"$31M apartment complex to fill last ‘void’ in Midtown"

[Lowell]

Ho hum. Another midtown residential unit is green-lighted. Crain's reports, "...the project's other financing includes a $21.3 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 221[[d)[[4) loan, $1.4 million in HOME funds from the city of Detroit and $4.7 million in developer equity."

Question for the forum. Is it time to draw the line on government backing of projects in the "green zone"? It made sense when things were difficult and incentives were needed to get the ball rolling. But isn't the snowball on the other side of the hill and rolling down now? Shouldn't such amounts be incentivizing struggling neighborhoods now?

Happy to see it but starting to wonder.

Detroit News details: "Developers will break ground this spring on a five-story, 110-unit apartment building planned for the last large vacant area on Woodard in Midtown.

The mixed-use development will be built on nearly two acres of space at 3439 Woodward, across from the Bonstelle Theatre. It will bring much-needed housing to the area about three blocks north of the new Little Caesars Arena.

Chris Jackson, Queen Lillian, LLC, partner, said the $31-million complex will have roughly 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, two floors of parking and 11 affordable units. The apartment complex will be built on vacant land bounded by Woodward to the east, Stimson to the north, and an alleyway to the south. The site plan shows the building only stretching west halfway down the block, which ends at Cass...
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/bus...town/95673646/

Not cheap either according to Crain's

...rents are currently expected to be about $2.10 per square foot but could ultimately end up being around $2.30 by the time the project opens.

The one- and two-bedroom apartments range from about 630 square feet to about 1,100 square feet, he said, which would put the rents at about $1,323 to $2,310 per month.""

[MSUguy]

It made sense when things were difficult and incentives were needed to get the ball rolling. But isn't the snowball on the other side of the hill and rolling down now?

No.

So many new projects are sprouting in greater downtown Detroit one might think the challenges developers face in bringing new deals to the market have been resolved.

Unfortunately that's not the case. And the biggest challenge of all — the so-called "gap" financing problem — has persisted. That's the gap between what a project costs and what bankers are willing to lend for developers to build it in greater downtown Detroit.

But the good news is that gap has been shrinking as the city's revitalization picks up speed. Moddie Turay, executive vice president for real estate at the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the development arm of the city, said the typical gap has shrunk from about 50% of total project costs just a few years ago to 23% more recently.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...rson/86599830/


It still takes incentives to get projects done in hard hit cities like St. Louis and Cleveland places that are ahead of Detroit on the development curve. Yes, we've had a development boom relative to where we have been, but we've still have way to go before projects don't need help..

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2016/11/...-move-forward/

[emu steve]

Excellent!!!

Now we just need 'my' Dunkin Donuts in the block adjacent north.

[casscorridor]

Is this the same site that was earlier proposed as an office building?

[ferndalescotty23]

The article references the last "void". Let's bump the brakes. The land at Woodward and Edmund Pl. still sits empty. WSU has their land at Woodward and Warren and while I respect the VVofA attempt at a park at Woodward and Temple it's not exactly paradise. Plus you still have the unfinished business at Woodward between Selden and Parsons left behind by the WSU Physicians Group. Great news but still a few gaps.

[Hypestyles]

cool apartments don't come to my part of town. in fact, a lot of the former apartment buildings in the Dexter/Elmhurst & Grand River/Livernois vicinity are derelict and falling apart. Oh, well...

[EGrant]

Is this the same site that was earlier proposed as an office building?

Yep, here's the proposal from 2012.

[ekleezy]

Hard to tell from the renderings. Any idea if Detroit One would be going away?

[Bobl]

The quick answer to the question: YES, it is time to end the subsidizing of wealthy investors.