Midtown, New Center developments touted at 'Ideas Before Dawn'

April 12, 2006

By Brent Snavely

Detroit’s Midtown and New Center neighborhoods are experiencing a rebirth despite the city’s broader financial struggles, according to two nonprofit organizations that presented development updates Tuesday morning at the Detroit Athletic Club.

In fact, over the past six years, developers, universities, medical centers and nonprofit organizations have either initiated or announced plans for more than $1.6 billion in developments and improvements in Midtown.

“For the previous 20 years, there has been almost no money at all dropped into this neighborhood … so this is a huge change in direction,” said Susan Mosey, president of the University Cultural Center Association. “Midtown is clearly in transition,”

Mosey and Michael Solaka, president and CEO of the New Center Council, spoke at “Ideas Before Dawn,” presented by the Downtown Detroit Partnership and sponsored by Crain’s.

Midtown includes Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies and the Detroit Institute of Arts and, generally, is the area north of Detroit’s central business district and just south of the New Center area.

Between 2000 and 2009, colleges and museums in the area will invest about $561.6 million in construction and capital improvement projects, Mosey said, and developers will invest abut $409.9 million to build and renovate a variety of residential projects.

Solaka detailed four projects either completed or under development representing more than 400 lofts and condominiums, and also talked about New Center Council’s efforts to renovate the New Center Park into a small-scale outdoor concert and concession venue.

New Center is bounded by Euclid Street to the north, Interstate 94 to the south, John R Road to the east and the Lodge Freeway to the west and is home to the Fisher Building and Cadillac Place, the former General Motors Corp. headquarters.

Solaka said GM has agreed to donate the 1-acre park and a 40,000-square-foot building at the southwest corner of Second Avenue and West Grand Boulevard once the nonprofit organization raises the funds needed. Solaka estimates the value of the planned donation to be $1.3 million.

So far, Solaka said about $350,000 has been raised and $275,000 more is needed for the first phase of the project. The first phase includes park improvements and parking lot renovations. An additional $1 million is needed for the second phase, which includes plans to build a new amphitheater and install a sound system.

Once the park project is complete, Solaka said, New Center Council will be able to offer concerts from the spring through fall and produce a summer movie series.

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