Work resumes on $36M mixed-income housing development in Midtown after COVID-19 shutdown

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Ground has broken Tuesday on a mixed-income housing development in Midtown Detroit. 

The $36 million development is in the Sugar Hill District on the northwest corner of John R and Garfield streets, across the street from the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center.

The project will have 68 apartments, 11,900 square feet of retail and 164 parking spaces that will be used by tenants but will also be available to the public. The development is just blocks away from major museums and entertainment venues. 

Fourteen of the 68 apartments will be reserved for tenants earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income. And since the site is directly across the street from the hospital, many of its affordable apartments will be targeted to formerly homeless veterans served by the HUD-VASH voucher program. 

"Affordability is generally understood to mean that you are not paying more than 30% of your gross income to cover your housing costs. So what affordability means depends on the person," said Beth Kmetz, who's with Armitage and the Housing Revitalization Department for the City of Detroit. 

"We're just really focused on how we can use development to make sure that people from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, from all income, can experience whatever neighborhood they think is a good fit for them," said Sonya Mays, CEO of Develop Detroit.

Four years in the making, Mays says this development been a challenge.

"This was a really tough project to put together. It's a very small site and there are a lot of features and amenities in the project. So not only is it housing apartments, it has a parking structure, it has some retail space in it," she said. 

Construction started in early 2020 before the COVID-19 crisis began. Then the pandemic and the statewide shutdown forced developers to hit the pause button for two months.

Everyone involved with the project is happy things are now moving forward. 

"It's been sitting vacant for a long time and we are so excited to see it activated and to welcome more neighbors into this vibrant neighborhood," Kmetz said.

In addition to bringing much-needed quality affordable housing, the project is also significant because it is one of the last projects by Phil Freelon, one of the most celebrated Black architects in U.S. history. 

Freelon, whose works include the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington and Atlanta's National Center for Civil and Human Rights, passed away in 2019. 

The development is expected to open late in 2021.