Now officially fall, it is an opportune time to reflect on some of the higher-profile groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings in Detroit development that happened over the summer.
While this summer lacked the dazzle and massive celebrations of the June 2024 grand reopening of Ford’s Michigan Central Station, there was still lots of progress on display and even some celebrity appearances from the business world.
Venue for watching live sports breaks ground
One of the bigger groundbreaking ceremonies actually took place in the spring, although vertical construction on the prominent downtown site got going in the summer.
That development, Cosm Detroit, is a unique indoor venue for watching live sports and other events in ultra-high-definition TV. The 70,000-square-foot building is taking shape on a vacant downtown block just east of Campus Martius that previously hosted the “Monroe Street Midway.”
Cosm is expected to seat about 700 people under its “shared reality dome” and could open in late 2026 or early 2027. Detroit would be just the fourth city to have a Cosm location, after Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta.
The venue is part of the initial segment of a two-phase downtown development by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock real estate firm, called The Development at Cadillac Square. Phase one is to also include a 34,000-square-foot TVG Market Hall to be built next door to Cosm.
First Hudson’s site commercial tenant
This summer saw the arrival of the first commercial tenant in Bedrock’s long-awaited Hudson’s Detroit development along Woodward in downtown.
Alo Yoga, a popular athleisure brand, opened a store on the ground floor of the development’s low-rise building in late August. The low-rise building began hosting conferences and other events earlier in the summer, and another clothes retailer Tecovas is set to open there in October.
The $1.4 billion Hudson’s Detroit development broke ground in December 2017 and is composed of two side-by-side buildings: the 12-story low-rise containing office, retail and events space and a 49-story skyscraper that will have about 96 condos and a luxury Edition hotel.
General Motors has announced plans to take four floors in the low-rise as its next global headquarters once it leaves the Renaissance Center by early 2026. The interior of the skyscraper is still under construction and not expected to open until 2027.
Downtown Apple Store opens
After more than a decade of rumors and speculation, downtown Detroit finally got an Apple Store at the end of the summer. The store is a block away from the Hudson’s site at 1430 Woodward Ave., and Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise appearance to officially open its doors for business on Sept. 19.
Apple has yet to say whether the new Detroit store is a replacement for the Apple Store that closed this summer at The Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township, where parking was free and plentiful, or whether the Partridge Creek store will reopen at a different location.
A trio of apartment buildings
Three Detroit apartment buildings by the same developer had their grand openings and reopenings during the final week of summer.
Amsterdam Lofts, 450 Amsterdam St. near New Center, is a three-story building from 1905 that was originally an assembly plant for the Cadillac Motor Car Co., and more recently an office for Westcott Display. Detroit-based Greatwater Opportunity Capital has now finished converting the three-story building into 90 mixed-income apartments.
Greatwater also successfully rehabbed and reopened a 1903 apartment building, The Palms Apartments at 1001 E. Jefferson Ave., which has 61 units and was originally designed by architect Albert Kahn.
And Greatwater completed building Brainard Flats, a new four-story, 57-unit apartment building at 3740 Second Ave. in Midtown.
Chandler Park fieldhouse
Detroit’s new $130,000-square-foot Chandler Park Fieldhouse opened to the public in late August on the city’s east side. The domed sports facility features a track, a turf field, a multisports court and various fitness areas.
The city built the facility using nearly $14 million in funding from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Work begins on Life Science Innovation Building
Construction is now underway of the future Life Science Innovation Building at 1326 St. Antoine, which is at the entrance to downtown off Gratiot on the site of the former failed Wayne County jail project.
This 220,000-square-foot Bedrock development would have multiple floors and house several organizations, including Grand Rapids-based BAMF Health and a new TechTown startup company incubator. It is expected to be done in 2027.
Bedrock at one time planned to build a different “innovation” development on this site, namely the University of Michigan Center for Innovation, before that project moved to a different part of downtown near the MGM Grand Detroit.
Cathedral Arts Apartments opens
A new four-story building with 53 two-bedroom apartments at “deeply affordable” rents had its grand opening in June.
The $20 million Cathedral Arts Apartments, 10201 Woodward Ave., was built on a vacant lot just north of Boston Edison and across from the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The development was a joint venture between the Cathedral and Bingham Farms-based developer MHT Housing, which has lately been building a lot of affordable housing in the city. The asking rents started at $578 per month and the building was said to quickly lease out.
A new Wayne State building
Wayne State University broke ground earlier this month on a new $200 million Health Sciences Research Building in Midtown. The five-story, 160,000-square-foot building at 545 E. Canfield is expected to be done by early 2028 and serve as a biomedical research hub for Wayne State scientists in the areas of oncology, neurosciences, systems biology and immunology, metabolism and infectious diseases.
The building is financially supported by $100 million in state funds, plus philanthropy and university resources.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: These 10 Detroit developments opened or broke ground this summer
Reporting by JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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