As the owners of the Detroit Red Wings construct not just a new arena, but an entire city district, naturally there will have to be places for new residents to live.
In details released by Olympia Development of Michigan, the development arm of Red Wings owners Ilitch Holdings, plans call for 184 new apartment units to be built in the roughly 45-block entertainment district between the Midtown and downtown areas of Detroit.
The breakdown of new apartments includes:
56 efficiency loft units, each 690 square feet in size
20 efficiency studio units, each 475 square feet
8 1-bedroom units, each 960 square feet
64 1-bedroom units, each 710 square feet
20 2-bedroom units, each 970 square feet
16 townhouses, each 1,365 square feet.
Olympia said these residential and other the mixed-use development plans will be built at the same time as the 20,000 seat arena, which the company hopes to have complete by summer of 2017. Olympia plans to build the entertainment district with four- and five-story mixed-use development properties.
The targeted district, now mostly filled with empty concrete lots but also home to a few businesses and residences, is roughly bordered by Charlotte Street to the north, Grand River to the west, Grand Circus Park to the south and Woodward Avenue to east. The arena will be located on Woodward Avenue from Sproat to Henry Street.
The $650 million development is being funded with a mix of $365.5 million in private investment and an estimated public investment of $284.5 million. The public portion of the funds is primarily being funded with tax-increment financing, which captures future property tax revenue while also banking on increased real estate values.
The project has taken heat from some critics who say that using state taxpayer dollars to help fund a pro sports development in Detroit amounts to corporate welfare. City and state development agencies including the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation have defended the use of public money by arguing that the project’s effect on Detroit will be beneficial to all Michiganders in the long run.
After the board of the Michigan Strategic Fund last month unanimously approved two sets of bonds that will help pay for the $650 million project, MEDC president and CEO Michael Finney said that the development is worth the public investment. “I think it’s a fair question for our citizenry to ask: Should we subsidize this kind of stuff,” Finney told MLive. “In this case, the project is more than just an arena, it really is about redeveloping a 45-plus-block area – nearly 50 blocks – that has been in a deteriorated state for decades.”
According to Ilitch Holdings president and CEO Chris Ilitch, the project is 15 years in the making and marks the culmination of his family’s work in the city. Ilitch’s parents, Mike and Marian Ilitch, founded Little Caesars Pizza in 1959 in Garden City, Mich. Today, their Ilitch Holdings owns the Detroit Tigers, the Fox Theatre and the Red Wings.
Source: Mlive.com