DetroitMan
12-18-2006, 08:39 AM
TechTown unveils $1.3B plan
By Tom Henderson
6:00 am, December 18, 2006
CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
TechTown, in partnership with Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System and General Motors Corp., is shopping a master plan for what the partners hope will be a $1.3 billion, 43-acre, 12-square-block multiuse renewal project south of the New Center in Detroit.
The partners, all major land-owners in the district, want to develop the project in four phases over 10 years. It would include retail and office space, faculty and student housing, a train station and a multiplex theater.
“TechTown isn't just a technology park,” said Howard Bell, TechTown's executive director. “TechTown was planned as a real estate development, too.”
Bell said he hopes a combination of private and public funds and tax credits will fuel the plan. As a state-designated SmartZone, the area is also eligible for tax breaks. Groundbreaking for the first phase could come in January 2008.
That phase likely would include a new street, dubbed Ford Parkway, that planners hope will be lined with high-end townhouses and apartments. The parkway would run parallel to Fourth Street, two blocks east of the Lodge Freeway.
The Hudson-Webber Foundation's board of trustees voted Friday to approve a grant of $90,000 to fund preliminary plans, which were completed in September by graduate students at the University of Michigan's A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
“What's exciting about this is it is a holistic approach to developing the neighborhood. It certainly will be a boost for Midtown,” said Hudson-Webber President Dave Egner said.
Hudson-Webber has long been a supporter of TechTown. In 1995, it funded a $150,000 feasibility study for the tech park and incubator. “But for various reasons the folks at the university didn't feel the time was right, so it sat on a shelf,” Egner said. “Fast forward to 1997 and Irvin Reid's arrival. He took it off the shelf.”
TechTown is both a legal entity — a 501(c)3 nonprofit that owns TechOne, a tech-park incubator — and the name WSU, GM and Henry Ford Health System selected for the project area.
Irvin Reid, president of Wayne State University, chairs the board of the TechTown nonprofit. WSU has 12 seats on TechTown's board of directors, GM has two seats and Henry Ford one seat.
Since the initial study grant, Hudson-Webber has contributed two more grants of $300,000 each to help transform and attract technology company tenants to space in redeveloped buildings.
“This fills in the hole in the doughnut, but we can't do it alone” Reid said. “I don't want to oversimplify the solidity of our plans just yet. The plans we have were a good exercise, a good think piece. But we have to get a lot of people on board. The mayor hasn't seen it, yet. And the City Council needs to see it. We have to do this in collaboration with the New Center, with the Cultural Center, with Henry Ford Health System. We want to be a good neighbor.”
The project is bounded by I-94 to the south, the Lodge to the west, the Grand Trunk rail line to the north and Woodward Avenue to the east.
With 26 acres under its control, Henry Ford is the largest land owner in the district. GM still owns a 50,000-square-foot building in the area and three parcels of land totaling 3 to 4 acres that are used for surface parking, said Matt Cullen, a vice chairman of the TechTown board and GM's general manager of economic development and enterprise services.
“From the beginning, the vision GM, Henry Ford and Wayne State had was to create a real campus environment that had the important elements of community development. ... We're glad to have had a catalytic role,” Cullen said.
“The stakeholders are working well together and the various pieces are coming together. There's TechTown. NextEnergy (Center) moved in. Frank Jonna's lofts are underway. We're whacking away at it. It wasn't that long ago that that area was abandoned buildings and busted-up parking lots.”
The Southfield-based Jonna Cos. are constructing 100 lofts apartments in two buildings near Tech One, the Graphic Arts Building at Burroughs and Woodward and the Caille Building at Second and Amsterdam.
“One of the most important aspects is it begins to connect vibrant parts of Midtown and the New Center. It will give you a contiguous sense of vibrancy,” said Bob Riney, Henry Ford Health System's COO and a vice chairman of the New Center Council Development Corp.
“With residential and retail, this makes it a 24-7 strategy as opposed to primarily a 9-to-5 strategy. Among our health care workers, we've seen a dramatic increase in workers interested in finding a place to live in the area, and that's another good sign.”
The only property the TechTown nonprofit incubator actually owns is the five-story Tech One building, a former Burroughs Corp. building that was donated by GM. The nonprofit's thrust, until now, has been to find tenants for that 140,000-square-foot property. So far, Tech One has 34 tenants and has nearly filled three of its five floors. TechTown is scheduled to redevelop two more existing sites.
Tech Two, 160,000 square feet, is the former Criminal Justice Building, designed by Albert Kahn.
Tech Three will be on the site of the American Beauty Iron Building, which Bell had hoped to renovate but now says likely will have to be demolished because of its disrepair.
Bell invited the UM team to help create the master plan overseen by Roy Strickland, director of the master's program in urban design at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
“When I left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (in 2001) to come to UM, it was because I was interested in Detroit. So Howard's invitation was very fulfilling to me. You can't get a better location for development in the country than this one,” Strickland said. “It has all four agents any good urban development needs — a medical center, education, culture and technology. Developments with those components revitalized Boston and Philadelphia after they'd lost thousands of people.”
Strickland said that unlike many proposed urban developments, this one has only three major property-owners, Henry Ford Health System, GM and Wayne State, and all are supporters.
He said another distinguishing feature is that the plans don't require existing businesses to move. “Our plans went around existing buildings and businesses. No one currently living there or working there will have to move.”
Of the preliminary renderings, Egner said: “Isn't it wonderful that the University of Michigan is working with Wayne State on this project? It makes a statement about how committed both universities are to this region.”
Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337, thenderson@crain.com
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061218/SUB/612150343/0/toc&Profile=0
By Tom Henderson
6:00 am, December 18, 2006
CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
TechTown, in partnership with Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System and General Motors Corp., is shopping a master plan for what the partners hope will be a $1.3 billion, 43-acre, 12-square-block multiuse renewal project south of the New Center in Detroit.
The partners, all major land-owners in the district, want to develop the project in four phases over 10 years. It would include retail and office space, faculty and student housing, a train station and a multiplex theater.
“TechTown isn't just a technology park,” said Howard Bell, TechTown's executive director. “TechTown was planned as a real estate development, too.”
Bell said he hopes a combination of private and public funds and tax credits will fuel the plan. As a state-designated SmartZone, the area is also eligible for tax breaks. Groundbreaking for the first phase could come in January 2008.
That phase likely would include a new street, dubbed Ford Parkway, that planners hope will be lined with high-end townhouses and apartments. The parkway would run parallel to Fourth Street, two blocks east of the Lodge Freeway.
The Hudson-Webber Foundation's board of trustees voted Friday to approve a grant of $90,000 to fund preliminary plans, which were completed in September by graduate students at the University of Michigan's A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
“What's exciting about this is it is a holistic approach to developing the neighborhood. It certainly will be a boost for Midtown,” said Hudson-Webber President Dave Egner said.
Hudson-Webber has long been a supporter of TechTown. In 1995, it funded a $150,000 feasibility study for the tech park and incubator. “But for various reasons the folks at the university didn't feel the time was right, so it sat on a shelf,” Egner said. “Fast forward to 1997 and Irvin Reid's arrival. He took it off the shelf.”
TechTown is both a legal entity — a 501(c)3 nonprofit that owns TechOne, a tech-park incubator — and the name WSU, GM and Henry Ford Health System selected for the project area.
Irvin Reid, president of Wayne State University, chairs the board of the TechTown nonprofit. WSU has 12 seats on TechTown's board of directors, GM has two seats and Henry Ford one seat.
Since the initial study grant, Hudson-Webber has contributed two more grants of $300,000 each to help transform and attract technology company tenants to space in redeveloped buildings.
“This fills in the hole in the doughnut, but we can't do it alone” Reid said. “I don't want to oversimplify the solidity of our plans just yet. The plans we have were a good exercise, a good think piece. But we have to get a lot of people on board. The mayor hasn't seen it, yet. And the City Council needs to see it. We have to do this in collaboration with the New Center, with the Cultural Center, with Henry Ford Health System. We want to be a good neighbor.”
The project is bounded by I-94 to the south, the Lodge to the west, the Grand Trunk rail line to the north and Woodward Avenue to the east.
With 26 acres under its control, Henry Ford is the largest land owner in the district. GM still owns a 50,000-square-foot building in the area and three parcels of land totaling 3 to 4 acres that are used for surface parking, said Matt Cullen, a vice chairman of the TechTown board and GM's general manager of economic development and enterprise services.
“From the beginning, the vision GM, Henry Ford and Wayne State had was to create a real campus environment that had the important elements of community development. ... We're glad to have had a catalytic role,” Cullen said.
“The stakeholders are working well together and the various pieces are coming together. There's TechTown. NextEnergy (Center) moved in. Frank Jonna's lofts are underway. We're whacking away at it. It wasn't that long ago that that area was abandoned buildings and busted-up parking lots.”
The Southfield-based Jonna Cos. are constructing 100 lofts apartments in two buildings near Tech One, the Graphic Arts Building at Burroughs and Woodward and the Caille Building at Second and Amsterdam.
“One of the most important aspects is it begins to connect vibrant parts of Midtown and the New Center. It will give you a contiguous sense of vibrancy,” said Bob Riney, Henry Ford Health System's COO and a vice chairman of the New Center Council Development Corp.
“With residential and retail, this makes it a 24-7 strategy as opposed to primarily a 9-to-5 strategy. Among our health care workers, we've seen a dramatic increase in workers interested in finding a place to live in the area, and that's another good sign.”
The only property the TechTown nonprofit incubator actually owns is the five-story Tech One building, a former Burroughs Corp. building that was donated by GM. The nonprofit's thrust, until now, has been to find tenants for that 140,000-square-foot property. So far, Tech One has 34 tenants and has nearly filled three of its five floors. TechTown is scheduled to redevelop two more existing sites.
Tech Two, 160,000 square feet, is the former Criminal Justice Building, designed by Albert Kahn.
Tech Three will be on the site of the American Beauty Iron Building, which Bell had hoped to renovate but now says likely will have to be demolished because of its disrepair.
Bell invited the UM team to help create the master plan overseen by Roy Strickland, director of the master's program in urban design at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
“When I left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (in 2001) to come to UM, it was because I was interested in Detroit. So Howard's invitation was very fulfilling to me. You can't get a better location for development in the country than this one,” Strickland said. “It has all four agents any good urban development needs — a medical center, education, culture and technology. Developments with those components revitalized Boston and Philadelphia after they'd lost thousands of people.”
Strickland said that unlike many proposed urban developments, this one has only three major property-owners, Henry Ford Health System, GM and Wayne State, and all are supporters.
He said another distinguishing feature is that the plans don't require existing businesses to move. “Our plans went around existing buildings and businesses. No one currently living there or working there will have to move.”
Of the preliminary renderings, Egner said: “Isn't it wonderful that the University of Michigan is working with Wayne State on this project? It makes a statement about how committed both universities are to this region.”
Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337, thenderson@crain.com
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061218/SUB/612150343/0/toc&Profile=0
