[DetroitSky]

Dakkota Integrated Systems to bring $55 million plant, 625 jobs to Detroit to supply FCA

In what's likely the biggest new supplier deal to come alongside Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' east-side Detroit assembly plant investments, Dakkota Integrated Systems LLC announced Tuesday it plans to build a new $55 million plant on former Detroit school properties.

Dakkota plans to build a 600,000-square-foot facility employing 625 people on 32 acres at the former Kettering High School property along Van Dyke Avenue and nearby Rose Elementary School site. The school district sold the properties for $2.6 million last month.

Dakkota company leaders, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. agency announced the project late Tuesday morning in front of the shuttered Kettering High School building on Detroit's east side.

The Kettering and Rose schools are to be razed to make way for the new manufacturing plant that would supply "major components" for FCA US LLC's new Jeep assembly plant on Mack Avenue, Dakkota CEO and president Andra Rush said. But Dakkota has pledged to preserve the big blue letter "K" in front of the Kettering building along Van Dyke Avenue near I-94.

The news comes as the city angles for suppliers to expand in Detroit alongside Auburn Hills-based FCA's $2.5 billion investment and 5,000 new automotive jobs planned at two east-side plants. Duggan has previously hinted that the city was in talks with logistics and supplier teams to create more jobs on top of Fiat Chrysler's.

Columbus-based Condado Tacos to add second Michigan location in Midtown

A Columbus-based build-your-own taco chain has its sights set on the Creamery Building in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood, with plans to open a second Michigan location this fall.

Condado Tacos previously announced that it would open a restaurant at 310 S. Main St. in Royal Oak — formerly occupied by Michael Symon's B Spot Burgers — on Aug. 8.

Now, a second restaurant is set to open in the building at 634 Selden St. in Detroit this fall, Jenna Lorenz, a representative for the company, said in an email.

DSO launches effort to activate secluded courtyard behind The Max

While a dozen cultural institutions move forward with a plan to activate the outdoor space in Detroit's 83-acre anchor cultural district a mile up Woodward Avenue, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is doing the same for a courtyard in its backyard.

The orchestra has secured over $1 million in grants for summer programs and planning efforts aimed at creating a more permanent stage in the secluded courtyard, which is tucked behind the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center on Parsons Street between Woodward and Cass avenues.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation "have shown interest in seeing us take advantage of this green space we own," said DSO President and CEO Anne Parsons.

The DSO has invited people to bring lawn chairs to events hosted episodically in the courtyard, like a concert during the annual Concert of Colors music festival or digital MaxCasts of live orchestra performances on the south wall of the Max M. Fisher Music Center. But it doesn't get used all the time, Parsons said.

"We're going to go through a reimaging process for that space," she said.

Howe Bridge construction heats up

The long-anticipated bridge construction project is starting to take shape on the Michigan side of the Detroit River, as cranes have been working along the riverfront in recent weeks.

The cranes were drilling test shafts into the ground that will determine the final design of the new span and its towers rivaling Detroit's 73-story Renaissance Center, said Aaron Epstein, CEO of Bridging North America, the consortium of international infrastructure companies that is building the bridge.

Excavators are tearing up what's left of concrete foundations from one-time businesses in Delray that were uprooted through condemnation proceedings to acquire the 167 acres needed for the U.S. Port of Entry customs of plaza that will connect the new bridge to I-75. Some 255 buildings have been demolished in Detroit to make way for the new international crossing.

Crane operators and construction companies are currently working to shore up the seawall along the Detroit River between Lafarge North America's riverfront aggregates plant and McCoig Concrete's plant where the new bridge will make landfall on the Michigan side.