Southfield — Along Greenfield Road, construction crews are working on the first buildings of a housing and retail complex as Northland City Center takes shape on the site of the former Northland Center shopping mall.
In the foreground, the mixed-use buildings are ready to welcome tenants as early as this month: “We know there’s a demand for it,” said David Dedvukaj, vice president of Contours Companies, noting the state’s need for housing and the site’s location next to a hospital under Henry Ford Health, one of the state’s largest employers.
Crews are continuing work on the first-floor commercial spaces, which are expected to house a mix of retail tenants. The site’s water tower was recently painted, and in the distance, crews were working near what is slated to become a previously announced boutique hotel, the Victor. The city has also recently approved plans for a sports dome at the site, Dedvukaj said.
The site is among retail construction across Metro Detroit, where development continues but with a more targeted and cautious approach amid economic uncertainty. Headwinds include inflation, elevated interest rates and a stagnant job market.
According to a recent Colliers report on the retail real estate market, which included mixed-use projects, several developments totaling more than 807,000 square feet are underway across Metro Detroit. This includes developments in Southfield, downtown Detroit and suburban corridors in Oakland, Livingston, Wayne and St. Clair counties.
While redevelopment activity continues, the market is shifting toward more selective projects with developers becoming more risk-aware, said Paul Choukourian, executive managing director for Colliers.
“Metro Detroit’s retail market in 2026 isn’t retreating, it’s stabilizing,” he said. “Development is deliberate, investment is selective, and retailers are aligning their footprints with where people actually live, work and spend time every day.”
In addition to Northland City Center, active developments include COSM, a 70,000-square-foot entertainment venue rising at Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit, along with smaller builds and redevelopments in Rochester Hills, Howell, Livonia, Dearborn and Washington Township.
In Dearborn, developer Mike Shehadi has made progress completing the first building at the Regent Court redevelopment, the site of a former Ford office building that was razed in 2024. Shehadi said he’s also making headway on a retail center in Dearborn Heights at the site of a former church.
A pipeline that’s ‘need-based’
Across the region, construction remains steady but targeted. Developers are concentrating on projects that are either pre-leased, anchored or tied to strong redevelopment demand rather than speculative builds.
“The pipeline is fundamentally need-based, not growth for growth’s sake,” Choukourian said.
That more disciplined approach can be seen beyond Metro Detroit. A recent survey from NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, shows developer sentiment across the commercial real estate industry cooled slightly heading into 2026, even as conditions remain modestly positive. The index registered 52 in March on a scale of 100, just above neutral, showing expectations remain positive but have cooled.
Marc Selvitelli, president and CEO of NAIOP, said that while some retail uses may not look traditional, they continue to perform strongly in town centers and downtown areas.
“People like to be able to live, work, shop and play within a relatively small area,” he said. “And I think that this has also helped with the overall rise in the return to optimism in the retail sector … because of mixed-use development. Retailers want to be where people are. People have to put their head down somewhere, and if that’s their home, then that’s great. They’re not that far away.”
Retailers are increasingly drawn to established corridors, Choukourian said, adding that in Metro Detroit, the strongest locations are becoming those where work, housing and retail overlap.
“Retailers are prioritizing predictability,” he said. “Established corridors offer proven traffic counts, strong visibility and built-in customer bases, reducing lease-up risk compared to emerging areas.”
Investment volume in Metro Detroit’s retail market slowed in early 2026 with sales totaling just over $64 million in the first quarter, down from more than $262 million in 2024 and $80.5 million in 2023, according to Colliers data. It’s a pullback driven in part by higher interest rates, tighter underwriting standards and a more selective buyer pool, experts say.
Choukourian described early 2026 as a more disciplined environment following a momentum-driven, capital-heavy market in 2023-24 and a selective market in 2025.
Selvitelli said so far in 2026, there’s concern about the rising costs of construction material and labor. He said that while the conflict in Iran may not have much of an impact on labor costs, it does impact the cost of construction material that needs to be shipped, with gasoline and diesel prices way up.
“There are probably some marginal projects which may not pencil out at the moment because of that,” he said. “So that has the development community really are guard in watching for that, and it is arguably one of the biggest things that in terms of what we surveyed in the sentiment index that dragged it down from the previous findings last fall.”
Dedvukaj said developers face persistent challenges from fluctuating interest rates, rising construction costs, and supply and workforce issues, but remain optimistic and focused on completing projects.
“With interest rates, with cost of construction, it has been not the easiest for all of us that are in this trade, in this business,” he said. “But we do see a light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s completing buildings and stabilizing units, and we get right back into the thick of things by starting new buildings. But it’s a process we signed up for.”
Dedvukaj declined to reveal the price tag for the Northland City Center project, but did say that he’s looking at a 15% to 22% increase throughout different stages of construction. In 2021, the cost was pegged at $402 million.
“Steel and utilities, cement mix, those are all items that have gone up over the last few years, really, since post-COVID, and they haven’t much stabilized much either,” he said. “It’s the new world we live in.”
The Northland City Center project continues to evolve with Dedvukaj saying plans now include space for a jewelry district for businesses displaced from the nearby Advance Building following a fire. Those tenants are now temporarily operating out of a nearby office tower and are expected to move into permanent space as part of the project.
Dedvukaj said due to the project’s large size across more than 100 acres, crews are “chipping away” at different parts as they secure users for the spaces. He said the multifamily and mixed-use components will take longer, with key parts expected to come online around 2030 or 2031, depending on market conditions.
Wayne County developments on track
In downtown Detroit, developers of COSM Detroit said the project is moving along as planned. The development, a partnership between Bedrock and COSM, is expected to open later this year and offer an immersive venue that combines sports, entertainment and technology into a shared viewing experience.
The project, which broke ground in April 2025, is part of Bedrock’s larger Development at Cadillac Square. The venue will feature a 500-seat venue with an LED dome designed to give visitors a courtside or field-side feel.
“Construction in Detroit is moving forward at a strong pace, with visible progress across both the exterior and interior of the venue,” said Tyler Washburn, senior vice president of venue experience at Cosm.
Work is underway on the facade, including the storefront and exterior display elements. Inside, Washburn said, key components like the dome structure and core infrastructure are coming together, and the power installation for the dome is nearly complete.
Also in Wayne County, Shehadi has two projects underway, one in Dearborn and another in Dearborn Heights. In Dearborn, redevelopment is progressing at the former Ford office building site, now known as Regent Court, at Ford Road and the Southfield Freeway. So far, a 55,000-square-foot retail building with tenant Floor & Decor has opened.
Shehadi, who purchased the roughly 55-acre site from Ford in 2022, described the project as a long-term, multi-phase development.
The first phase is focused on commercial space and includes the newly opened retail component. A second phase is planned to bring residential units to the site, followed by a third phase that would add a mix of additional retail and housing.
Separately, Shehadi is also moving forward on a project on Ford Road in Dearborn Heights at the site of a former church, where Freedom Construction is handling the work.
That development is planned to include about 45,000 square feet of commercial space and is expected to accommodate about a dozen tenants, including office and services such as medical, legal, fitness and retail businesses.
The building will be delivered as white-box space, allowing tenants to complete their own interior buildouts. Shehadi said. Like the Regent Court project, there has already been interest from numerous prospective tenants.
He said it’s better right now to focus on commercial development instead of residential projects because the latter have become difficult to justify financially due to rapidly rising construction costs.
“If I was to do a residential right now, I’d hold off on it, because the cost of construction again, skyrocketed,” he said. “Price of steel, price of gas, price of drywall, everything just skyrocketed where numbers … don’t pencil out.”
He said location plays a critical role in development decisions, adding that stronger sites give developers more confidence in moving forward. He said both of his developments fit that criteria.
“When you have a prime location, you’re safe with the construction costs because you will find tenants,” he said. “If it was an average location, I would think twice before breaking ground I would wait until (the) interest rate is lower, cost of construction is lower before I break ground.”
cwilliams@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Northland site redevelopment coming together in Southfield
Reporting by Candice Williams, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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