More details of one of the most sweeping development plans in greater downtown in recent memory were unceremoniously made public on the city of Detroit’s website.
In all, the effort to redevelop the property best known for being the home of the Brewster-Douglass housing projects and three sites in Eastern Market and Brush Park has increased from $267 million to $416.6 million, a 56 percent spike.
As part of the plan to bring 1,037 residential units to the approximately 25 acres the four sites encompass, the city also plans things like enhanced health, education, workforce development and youth services; a new 1-acre public park called Douglass Park at the Brewster-Douglass site; and improvements to and restoration of the street grid and pedestrian access from Brewster-Douglass/Brush Park into Eastern Market over I-75.
The city is awaiting word on whether it has received up to $30 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods Program.
It’s not entirely clear what is contributing to the increase in expected cost, although more housing units are likely part of that bump.
What is being called the Douglass-Market Transformation Plan says 1,037 residential units are planned; the city said in May that 900 to 1,000 units were expected as part of the redevelopment.
Instead of three separate sites, the plan now includes four:
- The 22-acre Brewster-Douglass site, which is planned for 850 residential units, the majority of which would be rentals, although for-sale townhouses could be part of the mix. It would include 224 public housing replacement units. The site would include 13,400 square feet of neighborhood retail space, plus community and social services space.
- A site at 3480 Russell St. in Eastern Market would have 71 Low Income Housing Tax Credit and market-rate apartments, 24 of which would be live-work units. The project would include 12,000 square feet of first-floor retail space and a 9,000-square-foot light-industrial building that would make possible an expansion of the proposed Detroit Regional Food Accelerator.
- The open-air Shed 4 site in Eastern Market would be enclosed and 20,000 square feet of commercial space, plus 62 workforce and market-rate apartments, would be added on upper floors.
- A property at 124 Alfred St. in Brush Park would be developed with a 54-unit age-restricted building with eight public housing replacement units.
James Arthur Jemison, the city’s director of housing and revitalization, said in a statement:
“We are still in the process of finalizing the full transformation plan for the revitalization of this key area of the city. At this point in the process we felt it was important to share with the community a summary of the plan as it stands now. This is the same practice used in other cities that are developing transformation plans of their own. We will be meeting soon with residents of the Brush Park area to share with them this summary, which has been developed after a great deal of community engagement and input.”
If the HUD grant funding is received, 340 units are expected to be built within the first 2 1/2 years.
The executive summary says that if the city does not receive HUD grant funding, “the city commits to working with the established implementation team, neighborhood leaders, the philanthropic community, and state and federal department administrators, all of whom support this comprehensive neighborhood plan, to leverage and raise dollars and to implement the plan, as funded.”
In addition to HUD funding, other funding sources could include Community Development Block Grants and HOME Investment Partnership Program funds; city funds; low-income housing tax credits; New Markets tax credits; private equity; and state of Michigan funding.
The Shed 4 project would be financed by $1 million in grant funds and a $1 million loan and replace the open-air shed with an enclosed market hall and mixed-income apartments. Those sites total 3.4 acres, according to a request for developer qualifications issued late last year.
The Brewster-Douglass site, including rights of way and easements, totals 22 acres, 18 of which are able to be developed. The buildings on the site have been razed.
In May, Crain’s first reported that four developers are part of the joint venture, Choice Detroit LLC, selected to serve as what is called the “housing implementation entity” for grant-application purposes. Those are Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC; Novi-based Ginosko Development Co.; Columbia, Md.-based Enterprise Community Partners; and KBK Enterprises, which has offices in Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh.
A $500,000 grant from the Troy-based Kresge Foundation helped the city and Detroit Housing Commission, which owns the Brewster-Douglass site, create a “Transformation Plan” that would be implemented by Choice Detroit.
Generally, the Transformation Plan area is bounded by Woodward Avenue, the Fisher Freeway, Mack Avenue, Gratiot Avenue and St. Aubin Street.
A long history
Demolition work at the Brewster-Douglass site was completed in 2014. There were six 14-story high-rises, two six-story buildings and apartment row houses, with as many as 8,000 to 10,000 people living in the buildings at one time.
It is that site that qualifies the city for the HUD grant, the city says in the RFQ, and will be considered the priority site for housing replacement. It is the largest residentially zoned site in Midtown, the RFQ says.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt presided over the 1935 groundbreaking ceremony for what was the first federally funded public housing development to open to African-Americans. It opened in 1938 with 701 units; by 1941, it had 941. During its lifetime, the complex was home to Diana Ross and the Supremes before they became Motown icons.
The city has spent more than $39 million in that area since 2001 on things such as infrastructure, demolition, land acquisition and historic rehabilitation, priming it for redevelopment.
Neighborhood on the rise
In the last two years, several major developments have begun in that neighborhood.
At Woodward Avenue and Erskine Street, The Scott at Brush Park is expected to have 199 apartments and nearly 15,000 square feet of retail space by Birmingham-based Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services Inc. and Southfield-based developer Woodborn Partners LLC. It is a $61.3 million project.
A planned $70 million development on 8.4 acres in Brush Park includes 325 to 400 housing units and up to 10,000 square feet of retail space. The development entity, Brush Park Development Partners LLC, includes Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services and many others. It also includes the restoration of four mansions in the area on Alfred Street.
At the former Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center just north of the Brewster-Douglass site, a nearly $50 million redevelopment of 6.2 acres is expected to include a new restaurant and meeting space, 100 to 150 residential units and an acre of green space.
Developers on that project include KC Crain, an executive of Crain Communications Inc., parent company of Crain’s Detroit Business; restaurateur Curt Catallo; Livonia-based Schostak Bros. & Co.; and John Rhea, a Detroit native and managing partner at RHEAL Capital Management LLC in New York City.
The contributors
The plan took months to develop. Agencies like the housing commission and the Detroit Economic Development Corp. worked on the plan, as did organizaitons like the Brewster Homes Residents Council, the Brush Park Community Development Corp. and the Eastern Market Corp.
The University of Detroit Mercy Detroit Collaborative Design Center, Detroit-based architecture firm Hamilton Anderson Associates, Pennsylvania-based Real Estate Strategies Inc., St. Louis-based Urban Strategies, Philadelphia-based Wallace Roberts & Todd and the Wayne State University Center for Urban Studies also worked on the plan.
Others committing resources for the plan, including programming, are the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History; the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Medical Center, according to the executive summary.
By KIRK PINHO, Crain’s Detroit Business
