Gardenview Estates, the 933 mixed-income development on Detroit's west side, has been awarded development of the year by the Building Industry Association of Southeast Michigan. Gardenview is the first project in the Detroit proper to receive the award.
The transformation of the 138-acre site that was formerly Herman Gardens Public Housing site is in multiple phases. Completed ones include
Boys and Girls Club National Football League Youth Education Town and 96 rental apartment townhouses. Site work is underway to prepare for the first phase of for-sale homes, which will consist of 66 units. Construction is expected to start this summer.
When completed in 2013, Gardenview Estates will consist of 496 rental units, 337 for-sale units -- a mix of market-rate and affordable -- a commercial retail center, and early learning center, a senior center and the NFL/YET Center. This mix of uses and income levels is what will ultimately give the neighborhood sustainability, says developer Bill Phillips of Gardenview Development LLC, a Windham Group affiliate. "The senior center is a tremendous resource for mentoring, and the early learning center will start preparing younger kids for school," he says, noting that there are three within walking distance. "It's sustainable in terms of community ... but also it's sustainable because there's a whole bunch of different price points, different kinds of uses. It's like a city within a city."
Site preparation for the for-sale residential homes, which include infrastructure construction, soil remediation and landscaping, is underway. When complete, the residential parcels will be developed by five different builders, which will allow for architectural flexibility -- within an established framework. Affordable units will be three-bedroom with a one-car attached garage with an average size of 1,200 square feet. Market rate homes will also be three-bedroom, but will have a two-car garage and weigh in a bit larger, around 1,600 to 1,800 square feet.
Windham has worked closely with Brighton-based
ASTI Environmental on the tax increment financing necessary to offset the cost of remediation. "This is an incredibly complicated project," says Tom Wackerman, the director of brownfield development at ASTI. He credits the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan in helping pull off the development.
Sources: Bill Phillips, Windham and Tom Wackerman, ASTI
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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