They built it and they're coming. The Dearborn Town Center, an urban redevelopment that opened last December on the site of the vacant Montgomery Ward's department store in east Dearborn, the city's downtown, is attracting new tenants and customers, bringing on a revival as hoped.
"There's been a significant uptick in business there," says Melissa Kania, director of the
East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority. "There is so much interest there."
The main tenants of the Dearborn Town Center at the corner of Schaefer and Michigan Roads are the Oakwood Health System and Midwest Health and their 500 employees. The Kresge Eye Institute is located there as well.
Since then, the center has spun off eating establishments, coffee shops, and more to the 162,000 feet of office and retail space that was to be used just for that, Kania says.
This summer comes the downtown's first parking deck, one outfitted with energy efficient lighting and car-charging stations. With plans for public artwork through the Midwest Sculpture Initiative and plans to create an artists' live, work, and sell space, Kania says, "we feel like so many great things will keep happening to attract more and more people to Dearborn."
Source: Melissa Kania, director of the East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority
Writer: Kim North Shine
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