DETROIT – There are less than 65 days until the NFL draft is here in Detroit. Last year, the draft generated $160 million for Kansas City’s economy, with 300,000 people visiting.
As Detroit plans to welcome a similar, maybe even more, people, Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority is working on improvements that are expected to benefit people who live, work, and visit downtown way past Draft weekend.
“It’s just not a one-off,” said Kevin Johnson, president and CEO of Detroit Economic Growth, the organization DDA is part of. “But yes, the light shines brightest on the biggest prize, and this is a big prize for the city of Detroit to host the draft.”
The DDA has five projects they’re working to complete by draft weekend, April 25-27. Some of them are updates like replacing brick pavers on sidewalks on Woodward Avenue from Park Avenue to State Street and repairing about 1,000 light poles.
The list of projects also includes installing new features like wayfinding signage.
“We’re going to have 300,000, maybe 400,000 guests coming into the downtown corridor,” Johnson said. “Some of those folks are local that haven’t been downtown for a long time. Some of those folks are from Cleveland, from Pittsburgh, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and from Chicago, Illinois. They don’t know the east side of Detroit from the west side. So we’re trying to make sure that they can get where they need to go to experience what we have to offer.”
These are projects that have already been approved and budgeted. The total cost will be $5.7 million.
“Because of the incremental growth in the city, there is a tax capture that happens so that those dollars can be invested in the DDA boundary,” Johnson said.
Here is a breakdown of all the projects from the DDA:
- Project #1: Brick Paver Replacement: Replace brick pavers on Woodward Avenue sidewalks from Park Ave to State Street, including aggregate base material and patching, preparing, waterproofing sidewalk, etc, with materials as specified by the City’s Department of Public Works.
- Project #2: Parking Lot Beautification: Provide 50% matching grants (up to $15,000 each) to surface parking lot owners for beautification measures as specified by the City’s Planning and Development Department (e.g., landscaping planters, trash cans, art murals, benches, etc.). Parking lot owners must have a current certificate of compliance from BSEED in order to be eligible to participate.
- Project #3: Washington Blvd Median: Implement redesign plan approved by community stakeholders and Historic District Commission along the Washington Blvd Median to include new paving, path lighting, landscaping, etc
- Project #4: Downtown Wayfinding: Construct a comprehensive, intuitive system of static wayfinding signage and symbols to improve pedestrian and vehicular navigation throughout downtown. The project will consist of the installation of new wayfinding signage at locations throughout downtown. The project is generally bounded by the Fisher Service Drive to the north, Fifth Street to the west, St. Antoine to the east, and the Detroit Riverwalk to the south and DDA assistance will be limited to Development Area No. 1.
- Project #5: Downtown Lighting: Facilitate approximately 1,000 Lightpole repairs and updates within Development Area No. 1 (e.g., pole painting, pole foundation replacement, base replacement, and repairs) and placed-based lighting (e.g., festoon lighting, landscaping lighting, colored displays, spotlighting) in designated downtown areas.
To help downtown business owners put their best foot forward, Downtown Detroit Partnership is recommending businesses make sure their Google profiles are up to date.
DDP is also working with the NFL to connect with downtown Detroit businesses. for questions, email nfldraft@downtowndetroit.org.