The development, which encompasses six projects concerning health care, apartment construction and medical research, still needs to get various city and state-level approvals in the coming months. Possibly the final community benefits meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. Even so, two of the six projects are scheduled to break ground next year. These latest specifics on each project are found in the developers' newly submitted proposal for a future tax-capture incentive known as a Transformational Brownfield.
The largest of the six — a $2.2 billion Henry Ford Hospital expansion — isn't seeking any incentives or tax breaks.
The other projects — totaling $773 million in anticipated costs — are a joint Henry Ford/MSU medical research center, three residential projects and a new parking garage. For those five, the developers are seeking at least $287 million in tax breaks and incentives over 35 years:
- A local and state-level Transformational Brownfield tax capture, valued at $232 million over 35 years.
- Property tax abatements valued at $55 million.
- A potential, unspecified amount of federal low-income housing tax credits.
- A potential, unspecified amount of federal historic tax credits.
Henry Ford Health currently owns all of the land for the six project sites and would continue to own all the land once the projects are done.
But Henry Ford intends to enter into 49-year ground leases with Pistons-related entities for the three residential project sites. Meanwhile, the Pistons entities would construct and own the new buildings that go up there.
Henry Ford Hospital expansion
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The $2.2 billion, 1.1 million-square-foot expansion would build a new 21-story hospital tower along with new operating rooms and a new emergency room. All patients rooms at the hospital would become private rooms, while the total patient bed count would stay 877.
The expansion and tower would go across from the existing hospital along West Grand Boulevard, on land occupied by an office building for the Henry Ford-owned health insurer Health Alliance Plan. That building would be torn down. In addition, a new 1,500-space parking garage for the hospital and new service buildings would be built.
Construction could begin in "early 2024," a hospital spokesperson said, depending on how quickly Detroit City Council approved the plans.
Henry Ford + MSU Medical Research Center
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This $393 million, eight-story research center would be a joint project between Henry Ford and MSU and be built at 6175 Third St. It would contain just over 325,000 square feet. An entire floor would be occupied by the Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute, where medical research would happen on neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that led to Gilbert's death in May at age 26. The research center is projected to have 558 direct permanent full-time jobs, paying an average wage of about $137,800 a year. Of those jobs, 195 would be existing jobs that relocate from Henry Ford's One Ford Place headquarters building, which contains an existing research facility. The project could break ground as soon as May 2024 and be finished in the second quarter of 2027.
One Ford Place redevelopment
A Pistons-related organization would develop three apartment buildings with a total 662 apartments.
The first such project, costing $190 million, would redevelop Henry Ford's One Ford Place headquarters, 6005 Second Ave., into 403 mixed-income apartments. There would be 181 studio units averaging 565 square feet, 168 one-bedroom units [[averaging 718 square feet) and 43 two-bedroom units [[averaging 1,070 square feet).
The developers have applied for a spot on the National Register of Historic Places and hope that the building will qualify in 2024. The nearly 627,000-square-foot building dates to 1918 and was designed by architect Albert Kahn as a factory for the Burroughs Corp. It underwent a 1968-1970 Brutalist-style renovation and later was acquired in 1992 by Henry Ford Health.
The Pistons' proposed redevelopment also envisions 17,060 square feet of new commercial space in the building. All told, there would be 98 new permanent jobs created, mostly from future commercial tenants.
Construction could begin in April 2027 and finish in the second quarter of 2029, according to project documents.
725 Amsterdam
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A new six-story, $79-million apartment building with 154 mixed-income units is planned for 725 Amsterdam St. on what is now a surface parking lot. There would be 75 studio apartments [[averaging 514 square feet), 69 one-bedrooms and 10 two-bedrooms. There also would be retail space.
Construction would start in the second quarter 2025 and take two years to finish.
675 Amsterdam
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This six-story, $54 million apartment building would be constructed at 675 Amsterdam and contain 105 mixed-income units. There would be 55 studio units [[averaging 493 square feet), 40 one-bedrooms and 10 two-bedrooms, along with retail space. Construction would begin in the second quarter of 2027 and finish two years later.
Parking garage
Henry Ford plans to build a six-story, $58 million parking garage with 804 spaces at 6205 Third Ave. to be used by residents of the three housing developments and workers at the research center. Initially about 10% of the parking spots would be hooked up for EV charging stations. Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025 and finish in the second quarter of 2027.
