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Massive $150M mixed-use development in Corktown officially opens

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Phase one of Elton Park consists of 151 apartment units, ground-floor retail, and an activated alley

Aeirial shot of a long brick warehouse and several other smaller buildings on a city block. In the distance is downtown Detroit. Photo by Nadir Ali for Elton Park Corktown

On September 4, Soave Real Estate officially marked the opening of Elton Park, a 151-unit, mixed-use development off Trumbull Avenue just north of Michigan Avenue in Corktown. The total cost of the project, which began in May 2017, was $150 million.

“What had been for years a sea of parking lots and a large vacant building is now a beautiful new residential anchor and public space in Detroit’s oldest neighborhood,” Mayor Mike Duggan said in a release.

Elton Park consists of six for-rent apartment buildings, 11,400 square feet of ground-floor retail, and an activated alley connecting them all.

The signature structure in the project is the redevelopment of the historic Checker Cab Building, built in 1927, into 52 apartments. Adhering to the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, some of those units rent for as low as $1,000 per month.

An open space with who couches around a square coffee table on a rug. Wall-length windows span one side and glazed-brick with a map of the neighborhood span the other.
Lobby of the Checker Cab Building.
TrueSpaces.com
An open floor plan with a couch and small round coffee table near a window, a small breakfast nook with four chairs to the left, and a kitchen with an island in the back.
Living room and kitchen in a Checker Cab Building unit.
TrueSpaces.com

Other buildings include The Robertson (45 units) renting between $1,300 and $2,300; The Crawford (40 units) renting between $1,400 and $2,400; and two buildings on Trumbull (10 units) offering live/work space and renting for $1,425.

Lastly, there’s 8th Street Row, which Soave says were inspired by Irish row houses. The four 1,775-square-foot, three-story, single-family residences have three bedrooms and start at $3,200 a month.

The developers say that more than 70 percent of the units are already leased. Tenants for the businesses will be announced soon. The project received $6.9 million investment through the Michigan Strategic Fund’s Community Revitalization Program.

And this is just Phase One. When completed, Elton Park could total up to 500 residential units and 30,000 square feet of retail.

Corktown is rapidly becoming a much denser neighborhood. Just down the block at The Corner on the former site of Tiger Stadium, another 111 residential units and 26,000 square feet of retail are nearing completion.