I'm happy to see more housing going up downtown, but I'm interested to see how the Exchange works out long-term, both in terms of durability in its unique construction style, but also its operating budget. The construction methods will be fun to watch, but the unit mix is also interesting. There's a lot of talk about a need for building mixed-income housing, but making that a reality is tricky for so many reasons. It's getting both brownfield and NEZ, but I'm not seeing any other info online regarding funding for the affordable units.
This is clearly not a typical housing development with the proposed unit mix. It's being billed as upscale, but 20% are below market rate. There are only 12 units that will be sold as condos, with 153 apartments, of which 20% will be affordable to 80% AMI or below (31 units, including 16 studio apartments, 10 one-bedroom apartments, and 5 two-bedroom apartments being set aside as affordable units).
The for-sale units start at $519k for a 1-bedroom with an HOA fee of $629/mo., with one 1-bedroom unit being sold already. A 3-bedroom condo was also pre-sold for $1.38 million with an HOA fee of $1,400/mo. The buyers would need incomes of $125k and $321k, respectively, assuming the NEZ property tax exemption, to meet the bare minimum underwriting requirements.
Median household income in Detroit is $32,498, which would mean that 31 of the units in the building will be reserved for households making $26,000 per year or less.
In terms of how it looks, it's not too exciting. It would have been nice to see some terraces and outdoor areas for the tenants. I'm assuming the space on the roof will be reserved as a clubhouse for the condo owners, but who knows. Its design reminds me somewhat of
The Yard here in Portland, particularly the alternating façade panels and windows. I've seen this type of construction a lot recently and it turns out looking cheap in my opinion.