Biltmore Picked For $90-Mil Mixed-Use Project

YPSILANTI, MI-Biltmore Properties has been selected to build a $90-million mixed-usedevelopment Downtown, near Eastern Michigan University. The city has purchased about one-third of the 34 acres, and is in negotiations for the other parcels.

“We’re going into the next phase of land acquisition. We have to complete appraisals and get ready to make some offers,” Brett Lenart, redevelopment coordinator for the city, tells GlobeSt.com. “The property was just a mixture of uses thatwere incompatible.”

The Water Street project property is bounded by US 12 to the north, the Huron River on the west and south and by Michigan Avenue to the east. It’s adjacent to the business district. Plans call for a 75,000-sf to 100,000-sf retail development and 25,000 sf of entertainment and restaurant space, along with about 400 units of residential housing, possibly condominiums or townhomes, Lenart says. “We’re in the process of writing the preferred development agreement, and gearing up for the public design meetings,” he adds.