LANSING, MI – A project turning a historic Detroit auto factory into affordable housing is getting additional funding from the state.
The Michigan Strategic Fund during its Tuesday board meeting approved increasing a community revitalization loan by $2,045,000 for the redevelopment of a former Studebaker sales center at 411 Piquette Ave. The 108,000-square-foot industrial site is attached to the Ford Motor Company Piquette Plant where Henry Ford invented the Model T.
It received a $5 million loan from the state last year bringing the total to $7,045,000 million.
Michigan Economic Development Corporation CEO Quentin Messer said the redevelopment will bring “new life to a piece of Detroit history.”
Studebaker bought the factory from Ford Motor Company in 1911 and added the adjacent four-story service center nine years later. The original Piquette factory was converted into a museum in 2011.
“The building will activate a long vacant space, transforming the parcel with contaminated soils into a community asset and increasing density in an additional downtown district,” Messer said.
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Detroit developer The Platform LLC plans to invest $40.2 million converting the four-story building into 161 residential units with 190 parking spaces. Rents will range from 60% to 120% of the area median income.
“This is an important piece to the affordable housing puzzle in the city of Detroit, and we’re determined to make it happen,” said The Platform CEO Peter Cummings.
Additional funding was needed because rising interest rates eliminated clean energy financing as an option, according to a project memo. This created a $4 million funding gap that was filled by the increased loan, an additional $2.4 million from the development team and a $600,000 loan from Flagstar Bank.
The project also received $882,821 in state brownfield funding.
“This qualifies, I think, as the most significant workforce housing project that’s been added to the inventory of residential units in the city of Detroit,” Cummings said.
Construction is expected to be completed at the end of 2024.
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During Tuesday’s board meeting, the Michigan Strategic Fund also approved a $2.27 million loan for construction of a mixed-use building in downtown Dewitt. Additionally, the William Davidson Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the Jewish community in southeast Michigan, was approved to seek a $60 million tax-exempt bond for construction of its new headquarters in Bloomfield Hills.
The board also gave LG Energy more time to finalize agreements with the state for its proposed $17 billion battery plant expansion in Holland.
This was the first board meeting since the Michigan Economic Development Corporation executive committee extended Messer’s contract by four years.
Messer has helped attract $13 billion of electric vehicle and manufacturing investments since becoming CEO in 2021, according to a news release. This includes a $7 billion investment from General Motors, a $2 billion project from Ford and a $2.36 billion Gotion manufacturing facility planned for Big Rapids.
In a statement, Messer said he plans to continue to “out-hustle and out-compete” to bring new investments to Michigan.
But there will be a staffing change after Michigan’s first chief mobility officer stepped down.
Trevor Pawl announced on Jan. 19 he’s leaving the Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification to spend a year traveling with his wife. Details on the role are expected to be released later this week.
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