Sorry if this is already posted somewhere... but I didn't see anything.

Nice to see MGM give back a bit. Seems like a nice use for the abundance of parking lots in the CBD, although it doesn't do much for the density aspect... better than gravel though!



MGM Grand Casino broke ground this morning on what promises to be downtown’s only big community garden and one of the largest and most elaborate gardens in the city.

Created in partnership with the nonprofit Greening of Detroit organization, the MGM Grand garden will occupy 1.8 acres at Third and Plum near the casino. It includes a 60-by-96-foot greenhouse, and eventually will include bee keeping for honey, berms with fruit trees, and training programs for both children and adults interested in growing food inside the city.

The site is a gravel parking lot, which prompted Rebecca Salminen Witt, president of the Greening of Detroit, to tell an audience at the ground-breaking ceremony, “We hear a lot about vacant space in our city. We see that as an opportunity.”

George Jackson, president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said the garden fits into Mayor Dave Bing’s plans to nurture a greener, more environmentally sustainable city.

“We think this is outstanding, and my hat’s off to MGM Grand,” he said.

Jeff Jackson, director of engineering for MGM Grand, said the garden has been in planning for about a year. MGM Grand has purchased the gravel lot from nearby DTE Energy. Decades ago, the lot had been the site of horse stables and later a gas station, he said.

Of Detroit’s several hundred community, school, and family gardens, almost all are run on a shoe-string, usually with volunteer labor and often with donated seeds. The $1 million MGM Grand plans to invest marks this newest garden as all but unique in the city.

MGM Grand said that Greening of Detroit will distribute the food grown in the garden, and that produce sales to local restaurants will be used to fund the site’s overall operation.

http://www.freep.com/article/2010073...owntown-garden