Orleans Landing Finally…Landing in 2017

After a lengthy wait, developers confirmed this week that work will finally begin on the Orleans Landing project. This mixed-use development promises 278 new residential units alongside retail spaces on the city's Riverfront. Richard Baron, CEO of McCormack Baron Salazar Development Inc, says that groundbreaking (complete with ceremony) will take place next week.

The project will cost $65 million, funds developers say are provided in large part by the public—the City of Detroit, the Economic Development Corporation, The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and HUD are among primary investors. The project is a long time in coming. Announced in 2013, Orleans Landing was supposed to break ground nearly two years ago.

That $65 million only covers phase one of development, according to Crain's. The developer plans 230 more residential units during phase two, with no cost estimates available to date. Baron says the developers will have better information after they begin marketing the initial set of apartments. "Once we get to a place about a year from now when we actually start to market the units and we have a better sense of where things are, we'll have a better sense of what else will go there," Barron told Crain's.

The groundbreaking ceremony will include Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit City Council member Mary Sheffield (representing the development's district), representatives from the Michigan Economic Development Corp, the Michigan Strategic Fund and HUD, and reps for the project's private sector investors, including Goldman Sachs and Invest Detroit. Detroit architects Hamilton Anderson Associates will oversee design on the project, while O'Brien Edwards Construction (Troy) and Brinkmann Constructors (St. Louis) will build it. McCormack Baron Salazar say the project will be complete in April 2017.

·Orleans Landing Might Actually Build Something Soon [Curbed Detroit]
·Orleans Landing under construction in Detroit [McCormack Baron Salazar]
·First phase of $65 million Orleans Landing mixed-use project to break ground next week [Crain's Detroit]