Midtown Detroit Inc. receives its first ULI Global Award for Excellence

Midtown Detroit Inc. (MDI) President Sue Mosey accepted the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Global Award for Excellence at ULI’s Fall Meeting in Chicago last Friday on behalf her organization and its partners. This year marks Mosey’s 25th year as Midtown development leader.   

Widely recognized as the real estate industry’s most prestigious honor, the award recognizes superior development efforts that go beyond good design, including leadership, community contribution, public/private partnerships and financial success. MDI joins six other Michigan-based projects that have won the prestigious award.

The award honors six development projects development projects, master plans and initiatives that have been spearheaded by Midtown Detroit Inc. and its partners. The winning submission recognizes the Woodward Garden Block development, the Sugar Hill Art District, The Ellington & Detroit Whole Foods Market, the Auburn, the Green Garage and the TechTown District Plan – which will begin implementation in 2014 with support from a grant from the Knight Foundation.

$122.5-million of investment is represented in the six projects that were part of the winning submission – 3.3-billion of public and private investment has been made in the Midtown District over the last decade. Twenty-four new businesses have opened in the past year with nearly a dozen more in the pipeline. Over the past three years Midtown has sustained a 96 percent residential occupancy rate.

Partnership programs such as the Living Cities Integration Initiative and the Midtown Anchor Strategy forged with philanthropy and the district’s higher education and healthcare institutions were key to Midtown’s winning entry.

Midtown Detroit Inc. is one of 12 recipients of the award from a global pool of nearly 200 entries. It was selected as one of 27 finalists for the award in June.