DETROIT—Boom times have arrived for this city's downtown multifamily market, but some developers want to make sure a significant portion of this new construction gets reserved for renters with modest incomes. Two nonprofit real estate developers of affordable rental housing, Develop Detroit and Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc., have just revealed plans for a new mixed-use, mixed-income development in the historic Sugar Hill Arts District in Midtown Detroit.

The $32 million project will transform one acre of vacant space into 84 new mixed-income apartments and 7,000 square feet of commercial space. Of the new units, the developers will designate 25% as affordable housing for residents making 50 to 80% of the area median income.

“We are coming out of a long depression,” Sonya Mays, Develop Detroit chief executive officer, tells GlobeSt.com, and aside from the downtown units built or renovated very recently, “there has not been a whole lot of multifamily development in the last 30 or 40 years.”

That means Detroit still has several paths it can still choose. Mays, a Detroit native recently returned from Brooklyn, compares present-day Detroit to other up-and-coming areas that were generating a lot of excitement, such as Miami in the 80s, or Harlem in the 90s. “I hope we don't make some of the mistakes we've seen in other cities. If we're not thoughtful, we may wake up and find we just have a playground for the wealthy.”

The new project will feature studios and apartments ranging in size from 475 to 1,000 square feet. The development will also include a 300-space parking garage for residents and visitors along with green alleyways, all anchored by commercial and retail space.

To help bring it to life, Develop Detroit brought on POAH, which has developed a wide range of mixed-income, mixed-use complexes on the South Side of Chicago, as a development partner. Both organizations are members of the Housing Partnership Network, a business collaborative of 100 of the nation's leading affordable housing and community development nonprofits. The Sugar Hills Art District project marks the first time the two organizations will create together a new affordable rental housing complex.

“This transformational project is completely aligned with our core mission and we're confident that in partnership with Mayor Duggan and Develop Detroit, our team can create a project that will further enhance the Sugar Hill Arts District and contribute to the economic growth of the city of Detroit,” says Rodger Brown, POAH managing director, real estate development.

Duggan has been instrumental in making sure new development includes strong affordable housing components, Mays adds. And the city council may codify the mayor's directive that, if a project gets government subsidies or incentives, the developer should reserve 20% of its units for renters with modest incomes. “They've held developers' feet to the fire, and developers have largely complied.”

Phil Freelon, design director at Perkins+Will, will design the project. Freelon was appointed to the National Commission of Fine Arts and has gotten a lot of notice for his work on the National Center for Civil Rights in Atlanta and the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco. For the Sugar Hill District project, Freelon will partner with Michael Poris of McIntosh Poris Associates, a Detroit-based architecture firm.

Bring Freelon on board helps continue what Mays considers another Detroit tradition. “This place has always been a draw for the nation's leading architects,” she says, and Freelon “is arguably the most accomplished African-American architect today.”

The sale of the land will go before the Detroit City Council for approval later this year, and the partners expect to break ground in September 2018.

Instant Insights /

Downtown Detroit to See More Affordable Housing

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