Hopeful Signs? "Demand strains supply of downtown residential space"

[Lowell]

That's what this Crain's article says. The announcements of employee transfers and the hopefully rebounding GM are fueling demand.

"Now with 5,000 new jobs coming to Detroit in the next two years, residential real estate agents wish some of the residential projects had been built, because of the growing demand and shrinking supply of residential space. "

"Activity has picked up at the rental units at the DoubleTree Fort Shelby, said Scott Allen, Bingham Farms-based Fourmidable Group Inc., which handles leasing and management for the 56 units.

The apartments are 95 percent leased, but 60 percent of the leases are long-term leases.

“The positions at General Motors and other companies are having a positive effect for us,” he said. “Traffic has picked up in the last 90 days.”

The 360-unit Pavilion, a 62-year-old apartment building in Lafayette Park, has picked up activity recently and is now 100 percent occupied,"

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What about retail? Authority [and, hey, handball player too] Jim Bieri says...

Detroit's retail base stems from sporting events, conventions and entertainment, he said. Converting the event-based retail base to an everyday retail base will take a much larger downtown population.

“I don't know what the magic number is, but you're looking at something like 100,000 people downtown, and we're not there yet,” he said. “Before we see any kind of increase in boutique retail, there have to be more people living downtown.”

But Bieri is hopeful that the recent announcements are a start.

“We're gaining ground right now,” he said. “There's some good leadership, no wars with the suburbs. I hope we've hit our bottom.”
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Speramus meliora!

[WayneMan]

This is good. Maybe this can help start the book tower and broderick tower renovation sooner

[Meddle]

Or are the numbers artificial? How many places were demolished to create this strain?

[BrushStart]

Just saw this article. Fantastic news for the city if new residential projects spur other development. I am about to re-sign my lease downtown this month and saw that the rates went back up from where they were 2 years ago. Owell, that's the cost of living in an [[up-and-coming?) downtown.

[Whitehouse]

It is certainly a good incentive to renovate some old stock downtown. But I'm affraid the only thing it brings is building new stuff, while letting the old ones rot. But a renovated Broderick tower is building which no doubt make headlines. What the city needs is people actually living in the downtown area.

[ghettopalmetto]

This is fantastic news. Remember--high demand translates to rising lease rates, which makes more renovation/restoration/new construction projects economically feasible.

I do take issue with this, though:

Jim Bieri says...

Detroit's retail base stems from sporting events, conventions and entertainment, he said. Converting the event-based retail base to an everyday retail base will take a much larger downtown population.

“I don't know what the magic number is, but you're looking at something like 100,000 people downtown, and we're not there yet,” he said. “Before we see any kind of increase in boutique retail, there have to be more people living downtown.”

The cited figure for the number of downtown residents "required" in order to have resident-serving retail is bullshit. The 100,000 figure is akin to Center City Philadelphia, one of the largest downtown residential populations in the United States. There are smaller towns and neighborhoods all over the United States that have resident-serving retail with far lower populations. A few of them are even in Jim Bieri's backyard.

To my cynical self, citing such a ridiculously high "requirement" is just another excuse to keep pursuing the Bread and Circuses approach to tourist-based development and ignore the needs of the [[very real and existent) community.