Unanswered questions in Ilitch-Ross District Detroit plans
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Representatives from the city of Detroit, Olympia and Related Companies speak about the long-proposed District Detroit project. Photo: Samuel Robinson/Axios
There's still much to be learned after a two-hour-plus meeting Tuesday night for a new 10-property, $1.5 billion development proposal in District Detroit.
What happened: During the project's first of several public Community Benefits Ordinance (CBO) meetings, representatives for the development partners, the Ilitch family's Olympia Development and billionaire Stephen Ross' Related Companies outlined goals for job creation, educational opportunities and economic development.
Yes, but: How those happen remains to be seen. Some residents spoke out critically during the meeting's Q&A segments about issues like housing affordability and the District Detroit legacy of not living up to previous development commitments.
Why it matters: Despite the long meeting, we're still left with four big questions around what comes next:
🏠 Affordable living around the District: "I have no intentions of leaving, so they better figure out something for us to get who's been here to stay here," longtime area resident Melody Martin tells Axios.
- Many of the attendees at Tuesday's meeting said being priced out is a major concern, as rent prices in the impacted Cass Corridor area are already high.
- Olympia president Keith Bradford says there's been a deliberate effort to make affordable housing options part of the new developments.
💸 Tax incentives: To move forward, the Ilitch-Ross project must secure City Council and state-level approval for the tax incentives it's seeking. But the developers haven't publicly disclosed the key element — the dollar amount they're looking for.
- They say the topic, likely to be a main point of controversy, will be covered in the third CBO meeting on Jan. 10.
⏰ Will it happen, and on schedule? "My primary concern is that time after time when you see Olympia involved in creating, in developing anything other than (stadiums and parking lots), you see extensive delays, you see broken promises," Eric Williams, a managing attorney with the Detroit Justice Center, tells Axios.
- When asked why people should believe plans will actually materialize after years of broken promises, Olympia representatives pointed to the development's partnership with Ross's company, Related Companies.
- Bradford said the proposed plans are in part a continuation of what has already been announced.
🏢 Market for office space: It's no secret the pandemic has weakened office leasing markets as companies shrink and shift. So how viable will the Ilitch-Ross plan's 1.2 million square feet of office space be?
- Recent names to leave downtown footprints include Compuware, likely heading to the suburbs, and Deloitte downsizing, per Crain's Detroit.
- But Tuesday night, Andrew Cantor of Related pointed to an office building they're proposing in front of Comerica Park that would be "office space of a quality and type that is not generally available in Detroit right now and … really has been of interest to a whole range of tenants locally as well as nationally," he said.
What's next: The CBO meetings continue on Tuesdays through February at Cass Tech.
- The slideshow from this week's meeting is also available.