Construction on The Mid to likely start in September

Most of the pieces are in place for construction to begin on the largest development north of Mack Avenue since the 1920s.

Crain’s Detroit Business reports that the Midtown site has received $58.3 million in incentives through the state’s Brownfield Redevelopment Program. On Tuesday, the Michigan Strategic Fund board approved the financing. The same day, Detroit City Council approved rezoning for the site and the recently negotiated community benefits agreement.

Now that these major hurdles have been cleared, the developer Real Estate Interests LLC expects construction to begin in September, with the first phase done by the second quarter of 2021.

Negotiations around the CBA kicked off in April this year and were finalized in early June. The final terms of the agreement aren’t terribly onerous on the developers.

The Neighborhood Advisory Council made requests about maintaining consistent construction times, mitigating dust exposure, and keeping traffic disturbances to a minimum, among other items. Post-construction, the council asked for a percentage of retail space be reserved for local businesses, the creation of a dog park, and improvements to the John R pedestrian walkway.

Current plans for The Mid call for the construction of a 225-room hotel, 60 for-sale condos, 180 apartment units, a 12-story “co-living” tower, and 100,000 square-feet of retail space across 3.8 acres and several buildings on Woodward Avenue. It’s now expected to cost $377 million. Some of those numbers, including the cost, have been modified since the project was first announced in March.

Due to the city’s inclusionary housing ordinance, 50 of the apartment units (20 percent of the total) must be affordable to those who make 80 percent of the area median income, or around $42,800 annually. Detroit’s median household income is just over $26,000.