Detroit Apartment Building Opens With Help From Detroit Housing Fund

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Detroit city officials, along with developers, celebrated the opening of The Charlotte, a renovated apartment building with 28 units. The apartment building is the first project backed by a $75 million private investment fund that was created two years ago to aid developers in building more affordable housing in Detroit. The redevelopment cost $3.19 million and is part of seven projects in the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund pipeline. A $2.55 million loan from a fund managed by the Detroit branch of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation helped bankroll the project. The fund has supported 269 units already completed or in progress.

 

Soured Chicago Land Deal Upsets Public

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Justin Ishbia, the brother of the CEO of Pontiac-based United Wholesale Mortgage, has reneged on a land swap deal with a suburban Chicago park district. Ishbia and his wife bought the 261 Sheridan Road property in November 2020. The property  stands between Elder Lane park and Centennial park. They negotiated a land swap deal with the Winnetka Park District officials, promising to turn the Sheridan Road property over to park district officials in exchange for the southern section of Centennial Park. Residents are urging park district officials to take the multimillion-dollar lakefront parcel by eminent domain. The land swap deal fell apart under public scrutiny of the deal the park officials made with Ishbia.

 

Lansing-Based Company Announces Grand Rapids Satellite

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Lansing-based Clark Construction Company announced this week that it will open a Grand Rapids office in McKay Tower. The office will house the company’s West Michigan outpost. The company has done more than $500 million of work in the Grand Rapids area in the past ten years. The outpost is expected to open in the next 1 to 2 months. The company’s Vice President Dan Korte will lead almost 30 West Michigan employees at the new site. Currently, the company is in the middle of the Gun Lake Casino’s Phase Five project.

 

Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Celebrates New Headquarters

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Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA (MBFS) has opened its new corporate campus in Farmington Hills. The headquarters are designed to support a new hybrid workforce model. The 3-story headquarters building is located on 35 acres at 35555 W. 12 Mile Road. The new workspaces encompasses 200,000 square feet. Olympia Development of Michigan, KIRCO MANIX and Gensler Detroit partnered with MBFS on the project. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA provides brand-specific financing and leasing products and insurance services.

 

Demolition of Historic Detroit Theater Makes Way for Parking Lot

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The Bagley Development Group has begun demolishing the historic United Artists Theater building in downtown Detroit. They are converting the attached office tower into 148 apartments. The space created by the theater’s demolition will provide parking to residential tenants. Detroit-based construction manager L.S. Brinker has partnered with Lansing-based construction manager Christman Co. to redevelop the office tower. Demolition of the theater is expected to take about 4 to 6 weeks. Homrich Inc. is the contractor on the building.

 

Cookie-Cutter Duplexes Could be Making a Comeback

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Remember pattern book or catalog homes? Returning to classic home patterns could increase the number of multi-family units across the state, potentially adding new housing and more density while new single-family construction slows down. The Michigan Municipal League is proposing pattern-book homes that take one back to the days of the catalog homes that were built across metro Detroit a 100 years ago. Pattern-book homes include blueprints for duplexes, triplexes and quads, creating lower-cost housing units in neighborhoods. According to the Michigan Municipal League’s program manager, pattern-book homes could fill the housing option gap. T

 

 

Meridian Healthcare To Shrink Its Detroit Office Footprint

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Meridian Health is subleasing multiple spaces in downtown Detroit, shrinking its office footprint. 266,000 square feet are up for grabs in One Campus Martius building, and almost 40,000 square feet are available in the One Kennedy Square building. Meridian Health is the state’s largest Medicaid health plan. Meridian’s parent company is reducing its leased space footprint nationwide by 65 percent, which could save them up to $200 million per year. The One Campus Martius sublease would be through the end of 2024. One Campus Martius is owned by Bedrock LLC and Meridian; One Kennedy Square is owned by Redico LLC.

 

 

Downtown Detroit’s Central Business District Rides the Rebound Rollercoaster

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Downtown Detroit’s restaurants and businesses continue to ride the return-to-office rollercoaster. While they eagerly welcome the return of office workers and the business they bring, the situation still isn’t stable. GM announced that its salaried workforce would return to the office three days a week by the end of the year. When workers called the company out for the abrupt decision, the company changed its tune, saying its policy wouldn’t be adjusted before 2023. To add to the instability, Meridian Health wants to shed more than 300,000 square feet in One Campus Martius and One Kennedy Square. Detroit’s downtown restaurants and businesses aren’t rebounding in leaps and bounds.

 

Free Legal Services for Low-Income Tenants Delayed

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A program to provide free lawyers to low-income Detroiters facing eviction is being delayed. The program was supposed to start October 1, according to the Detroit City Council ordinance that was enacted over the summer. Tenant advocates are voicing concerns over the delay, although legal services continue to be available through a statewide pandemic program. The ordinance offers legal representation in 36th District Court for tenants who are facing eviction and making below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. The city is working to produce requests for proposals and is working its way through the American Rescue Plan compliance process. Funding for the program would last for over three years.

 

 

Detroit’s Satellite Suburbs Boom With New Home Construction

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Outer-ring suburbs are booming with new residential construction and newly paved roads despite the rising interest rates that are causing the resale home market to slow. According to census data, more than 3,000 new single-family homes were ok’d to be built from January to July of 2022. New construction in satellite suburbs of larger cities is a national trend. Rising interest rates have had an effect on the new-home market. New-home permits are down 10 to 15 percent from last year, but the demand isn’t gone. Lower lumber prices and the continued high demand for housing have helped builders.