Ann Arbor Attempts To Smooth Building Process For Developers

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Real Estate developers have complained for years about Ann Arbor’s many requirements and layers of review and approval for building projects. Some have stated that they’ll never do business in the city again because it’s easier and less costly to build new housing in other places. Ann Arbor officials are trying to right that wrong. The City Council voted to shorten the approval process. Projects that meet the city’s zoning requirements will not have to go through council. Instead, they’ll be reviewed and approved by city staff and the Planning Commission. City leaders are discussing more steps to smooth the process as the city tries to attract high-density development along transit corridors.

Detroiters Tangled Up In Title Transfers

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Many Detroiters are dealing with “tangled titles.” They’re in living situations, like inherited homes, where home titles haven’t been transferred from deceased family members. Foreclosure prevention experts often come across title problems where heirs need more education on how to navigate the title transfer problems. Title issues prohibit people from gaining access to assistance programs that help with home repairs or back property taxes. When a home title doesn’t transfer within a family, it cripples families’ abilities to build generational wealth. Title issues occur when there isn’t a will or trust in place. Transferring ownership then has to occur through probate, and that process is out-of-reach for many who can’t afford a lawyer. The stakes grow higher when people are facing tax foreclosure. Michigan Legal Services, a nonprofit legal services organization, has helped over a thousand in Wayne County administer probate cases to transfer title to the heir occupying the home. The need for these services far outweighs the available legal resources.

 

Fort Ponchartrain Hotel’s Second Tower Plans Revisited

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Investor group, Operadora de Servicio Para Hoteles de Lujo, is revisiting the idea of building a second hotel tower on the Fort Pontchartrain hotel in downtown Detroit.  They recently issued a request for proposals for an economic feasibility study fro a 390-room addition to the property. The addition would include 40 for-sale condominiums. There have been plans to build a second tower for the hotel for years. The plans go as far back as 2015. They were abandoned until 2018 when 498 rooms across a 28-story expansion were proposed. At that time, the hotel was called the Crowne Plaza Downtown Detroit Riverfront. At that time, the Detroit City Council called for a neutrality agreement for a labor union to represent hotel workers. In 2021, the hotel’s ownership renamed it Fort Pontchartrain, a Wyndham Hotel, and reopened the Top of the Pontch restaurant.

 

Northville Downs Project Moves Forward

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Northville’s City Council members voted unanimously to advance a preliminary planned unit development plan for the old Northville Downs site. The council place conditions on its approving vote. The City Council will meet one more time before developer Hunter Pasteur can break ground. The discussion between city officials and vocal residents has been contentious at times, but most agree that horseracing track should be repurposed. The developer plans to put about 450 dwellings on the property. Some residents feel that they city has compromised too much, and a lot of their concerns have gone addressed.

 

Home Builders Buy Down Rates to Keep Prospective Buyers

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Builders are taking matters into their own hands, and the high interest rates and falling demand are forcing the issue. Rate buydown programs and other interest rate specials are on the rise in the new-construction market. Builders are making concessions to their bottom line in order to keep prospective buyers in the game. Builders are offering programs to lock down interest rates, guaranteeing rates or offering a few years of discounted interest rates so buyers can later refinance at a better rate. The saying “marry the home and date the rate” describes the thinking behind the move. According to the vice president of operations for M/I Homes Detroit, the company has spent millions to secure enough funds to provide several dozen loans. They’ve done this three times since this summer.  The company takes a 4 to 5 percent hit on the purchase of a home. Robertson Homes has taken between 1 1/2  and 2 points off a fixed-rate mortgage by contributing funds to the lender up front.

 

 

Grand Rapids and Grand Haven Receive State Funding For Contamination Cleanup

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The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has awarded a $1.73 million brownfield cleanup grant to Grand Rapids and Grand Haven. The monies will be used for three residential and mixed-use projects on properties contaminated by gas and oil. Grand Rapids’ Boston Square Together is one of the projects that will benefit from the grant, enabling the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to address the environmental contamination on the site. The monies will also be used for future commercial condominiums in Grand Haven and a planned residential development in northeast Grand Rapids.

 

City Living More Affordable Than Suburban

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In the month of October. while home prices continued to increase, sales fell sharply in metro Detroit. According to RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan, rising mortgage rates led to the drop in sales. RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan sows a 28.3% decrease in sales, and Realcomp showed sales decreased 26.7%. Both report an increase in median sales price of 4.3% or higher. Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Wayne and Washtenaw counties were consistent in both prices and homes sales data. However in comparison, Detroit has greater affordability, decreasing only 2.3% in sales, making city living more in reach than in the suburbs.

 

New District Detroit Development Includes Hotels, Housing, Retail and Offices

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Olympia Development and Related Companies have released details about a $1.5 billion development that create housing, retail and hotel properties in the District Detroit.  The plans include 695 mixed-income residential unites, 1.2 million square feet of commercial office space, 100,000 square feet of retail and 467 hotel rooms across 10 downtown Detroit properties. The project will involve constructing six buildings and renovating four buildings. Upon completion, the project is expected to create more than 6,000 jobs and generate more than $500 million in wages annually.

 

Gun Lake Tribe Plans Development on U.S. 131

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The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi Indians (the Gun Lake Tribe) has begun a six-month planning process for a development on 1,200 acres along U.S. 131 in Allegan County. The tribe has been buying land for years, with most of the acreage between 133rd and 128th avenues on the east side of U.S. 131.  The development could bring retail, housing, health care, manufacturing, entertainment and dining establishments. The tribe and Gun Lake Investements (the tribe’s non-gaming economic development arm) hired St. Charles WBK Engineering to oversee the planning. The planning process will help the tribe evaluate non-gaming opportunities for the site.

 

New Apartment Building Proposed for Detroit’s Midtown

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Greatwater Opportunity Capital has proposed a new four-story, 57-unit apartment building next to the existing fire-damaged Brainard Apartments. After a February 2020 fire, Greatwater acquired the Brainard Apartments and the site next to it that is home to two unused solar panel arrays. The panels once supplied some electricity to the Brainard Apartments, but since the fire, the panels have stayed off. The developer is almost finished with the Brainard Apartments’ rehabilitation. Greatwater plans to remove the solar panels to make way for the new building that will include studio and one-bedroom apartments as well as ground-floor commercial space.