Along Detroit’s La Salle Blvd., several legacy, multifamily buildings have sat vacant for a decade or more.
Jeffrey Jones has a vision to take two of those abandoned apartment buildings and redevelop them to the highest degree of sustainability.
Jones is executive director of
HOPE Village Revitalization (HVR). The organization’s Sustainable Community Builders program, which is behind the renovation project, began in 2021, before Jones took the helm, and it’s still in the pre-development phase.
While work of this magnitude takes both patience and perseverance, Jones and his team are determined to purchase and renovate the multi-family buildings, and then implement a community ownership model to guarantee affordability over time. It’s a heavy lift.
Step 1: Find the owners
Finding who owns abandoned property isn’t always easy.
One of the buildings being targeted for purchase by HVR is privately owned and next door to the “
La Salle Home,” which is HVR’s headquarters and also serves as its eco-demonstration house. The close proximity to the organization’s offices makes sense; HVR is in conversation with the owner.
The other building, an architectural gem across from Ford-La Salle Park, wasn’t so easy. The building was originally
tokenized with over 100 owners who had bought shares of the building. “How do you negotiate with 100 different owners of a building? They weren't here, they didn't care,” says Jones.
Jones says that the City of Detroit's Blight Removal Task Force really advocated on HVR’s behalf and brought legal action against the absentee landlords. “The city has since been able to acquire the building back, and so we're negotiating with them, doing our due diligence to make sure that we're fair in what we offer.”
Says Jones, “This is going to be a huge undertaking, but because it's such a beautiful design and it's directly across the street from the park, it's just one of those passion projects. We think that the community would benefit from the building being brought back online.”
Step 2: Raise the money for purchase
In total, Jones speculates that the two apartment buildings will have around 38 affordable housing units, mostly one-bedroom. While this appears to have the potential to generate income, major renovations are needed to get them ready for inhabitants, including making them highly energy efficient as a way to lock in affordability for future tenants.
It will involve layers of creative financing, grants and philanthropic support. “We still have a huge gap to close, but we know this is not a project that's going to make money. The numbers will not pencil out without all of these subsidies and support,” says Jones. “We're really hammering on the idea that this is a labor of love.”
He says that if HVR can demonstrate success, as it did with its La Salle eco-demonstration house and HQ, it could provide proof of concept for projects further down the line once the neighborhood housing market is reestablished.
Step 3: Renovate to lower the energy burden
According to Jones, most of the real estate stock in Hope Village is 75 to 100 years old. While the buildings are well-constructed, they are poorly insulated.
“Many are two family flats, some of them still have the old octopus boilers and furnaces, so it's not uncommon for a HOPE Village resident to have a $700 or $800, or more, heating bill during the winter months.”
Jones wants to avoid unreasonable bills for future residents of the apartment buildings, so that people are not spending such a large chunk of income on utility bills.
He believes that sustainable renovations will help residents avoid “energy poverty,” a real and daunting concept that affects many Detroiters living in older homes that were built when utility bills were low and green construction was rare. (See sidebar.)
HVR has been able to demonstrate the value of having renewable energy and an insulated building envelope with the La Salle Home. “Our heating bills for nine months out of the year are around $30. The average Detroit household is used to paying $300 and $400 a month, but a $30 a month bill is amazing.”
Jones wants to ensure low and moderate-income folks can remain in their homes by reducing their energy burden. “We've proven now that with solar power, with a secure building envelope, that's one bill that you can move off of a family's plate.”
Step 4: Transfer ownership
HVR is exploring ways to guarantee that the properties, once renovated and rented, stay affordable in the long-term. Jones is exploring ideas around a community land trust or rental equity component.
One concept involves maintaining community ownership of the actual land that the buildings stand on, and tenants would sign up for a rental equity program. In the event a tenant moves out, the next tenant would be able to maintain that same rate of affordability going forward.
Jones says it would likely start out as a joint venture, with HVR setting up a separate holding company while going through the acquisition and construction process. “But ideally we want this to have community ownership. That's the ultimate goal, and that's the only way we think we can ensure that we can guarantee affordability,” says Jones. “We're on the
Joe Louis Greenway, rents are going up very quickly around here, and so we know it's going to be a challenge for us.”
Jones and HVR are ready to take on the battle of gentrification, and the affordable housing work is part of the strategy. “We’re going to have to be active to assure residents aren't displaced when that investment flows in.”
Ongoing: Money and prayers
Jones hopes to purchase one or both of the buildings this year: “I'm feeling good about this year. I don't anticipate that we'll be doing any groundbreaking or actual construction this year, but I do believe that we're going to be able to close on one of these properties.”
When asked what his wish list would include for the Sustainable Community Builders’ project, Jones says money and prayers.
“We need resources to help us acquire these properties and start construction. And we need prayers because this is going to be a huge undertaking. We're trying to do so many unusual things in this project and layer all this together to bring it to fruition.”
Jones says it will be a “tough slog.” But, lucky for the neighborhood, he is also an optimist who sees hopeful change in the neighborhood: the city acquiring the tokenized apartment building across from the park, construction of the Joe Louis Greenway recreational path, and property values, idled for 50 years, starting to increase.
“The idea that the market will return to this community after half a century of disinvestment? That's huge,” says Jones.
Resilient Neighborhoods is a reporting and engagement series examining how Detroit residents and community development organizations work together to strengthen local neighborhoods. It's made possible with funding from The Kresge Foundation.