A greenway runs through it. A river runs by it. Freeways cross it.
Institutional, business, and residential development border it.
Remnants of its industrial past are still vital in manufacturing plants
on its periphery.
It
is Detroit's common ground, the place where working people can still
have a home with a yard and live in a neighborhood, with access to
schools, churches, convenience shopping, as well as health care and
professional businesses.
Among the vacant and deteriorating residential structures, new homes
are emerging. Many in old neighborhoods are resilient in the face of
overwhelming challenges. There is a sense of place here. And hope.
People care about this place. They are ready for their community to
rise again. Others are ready to return to the area they called home or
where they want to live – when new housing is available. The area is on
the cusp of market-rate housing and busy retail districts along Gratiot
and Mack avenues.
There is plenty of openness – not so much vacancy as space to
rebuild a critical component of Detroit's urban core--and there are
several active community development agencies looking for investment
partners.
The Near East Side of Detroit is a region poised for revival.
Defining opportunities for revitalization
A study conducted for the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan
analyzed the challenges and opportunities in the Near Eastside. While
it examined existing research, the study also conducted focus
interviews with more than 200 community stakeholders – including
residents, employers, and non-profit leaders in the areas. It reveals a
more thorough understanding of the demographic and physical
neighborhood characteristics, development under way, and housing
marketing trends. It notes the challenges, but also the opportunities
to build on assets. This new body of knowledge reveals promising
investment opportunities.
Much is known about the development in Midtown, Downtown Detroit and East Riverfront.
Less is known about the grassroots activity among community development
and faith-based organizations within the heart of the Near East Side.
The business, cultural, and medical institutions in Midtown and the
General Motors/riverfront renaissance are visible evidence of upscale
potential.
Freeway and major avenues like Gratiot, Mack, and Jefferson, make
the Near East Side an excellent location. It boasts easy access to the
riverfront, as well as the health and cultural assets of the city.
Most of the area is residential, with pockets of light industrial
remaining along Mt. Elliott and I-75. Commercial presence in the area
is found along Gratiot, in Midtown, and on the riverfront, but other
than scattered convenience stores there is relatively little else in
the area.
The density of housing, mostly north of Gratiot Avenue, has remained
about the same since 1990, suggesting that the residential capacity is
relatively stable, according to the Community Foundation study. Also,
the quality of the housing stock varies tremendously from neighborhood
to neighborhood, even on individual blocks. About 29 percent of the
housing units are owner-occupied. The average home value is less than
$40,000, with historic home values much higher. And there has been an
increase in the number of sales and the average sales price. In
2001, 24 homes sold for an average price of $30,599 whereas in 2006 165
homes sold for an average of $45,044, the study notes.
In some neighborhoods, the majority of housing stock is sound and is
viewed as an asset. These neighborhoods, attractive to new residents,
contain single-family and multi-family households. Other areas have
greater vacancy and the housing stock is older and in need of repair.
However, there still is potential for aggressive home repair assistance
and infill housing.
Seizing development opportunities
To
understand the Near East Side, one needs to examine its local assets:
schools, churches, neighborhoods and parks. It is as it always was – a
cluster of neighborhoods for common folk. Gratiot Woods is an example
of those neighborhoods. Situated on the northern point of Gratiot at
I-94, it is a stable neighborhood that has had more than $5 million in
private and non-profit investment in recent years, largely through the
work of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance, which sponsors a community development corporation in the area.
The vision of the Alliance is to recreate the neighborhood with an
updated concept of "a true urban experience," says Christopher Bray,
director of Housing and Development for the Detroit Catholic Pastoral
Alliance. The group is promoting residential density through different
types of housing – single-family infill units, townhouses, mixed use
live/work condos, and high rise senior apartments. This, he says, will
create a diverse community of people.
The Alliance, which owns 150 lots in the area, has renovated 16
homes and built 16 new infill homes, inspiring homeowners to invest in
home improvement. In its second phase of development, it is offering 15
single family homes, 15 townhouses, and 30 loft condominiums for
$135,000 to $150,000.
"Once we get to that pricing level and are able to sell those units,
a market-rate developer is able come in and make some money on a
development," Bray says.
The
city's vision concurs. "You do affordable, then what happens, you have
a neighborhood that's coming back (and) there may be an opportunity for
market rate," says Christopher Lee, a city planner. "Market rate is
going to be hard – you can't do it right now. We’re building houses in
neighborhoods that haven’t seen them in 40 years. To do that is really
a stimulation just to see that happening. Some may want to move into
their own neighborhoods that they used to live in years ago."
He says that the city's Planning Department is conducting a study to
determine the amount of money leaving the city in terms of
discretionary expenditures, such as buying clothing or furniture, to
show the real market potential of Detroit.
Community development options
Investors need to look at Gratiot and other main streets, and then
identify active community development corporations, says Harriet
Saperstein, retired president of HP Devco, the Highland Park
development corporation. "There are very active CDCs (in the area) that
know what they're doing and have been working with the community to
build affordable housing," she says. "Affordable housing has people
living in them who have to spend their money on groceries and clothes
and other kinds of things that bring retail back."
Gratiot
serves as a kind of retail spine, projecting out from downtown. Its new
pavement almost suggests that it's a new community somewhere several
miles away. The Alliance envisions mixed-use, live-work development in
its area. The agency, which works out of a 10,000-square feet renovated
nightclub building, is already developing an existing building into
retail space and upper lofts. It plans three other new buildings along
Gratiot.
As non-profits prepare the market for commercial residential
development, the Alliance also believes it can help create a retail
market. Franchise businesses, including Domino's Pizza, are exploring
opportunities in the area. Also, an independent coffee shop/bakery may
be locating there.
"We envision this whole Gratiot corridor to be thriving with
commercial development," Bray says. The Alliance is currently
developing the adjacent Corsi building into lofts and retail space and
plans three new mixed-use developments along Gratiot, with a total
investment of $13 million.
"In an area that doesn't have much commercial development at all,
generally office space tends to be a nice transition toward more
retail-oriented development," Bray says. "It might need a higher mix of
office space first with the goal of trying to achieve more retail
amenities."
Vacancy is opportunity
It's easy to dismiss the area by listing its deficiencies – vacant
tracts of land, dilapidated housing, abandoned factories and
businesses. Space is also an opportunity, as the Community Foundation
reported. There is a great deal of vacant land as the result of
aggressive cleaning of abandoned and deteriorated properties over the
past 20 years. The City of Detroit maintains a listing of land under
public ownership. Also, the Wayne County Land Bank Authority manages tax-reverted properties and helps redevelop them.
Saperstein
points out the area's strengths, such as bargain-priced real estate and
resources like Neighborhood Enterprise Zones and the Michigan
Interfaith Trust Fund. "You have some of the most undervalued property
that can be found in Detroit in general," she says. "I would like
people to be investors, not speculators. Investors look at what they're
doing – not how quickly they can turn it over to someone else who
actually does the development. An investor is concerned with
development, not just making money."
Dennis Archambault is a frequent contributor to Model D.
Photos:
Faygo Plant and Offices
Gratiot Woods Home4H GardensDetroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance
Corsi Building
Gratiot Woods Homes
Leland Lofts
All Photographs Copyright Dave Krieger
Directions to the Near East Side
From the North:
Take I-75 S toward DETROIT. Take the I-75
exit- EXIT 51B- toward TOLEDO. Take the GRATIOT AVE / M-3 exit- EXIT
51B- on the LEFT. Take the GRATIOT AVE NORTH / M-3 ramp. Turn SLIGHT
LEFT onto GRATIOT AVE / MI-3. End at Mack Ave & Gratiot Ave and
arrive in the Near East Side.
From the East:
Take I-94 W toward DETROIT. Take the
GRATIOT AVE / M-3 exit- EXIT 219. Turn RIGHT onto MI-3 / GRATIOT AVE.
End at Mack Ave & Gratiot Ave and arrive in the Near East Side.
From the South:
Take I-75 N toward DETROIT. Take the
GRATIOT AVE / M-3 exit- EXIT 51B- on the LEFT. Take the GRATIOT AVE
NORTH / M-3 ramp. Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto GRATIOT AVE / MI-3. End at Mack
Ave & Gratiot Ave and arrive in the Near East Side.
From the West:
Take I-94 E toward DETROIT. Merge onto I-96
E / JEFFRIES FWY via EXIT 213B toward CANADA. Merge onto I-75 N via the
exit on the LEFT toward FLINT. Take the GRATIOT AVE / M-3 exit- EXIT
51B- on the LEFT. Take the GRATIOT AVE NORTH / M-3 ramp. Turn SLIGHT
LEFT onto GRATIOT AVE / MI-3. End at Mack Ave & Gratiot Ave and
arrive in the Near East Side.