RenCen redevelopment enters community process
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The Renaissance Center. Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The redevelopment of the Renaissance Center is entering the city's community benefits process this month, a key step toward starting work next year.
Why it matters: The process gives Detroiters a formal role in shaping the future of the iconic riverfront complex, including negotiating benefits and addressing the project's potential effects.
Driving the news: The first CBO meeting, on Aug. 18, will introduce residents to the redevelopment and community benefits process.
- The first major step comes Sept. 1, when residents near the project will elect two representatives to a nine-member Neighborhood Advisory Council.
- The neighborhood council will work with the developers on concerns that could include affordable housing, Detroit hiring, support for local businesses, and public access to the riverfront.
- At least five meetings will occur over two to three months.
By the numbers: General Motors and Bedrock's plan would preserve and redevelop three of the RenCen's five original towers while demolishing the other two.
- The project would add 934 residential units, renovate the central tower's hotel and create new retail, entertainment and public spaces across the RenCen and surrounding east riverfront.
State of play: The complex lost its most prominent tenant in January, when GM moved its global headquarters to Bedrock's Hudson's Detroit development.
Flashback: The project had been stalled while GM and Bedrock waited for state lawmakers to expand Michigan's Transformational Brownfield program, a key source of public financing for the redevelopment.
- Lawmakers raised the program's cap this summer, clearing a major hurdle for the project.
- The program could provide the RenCen project up to $300 million in incentives over 20 years, Bedrock spokesperson Lora Brand tells Axios.
What's next: The project still needs approval from the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, City Council and Michigan Strategic Fund, Brand says.
- Bedrock expects to complete the CBO process by October and aims to begin selectively deconstructing two RenCen towers in the second half of 2027.