Corktown Parking Deck Sold for $15.6 Million

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The Ford Motor Company sold a 1,250+ space parking deck for an estimated $15.6 million. Howard Luckoff, Jim Ketai and the Rakolta family who make up the Corktown Mobility Hub LLC purchased the property. Devon Industrial Group is currently constructing the deck. It should be finished by the second quarter next year. Ford will hold the master lease for the garage, and Luckoff and Ketai’s Vokal Ventures will operate it. According to Richard Bardelli, Ford’s construction manager in Corktown, the sale is in keeping with Ford’s plan to bring on development partners. The deck includes an autonomous vehicle testing area, e-bike and e-scooter stations, charging stations for electric vehicles and automated payment technology and smart guidance systems.

Detroit’s Revitalization Could Have A New Focus

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The global pandemic has turned many things upside down. The office markets around the U.S. are one of those things. Congress may offer developers incentives to repurpose old office buildings into residential, institutional, hotel or mixed-use spaces. While Mayor Mike Duggan has come out in support of the Revitalizing Downtowns Act, area developers do not have active plans to utilize it should the law be passed. The number of Detroit’s residential units lags behind other downtown areas. The legislation isn’t limited to downtown redevelopments but could be used to convert old office properties in the suburban locations into new uses as well.

 

Chaldean Community Foundation Plans Affordable Housing Projects

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The Chaldean Community Foundation has broken ground on its first mixed-use affordable housing site and has another$25 million project in the works. The Macomb County site which got under way on Friday, Oct. 1, will bring 135 apartments and street-level retail to Sterling Heights. It’s a beginning toward addressing the long-term housing needs of almost 1,000 families who go to the foundation for assistance. It will include 9,000 square feet of retail for the Chaldean community. The foundation is negotiating a purchase of more than 6 acres in Farmington Hills for a new Chaldean Community Foundation Campus. The Farmington Hills campus will house a new office for the Chaldean Chamber, a satellite office for the foundation and a senior living center.

 

Duggan Predicts Office to Residential Shift

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According to Detroit mayor, Mike Duggan, downtown Detroit is in for a dramatic shift in the next 2-3 years. He predicts that Detroit’s office buildings will be repurposed from offices into housing. He believes that this shift will be a national trend. He points to a 16-story apartment building near Greektown as an example. With more construction going on than in the last 50 years, the majority of it is residential, manufacturing and distribution.

 

 

Multifamily Building Permits At Highest Levels in Decades

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The 2021 total of multifamily housing construction building permits in southeast Michigan has exceeded the total for the last 20 years! So far, 1,762 permits have been issued, making 2021 the best year since 1998. Even as the housing market continues to stay hot, many people are more interested in renting. Along with multifamily housing, new home construction is also up. August was the 15th straight month in which more than 300 permits were issued.

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Affluent Atlanta Neighborhood Self-Segregates

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The affluent Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead wants separation from Atlanta. Spikes in crime across the city are contributing to the fear, but racial division plays a part. Buckhead is a majority-White neighborhood, while Atlanta has a Black majority. Should Buckhead gain its cityhood, it would drain revenue from a critical tax base and deepen the residential caste because residents often support policies like exclusionary zoning and neighborhood school boundaries.  These practices lock others out of community advantages.

Novel Financing Helps With Inadequate Housing Issues

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An inadequate supply of housing is creating problems for businesses and crippling economic development in many communities. As a result, some communities are turning to tax increment financing. Tax increment financing (TIF) enables a developer to regain some of the upfront costs for a project by securing an increase in property taxes for a period of years and diverting them until the spending is repaid. Once the agreed-upon costs are paid off, the higher tax increment goes to local government. TIF has been around for a while but using it to allow new housing to be built that would be affordable to residents is a novel idea. It’s being used where labor and supply costs wouldn’t otherwise allow affordability.

 

 

 

Hefty Price Tag for Bayfront Traverse City Hotel Resorts

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Two of Traverse City’s bayfront hotels are for sale. The $47 million price tag includes Sugar Beach and Grand Beach Resort Hotels. Built in the 1990s, both properties would set a record for lodging sales in Traverse City. Mount Pleasant-based LaBelle Management operates both resorts.

 

 

Amazon to Add Four New Michigan Sites

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Amazon will add four new sites in 2022 and 2023. The announcement is expected on Wednesday. It will open its first mid-Michigan fulfillment center and three more facilities in the Metro Detroit and Grand Rapids areas. The new sites include a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center just west of Lansing, a sort center and delivery station in the Grand Rapids area, and a delivery station in Canton Township. Amazon has created more than 21,000 jobs in Michigan so far. With the new site in the Lansing area, the company expects to create more than 500 full-time jobs. The other centers will create hundreds of jobs, as well.

Automotive Country Club Heading to Howell

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A father and son duo plan to bring a multimillion-dollar automotive country club and garage development to a 270 acre site owned by the city of Howell. Motorsports Gateway includes 67 private garage suite units and a 2.2 mile European-inspired road course. Previously the duo owned JD Racing Indoor Karting in Novi but sold it in January. The first phase of Motorsports Gateway includes the track, garage suites, a pit lane clubhouse and amenities, and a $65 million price tag. Groundbreaking should take place next summer, and phase one should be completed by the end of 2025. Phase two calls for an auto innovation park and mixed-use construction that will cost an additional $35 million.