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute, within the new joint research facility. For both of these additions, Dan Gilbert has donated $375m, obviously influenced by how both of these facilities will help those with conditions that hit close to home. Nick Gilbert is the late son of Dan Gilbert who was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis as a child.
Last but not least, three residential components are proposed as part of this development, in conjunction with HHF and the Detroit Pistons. The former office headquarters building of HFH, 1 Ford Place, is being converted to residential. This would be one of Detroit’s first office to residential conversions since the pandemic, something cities around the County are looking into extensively as the need for office space lowers and demand for residential increases. Additionally, the Pistons are involved in developing two ground up residential complexes between 1 Ford Place and the Pistons Performance Center, total over 650 units.
Left Field Affordable Housing
For every million- and billion-dollar development announced, I’m equally as excited to see small infill and affordable housing. When old Tiger Stadium was redeveloped a few years back, it consisted of mostly market rate apartments, retail, and fairly expensive condos. Now the city is utilizing the left field area of the old stadium and developing affordable housing, aptly named “Left Field.” The group up construction project from American Community Developers brings 120 affordable units to the Corktown neighborhood. Affordable, in this case, means 40% of the units are reserved for people who make 60% of the area median income, which is slated at $53,700 for a family of four or $37,620 for an individual.
Utilizing AMI for affordable housing is a bit of a controversial topic that arises every time there’s one of these announcements. The issue being that the “area” in AMI utilizes a larger swath of land than just Detroit, which increases the AMI and thus, increases the price that these apartments can be rented out at. Bridge Detroit did a good write up on the issue here. Even with these issues, I find this project to be an excellent addition to the area because Corktown is quickly becoming one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city. It is good foresight by the city preserve some level of affordability in the housing stock. Under construction now is phase 1, with phase 2 commencing after its completion early next year.
An interesting story that came out about this project was the idea that it was delayed because of a controversial scoreboard. While the outer perimeter of Tigers Stadium is housing and commercial space, the inside is still an active ballpark, currently owned by the Police Athletic League, but used by high school and college teams alike. When the playing field was built, a scoreboard was installed in left field, and it stood there until the PAL received a letter stating that the sign had actually been built on land owned by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. Rounds of negotiations ensued, each party claimed the other party had to pay for the relocation, and Wayne County Corporation Counsel had to get involved. Ultimately, the scoreboard was relocated to right field, and the two groups moved onto a squabble about egress for trash collection.