DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[DetroitMan]

The city is planning to construct streetscape improvements along W Warren between the Dearborn City Limits and Livernois. The improvements would include protected bike lanes, lane reconfigurations, improved bus stops, public art and traffic signal improvements. The city will host a community outreach meeting on March 19th at the Detroit Equity Alliance to discuss the project. Construction would start in April 2025 and last until September 2025.
https://detroitmi.gov/events/w-warre...eting-march-19

[isoamazing]

Has there been any update on when the Music Hall expansion is breaking ground, I thought they said they had everything ready to go for end of January

[seabee1526]

Has the failed jail site been earmarked for a Mega AI Data Center?

[DetroitMan]

Should a 'lid' be built over I-75 in Detroit? Grants will fund a study of the feasibility.

Nearly $4.3 million in federal grants and private money will fund a study of the feasibility of putting a lid, or cap, over a portion of Interstate 75 in downtown Detroit to connect and beautify the area — potentially with a park or other green space above the sunken trench of concrete.

One award, which was announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation, is designated for the Downtown Detroit Partnership, whose application was backed by the state Department of Transportation. The I-75 "overbuild" planning project will conduct community engagement and analyze building a deck over the freeway to reconnect neighborhoods to the north, Midtown and Brush Park, with downtown.

The announcement is the latest boost for the concept, which comes amid a plan to raise nearby I-375 to street level and convert it to a six-lane boulevard. Detroit got a $1.9 million grant, backed by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, to study the capping idea under a spending bill signed last week by President Joe Biden.

And the developers of The District Detroit, Olympia Development of Michigan and The Related Cos., agreed to contribute a $400,000 match to the Downtown Detroit Partnership as part of tax incentives and a community benefits agreement that were approved roughly a year ago.

"The interesting thing about the cap is not only does it really connect the two sections of our downtown, but it also provides for some great public space on top of the cap," Downtown Detroit Partnership CEO Eric Larson said. "Think about what could be, depending on the size of the cap, a very significant public space or park that becomes a community asset. We'll be doing a lot of studies around that. We don't have any predetermined conclusions. And that's why this grant is so important." t is unknown how much the I-75 lid would cost. Talk of the cap sprung from talks about overhauling I-375 and picked up steam during the District Detroit community benefits process, Larson said, when questions were posed on how to restitch downtown and make it more attractive.

"There was an opportunity to not only think about I-375 but also how the overall transportation network in the downtown was coming together. There is a significant amount of investment over the next 10 years that's going to be required by MDOT and the city. When we make those investments, what do we do to make sure that they are not only smart but also long-term? And 75 came into focus," he said.

Asked how big the lid could be, Larson said it depends. It could range from 3 or 4 acres to "significantly larger" if it covered the entire east-west span downtown, he said, pointing to the 7.8-mile Big Dig project in Boston and the 5.2-acre Klyde Warren Park in Dallas.

The "deck park," which opened in 2012, was built over a recessed eight-lane freeway. The $110 million project had $56.7 million in government funding, with the rest coming from donations to a foundation.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/politi...wntown-detroit

[Velvet_Highground]

Great to see this concept moving forward it was a cool idea when proposed with the new district Detroit plan however I don’t think I need to mention how long we’ve been waiting on that particular project. Now that the talk has moved to the federal level & is being mentioned in the same breath as the 375 removal this is becoming very interesting.

[subterranean]

Oregon was just allocated a staggering $450 million to cap I-5 in the Albina District of Portland. What a shift in priorities, hope to see it in Detroit as well.

[seabee1526]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QttzDwjRo&t=796s

Nice drone footage of the United Artists Bldg Reno.

[hybrydy]

Originally Posted by subterranean

Oregon was just allocated a staggering $450 million to cap I-5 in the Albina District of Portland. What a shift in priorities, hope to see it in Detroit as well.

There's a long list of these types of projects.

• Buffalo, New York, is getting the largest award: a $55.6 million grant to build a cap and tunnel over a 1960s-era six-lane expressway, which segregated Black residents from the rest of the city.
  
  Oak Park, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, is receiving $21.7 million to reconstruct a crumbling plaza over I-696, a trenched highway that bisects the city's Orthodox Jewish community.
  
  Boston is getting $2 million to begin planning a park over the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) in Chinatown, considered the state's most polluted neighborhood.
  
  St. Paul, Minnesota, received a $2 million grant to study the environmental and traffic impact of a proposed five-block "land bridge" to reconnect the city's majority Black Rondo neighborhood.
  
  Tampa is getting a $5.3 million grant to lower an interchange ramp to street level in order to eliminate the barrier between downtown and the city's riverfront and to make the streets safer for walking and biking.

Source

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by Velvet_Highground

Great to see this concept moving forward it was a cool idea when proposed with the new district Detroit plan however I don’t think I need to mention how long we’ve been waiting on that particular project. Now that the talk has moved to the federal level & is being mentioned in the same breath as the 375 removal this is becoming very interesting.

Speaking of District Detroit -

New timeline, construction plan for $1.5B District Detroit development
JC Reindl | Detroit Free Press
March 14, 2024

Rendering of residential building at 2250 Woodward -


Source: Detroit Free Press | Provided by Olympia Development

(also posted in the dedicated thread, here)

[deja vu]

Progress photos of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park - the play garden is taking shape. It reminds me a bit of the one at Chicago's Maggie Daley Park -











Source: Facebook | Detroit Riverfront

[subterranean]

Epic. A nice addition to the Corktown area on its march toward transformation.

[DetroitMan]

Henry Ford Health to break ground on first part of $3B project in Detroit this spring

Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University plan to break ground this spring on the first piece of the $3 billion development planned for Detroit’s New Center area.

Dates are still being finalized, but land clearing for the $400 million joint research building, which will include the Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute, is set to begin this spring, Bob Riney, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health and Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year said on Thursday at a luncheon honoring Crain's Newsmakers for 2023.

Groundbreaking for the new, $1.8 billion Henry Ford Health hospital tower also planned as part of the project will then begin sometime in the fall, he said.

The former Health Alliance Plan building at the corner of West Grand Boulevard and the John C. Lodge Freeway/M-10 service drive will be coming down any day, Riney said, “and that'll start the process of getting the land ready.” Halfway through its projected seven-year run, a nine-figure campaign supporting the Detroit project and other capital and funding needs for the health system beyond that, is gaining traction, he told the crowd of about 450 people gathered for the Crain’s Detroit Newsmaker of the Year Luncheon at MGM Grand Casino Hotel.

“There's a lot of capital campaigns going on for a lot of really good causes. And so at first, we were a little concerned about that, but we have a great donor base and we're welcoming all of you into it today,” Riney said during his fireside chat with Crain Communications Inc. President and CEO KC Crain.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/health...detroit-spring

[Velvet_Highground]

Awesome to see Ralph C. Wilson coming together.

Originally Posted by deja vu

Speaking of District Detroit -



Rendering of residential building at 2250 Woodward -


Source: Detroit Free Press | Provided by Olympia Development

(also posted in the dedicated thread, here)

I’m not surprised that the "resequencing" of District Detroit is centered around the UMCI with its official groundbreaking in back in December. I’m glad to see the 18 story residential tower with student housing & 20% “affordable housing” offering “below market rates”. The University of Michigan Center for Innovation is one of the most exciting projects of this year & that’s not a low bar.

With a new Little Caesar’s HQ next to the Fox & the lower demand for office space get the feeling that a renovation of the Fox offices into hotel space is likely going to be the call for the next announcement.

One of the development's two planned hotels: either a newly constructed 14-story, 290-room hotel next to Little Caesars Arena or an adaptive reuse of the 10-story Fox Theatre office building, 2211 Woodward, to become a 177-room Fox Hotel.

While understand getting lending in Detroit is harder than most cities and getting lending for office space is particularly challenging right now. However I’m beyond exasperated with the way Chris Illitch has put forward so many projects only to repeatedly resequence District Detroit. The whole point of spending so much public money at a time when the city was coming out of bankruptcy was to see the Fox Town vision a generation in the making come to fruition.

I’m glad to see some pressure being applied to Olympia via the negotiations over the county owned lot, unless Olympia is ready to build then there’s no reason to sell them a lucrative property with a large revenue stream. The spring 2025 ground breaking deadline doesn’t as mentioned isn’t solid but it’s not going to just allow Olympia to sit pat and expect the transformative founds to be waiting.

The site deserves high quality development and I’ll be extremely disappointed if a rushed job is put in place to access the funds. I imagine that’s what the flexibility in the deadline is for. That said while Olympia owns the lions share of the lands planned for District Detroit they don’t own them all. The Woodward frontage lots in front of CoPa could attract the interest of another developer who might want to and be in the position to build a mixed use apartment, hotel & entertainment space.

I love the Illitch renderings but perhaps if Chris is more interested in waiting for his land value to appreciate before he commits then maybe the city, county & state could start shopping around the competition.

Originally Posted by hybrydy

There's a long list of these types of projects.

• Buffalo, New York, is getting the largest award: a $55.6 million grant to build a cap and tunnel over a 1960s-era six-lane expressway, which segregated Black residents from the rest of the city.
  
  Oak Park, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, is receiving $21.7 million to reconstruct a crumbling plaza over I-696, a trenched highway that bisects the city's Orthodox Jewish community.
  
  Boston is getting $2 million to begin planning a park over the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) in Chinatown, considered the state's most polluted neighborhood.
  
  St. Paul, Minnesota, received a $2 million grant to study the environmental and traffic impact of a proposed five-block "land bridge" to reconnect the city's majority Black Rondo neighborhood.
  
  Tampa is getting a $5.3 million grant to lower an interchange ramp to street level in order to eliminate the barrier between downtown and the city's riverfront and to make the streets safer for walking and biking.

Source

It’s great to see so many freeway caping projects. All the salt used on the park over 696 and just the crazy freeze thaw cycles in Michigan made driving that stretch in Oak Park kinda harry. All those big ole icicles dangling from the ceiling didn’t exactly give the feeling of safety when temperatures climbed above freezing.

I’m very excited 375 removed, 75 hopefully capped & the potential of removing a large stretch of 475 in Flint linking up downtown with the cultural center & Mott College. Glad in several ways to see the 696 park cap renovated. North Oak Park is a nice area it’s got a bit of an urban vibe along 11 mile as it borders Berkeley, bit of a hidden gem considering its zoned for Berkeley schools.


Speaking of the United Artists renovation when the theater was demolished some people got a sneak peak in the portion of the lobby that’s been preserved. That green construction material in the back is where the lobby is. I was hoping it would be used as some kind of a public space but I can see it being a posh space for a tenant.


https://www.abandonedcentral.com/blo...artist-theater


https://www.abandonedcentral.com/blo...artist-theater


https://99wfmk.com/united-artists-th...oit-abandoned/


https://99wfmk.com/united-artists-th...oit-abandoned/


https://99wfmk.com/united-artists-th...oit-abandoned/


https://99wfmk.com/united-artists-th...oit-abandoned/

[DetroitSky]

Renovations at Detroit's Balduck Park bring upgraded sled hill, playground, dog park

Detroit — Terrie Bivings watched as her children Te'Rae and Tyree played, talked and danced with the Easter Bunny at Balduck Park, joining other families at a Monday celebration of the $1.5 million renovation project at the largest park on Detroit's east side.

Bivings, 34, of Detroit, has lived near the park since she was in high school and often takes her five children there. She said she appreciates the new bathrooms, stairs up the hill and playground equipment that gives kids lots of opportunities to climb.

"I'm so sick of them sitting around on tablets and phones," Bivings said. "It's hard for them to go out and enjoy things if there's nothing for them to enjoy, so it's great that they made these improvements."

[DetroitMan]

Lions considering moving practice facility to Downtown Detroit

The Detroit Lions moved back downtown when they opened Ford Field more than two decades ago. Now they’re toying with the idea of moving the rest of their operation there too.

Asked about rumors regarding potentially moving their Allen Park training facility and headquarters to either Ann Arbor or the Willow Run Airport area, team president Rod Wood mentioned the I-375 redevelopment area on the east side of Downtown Detroit as a possibility too. “I know there are a lot of rumors out there, and every time I talk about it, it leads to more people reaching out to me with ideas where we should be,” Wood said on Monday during the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla. “I would say it’s in the early stages of evaluating it. We’re focused on potentially that, obviously downtown with the 375 project and the impact that’s going to have on the stadium and traffic flow. So we’ve got a real estate consultant who’s working on all those things, but very, very early stages of any announcements on a practice facility.”

The Lions have been based in Allen Park since building a $34 million facility there more than 20 years ago. The centerpiece of the 22-acre development is a 95,000-square-foot indoor practice field, while there are also training rooms, weight room, locker rooms and offices for executives and scouts.

“The Detroit Lions’ new headquarters will be a world-class facility that is elite among professional sports teams’ training centers,” Lions vice chairman Bill Ford Jr. said at the time.

https://www.mlive.com/lions/2024/03/...n-detroit.html

[DetroitMan]

See the final UM Center for Innovation designs approved by regents

The University of Michigan board of regents on Thursday approved the final schematic design for the six-story research and education center it is building in downtown Detroit.

In a related move, the board also authorized the university to proceed with construction of the University of Michigan Center for Innovation, provided bids are within the project’s $250 million budget. The votes were unanimous, with Regent Denise Ilitch abstaining. Ilitch is a member of the Ilitch family whose real estate development business Olympia Development of Michigan LLC donated 4 acres of property for the project.

The university broke ground in December for the 200,000-square-foot center. The property is within the Ilitch's District Detroit area and bounded by Cass and Grand River avenues and West Columbia and Elizabeth streets.

UM is paying the Ilitches $9.57 million for a nearby, 1.18-acre parcel of land as the site for a student parking structure.

A $100 million donation from real estate mogul Stephen Ross and a $100 million earmark from the state are supporting the UMCI project. The university is raising the remaining $50 million to round out funding. The center is set to open in spring 2027 as the first of three buildings planned for the site, along with incubator space and a residential building. It will serve as a research, education and entrepreneurship center to develop talent and spur job creation and inclusive economic growth. Programs will include master's degree and workforce development programs that will focus on technology and innovation.

"UMCI will bring together the best of the University of Michigan to catalyze economic development in the city of Detroit," Provost Laurie McCauley said. "It will house a robust portfolio of academic programs, including new interdisciplinary graduate degrees and certificate programs aligned to the skills of the future needed to attract startups as well as major employers to the region.”

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/educat...detroit-center

[DetroitSky]

Owners spend $20M+ to take David Whitney Building in Detroit to next level

A historic building in downtown Detroit that a decade ago helped to launch a boom for new upmarket boutique hotels in the city has undergone a significant renovation and room expansion, as well as a quality upgrade.

The elegant 19-story David Whitney Building, 1 Park Ave. near Grand Circus Park, dates to 1915 and had been empty for nearly 15 years before it underwent an extensive rehab and reopened in 2014 as a mixed-used residential tower with a Marriott Aloft hotel.

Now the building's owner, Detroit-based The Roxbury Group, has poured an additional $20 million-plus of renovations into the landmark building to take the property to the next level.

The hotel officially rebranded this month as the Hotel David Whitney, becoming one of Marriott's Autograph Collection hotels, which is considered a step up.

A look at the lobby area with lots of marble and seating at the Hotel David Whitney, Autograph Collection on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This area is one of many new changes to The David Whitney Building at Grand Circus Park that used to be an Aloft Detroit, a Marriott property.

The project involved more than just a cosmetic freshening up, but rather full renovations to all rooms and amenity areas, including the building's stunning four-story atrium and mahogany-paneled bar and check-in lobby.

[Velvet_Highground]

The UMCI looks great looking forward to steel rising. The David Whitney looks incredible they really pulled out all the stops. I wonder if the renovation of the UA building played a role into their decision to upgrade.

[seabee1526]

[DetroitSky]

Originally Posted by seabee1526

You need to provide links to your source when posting images.