DETROIT – A long-vacant building in Detroit will be converted into eight rental housing units.
The redevelopment is supported by the Build MI Community Grant initiative, which provides funding to turn abandoned buildings into housing and storefronts. The program was created to promote investment into redevelopment projects by developers and property owners with limited real estate and development experience.
Three projects have received $700,000 in support from the initiative. In Detroit, a two-story multifamily building will be converted into attainable rental housing units by Eskay Holdings, LLC near the future Joe Louis Greenway. The units will be offered to residents at 60% the Area Median Income.
The Detroit redevelopment received $250,000 in Build MI Community grant funds and is expected to create a total anticipated capital investment of $1,380,513.
In addition to the Detroit project, a new restaurant will be built in Ypsilanti and apartments will be developed in Escanaba.
“These projects in Detroit, Escanaba, and Ypsilanti will turn vacant, abandoned property into affordable housing and commercial space,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “With the Build MI Community Grant initiative, we can support small, growing developers as they make our cities and towns better places to live, work, and invest. Let’s keep working together to build more housing, drive down costs, and create safer, more exciting downtowns and main streets.”
New restaurant in Ypsilanti
A “functionally obsolete” storefront in the downtown corridor of Ypsilanti will be redeveloped and turned into a restaurant, The Earthen Jar.
SSSethi Properties, LLC plans to rehabilitate a vacant building at 406 W. Michigan Avenue, which was last used as a deli in the 1990s. It’s located in a series of one-story commercial buildings.
The project is being supported by $200,000 in Build MI Community grant funds and is anticipated to create a total capital investment of $403,512.
Ypsilanti applied for a Match on Main grant on behalf of the project and received a $25,000 award to support its development.
Apartments in downtown Escanaba
A vacant space above Cat-Man-Do’s at 1223 Ludington Street in downtown Escanaba will be converted into three one-bedroom apartments by Spaulding Real Estate, LLC.
The project will create a total anticipated capital investment of $496,411, thanks in part to support from the MEDC through $248,206 in Build MI Community grant funds.