Detroit Reboots Revitalization Plans for Brush Park

The city of Detroit has released an RFP for developers interested in redeveloping 9 acres of city-owned parcels in Brush Park, a neighborhood within walking distance of “Comerica Park, Ford Field, the Fox Theatre and the Detroit RiverWalk, as well as the planned location of a new Detroit Red Wings arena.” The city has attempted similar revitalization efforts for the neighborhood in the past, spending $39 million over the past 13 years on “infrastructure, demolition, acquisition and historic rehabilitation.”

Despite Detroit’s ongoing fiscal problems and previous failures to revitalize the largely vacant neighborhood, the current effort “takes place in a time of rising demand for residential space in the downtown and Midtown districts,” reports John Gallagher.

The RFP asks developers “to build new market-rate housing with a historic architectural theme on almost 9 acres of land, enough space for at least several dozen units or more of townhouse-style residences” and “[redevelop] a handful of the historic 19th-Century mansions still standing but vacant.