Detroit Lions Practice Facility Moving Downtown?

[mikeg19]

https://www.mlive.com/lions/2024/03/...n-detroit.html

Sounds like this rumor is picking up steam. Now if there was only a plot of land, cleared, already near I-375 that was once rumored to have a soccer venue on it and was basically shovel ready.........

[southen]

https://www.mlive.com/lions/2024/03/...n-detroit.html

Sounds like this rumor is picking up steam. Now if there was only a plot of land, cleared, already near I-375 that was once rumored to have a soccer venue on it and was basically shovel ready.........

That would be an absolutely awful use of that land. Something with the footprint of Ford Field but none of the economic benefit of having 65k people show up every now and then for a game or concert.

[401don]

That would be an absolutely awful use of that land. Something with the footprint of Ford Field but none of the economic benefit of having 65k people show up every now and then for a game or concert.

Yeah, I'm sure Gilbert paid all that money just to have an empty football field sit on it. There is space around the Brewster-Douglas rec center but not sure what the plans are for it.

[southen]

Yeah, I'm sure Gilbert paid all that money just to have an empty football field sit on it. There is space around the Brewster-Douglas rec center but not sure what the plans are for it.

That would make slightly more sense but I still think that area is best suited for higher density residential. I also recall that because it was low income housing before that HUD requires that there be some element of that on the site regardless of who develops it.

[Henry Whalley]

My crystal ball says Ford will get whatever it wants.

[Henry Whalley]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bears-p...132300579.html

[mikeg19]

That would be an absolutely awful use of that land.

You do remember this is the same place that they thought a jail would be the best use of that plot?

All kidding aside, I fully agree that land [[along with the soon to be demolished jail/hall of justice buildings) would be much better suited for high density mixed use or residential.

[southen]

You do remember this is the same place that they thought a jail would be the best use of that plot?

All kidding aside, I fully agree that land [[along with the soon to be demolished jail/hall of justice buildings) would be much better suited for high density mixed use or residential.

Lmao that was before Gilbert got the land. I don't think he would spend all that money building a jail for the county just to turn around and sell that land to the Lions for cheap to build a practice facility. He needs to recoup his investment and there is no way the Lions are gonna spend hundreds of millions on a practice facility.

[gthomas]

If they decide to build the practice facility downtown it should definitely be on the jail site. Have you'll notice Dallas Cowboys "Ford's" Performance Center and Headquarters looking very similar to Detroit's Ford Field. I do like the design and concept, but Carolina Panthers practice facility looks better out of all NFL practice facilities.

[mikeg19]

Lmao that was before Gilbert got the land. I don't think he would spend all that money building a jail for the county just to turn around and sell that land to the Lions for cheap to build a practice facility. He needs to recoup his investment and there is no way the Lions are gonna spend hundreds of millions on a practice facility.

Let's hope DG has something up his sleeve. Now that a few of his major projects have wrapped or are wrapping up, it would be nice to see the Fail Jail, Brewster, and Monroe Blocks sites start steaming ahead.

[K-slice]

This makes no sense ANYWHERE downtown... Same reason we didn't want a soccer stadium taking valuable land that should be high density.

Packard Plant would be a good option, or Hermin Keefer. Both have the space available, no current development, and easy highway access.

[gratiotfaced]

Herman Keifer makes the most sense. They could partner with the current owners and redevelop the main hospital building into housing or offices as well. It's also close to Henry Ford Health and could plausibly included in their expansion plans. Don't put more sports facilities downtown when downtown needs mixed-use density instead.

The other downside of a I-375 site is you're talking about a hypothetical probably 5-10 years away from happening, at the rate MDOT is moving.

If MLS ever does come back, put them at the SW Hospital site in Corktown.

[401don]

If they decide to build the practice facility downtown it should definitely be on the jail site. Have you'll notice Dallas Cowboys "Ford's" Performance Center and Headquarters looking very similar to Detroit's Ford Field. I do like the design and concept, but Carolina Panthers practice facility looks better out of all NFL practice facilities.

The Cowboys facility has 2 football fields, a Cowboys Hall of Fame, etc. - and is located in the far northern burbs.

[ABetterDetroit]

There is no way the acreage the Lions will be looking for is downtown. Another thread on the rumor of New Center being a possible location from earlier this month.

Mods, could we merge them?

https://www.detroityes.com/mb/showth...light=Practice

[royce]

Considering all options, if the Lions want a practice facility in Detroit and near downtown/midtown, there's a huge plot of land that the city owns that they probably could get for dirt cheap and that's the Uniroyal site. That should meet their needs. The only spot in midtown that would fit their needs is the Brewster- Douglass Projects site. But like someone said, and I agree, that area should be used for high-density residential.

[Henry Whalley]

...a huge plot of land that the city owns that they probably could get for dirt cheap and that's the Uniroyal site.

Just guessing that site is really polluted. But how about land in the area where White Boy Rick grew up?

[mikeg19]

Considering all options, if the Lions want a practice facility in Detroit and near downtown/midtown, there's a huge plot of land that the city owns that they probably could get for dirt cheap and that's the Uniroyal site.

I might be in the minority but I'd be just as pissed if they built it on the Uniroyal site. That is prime riverfront real estate that I would hope a large high density residential development can be placed.

[royce]

I might be in the minority but I'd be just as pissed if they built it on the Uniroyal site. That is prime riverfront real estate that I would hope a large high density residential development can be placed.

I totally agree. I offered the Uniroyal site as an alternative to putting any kind of practice field downtown or in midtown. In Detroit development, it has often been an "all or nothing at all" mentality. Case in point, I drove passed the GM-Poletown plant and saw so much wasted space. Probably a third of the homes and businesses that the city tore down, didn't need to be torn down. Actually, a Lion's practice facility might work well on some of that Poletown plant land. Land along the Mt. Elliot-Conant side is underutilized and an eyesore. Putting some kind of development along that stretch of the property could only enhance it. There's also good access to I-94 and I-75 from that location. Hey a "win-win."

[Henry Whalley]

Land along the Mt. Elliot-Conant side is underutilized and an eyesore.

Casinos could have gone there in lieu of sacrificing Greektown or Rivertown.

[Airforceguy]

Contenders emerge for new Detroit Lions practice facility

The team has not definitively said whether it will move out of its training center in Allen Park, but there are already at least two concepts for a new facility floating around — one in the team’s namesake city, another about 30-ish miles to the southwest.
Lions President Rod Wood recently told reporters that the team is years away from moving from its Allen Park facility — if it ultimately decides to — and it is looking at locations in Detroit as well as around Ann Arbor. The two that are known are entirely conceptual at this point. One is on the old Herman Kiefer hospital site at the John C. Lodge Freeway and Clairmount in Detroit across about 40 acres, while the other is in Canton Township on a hodgepodge of privately-owned parcels with multiple owners at I-275 and Ford Road.


A Detroit architect, Jerry Attia, pieced together a detailed site plan for the Herman Kiefer site owned by New York City developer Ron Castellano, who said last month he hasn’t had any conversations with the Ford family-owned team about the property. Attia, a former Rossetti Associates Inc. and AECOM architect who co-founded Detroit-based architecture firm Framework E LLC with fellow cofounder and Rossetti/AECOM veteran Pierre Roberson last summer, said he has not been commissioned for his work.

Canton Township is also attempting to lure the Lions. Its pitch, put together in a three-page PDF the township provided to Crain’s, is for a wooded site with north of what could be more than 100 acres across multiple parcels of varying sizes immediately east of the freeway, south of Ford Road. Officials called this site a “hypothetical” and a way of showing the team that, if it is to ultimately relocate its practice and training facilities, “there are potential locations.”

For its part, the Lions said last week that there is no proposal in front of it for the Herman Kiefer site, and the team declined comment Wednesday in a follow-up inquiry on the Canton Township property. A spokesperson for Mayor Mike Duggan said: “There are no conversations going on at all between the Lions and the city on any potential practice site in the city of Detroit.”“At no point have the Lions expressed any interest to the city in the Herman Kiefer site,” John Roach, Duggan’s director of media relations, said last week.
The top administrator in its current base, Allen Park, has not responded to messages from Crain’s.
But the team has talked publicly in recent weeks about a potential relocation of those facilities, which sit on about 22 acres.

"We’re still evaluating it," Wood told reporters late last month, according to the Detroit Free Press. "I know there’s a lot of rumors out there and every time I talk about it, it leads to more people reaching out to me with ideas on where we should be. I would say it’s in the early stage of evaluating it. We’re focused on potentially that. Obviously, downtown with the 375 project and the impact that’s going to have on the stadium and traffic flow, so we have a real estate consultant who’s working on all those things, but very, very early stages of any announcement on the practice facility."

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...ctice-facility

[K-slice]

This would be a godsend for Herman Keifer, which I fear will continue to rot and negatively impact an area that is really prime for development.

The thought of the Lions moving the HQ to Canton and being part of the ecological and economic disaster that is the exurbs makes me sick.