Transformational Detroit Pistons Residential Development Delayed

KEY POINTS

• The Detroit Pistons have delayed the residential portion of their $3-billion Future of Health development in Detroit's New Center neighborhood.

• Delayed buildings include a six-story, 154-unit tower, a six-story 105-unit tower, and a 403-unit conversion now targeted for 2029. An 800-plus space parking garage is now scheduled to start in late 2027, with apartments moving to Q2 2027.

• Henry Ford Health's own $2.5-billion campus expansion, including a 20-story patient tower, continues on schedule.

A project to renew a former derelict area of central Detroit has been partly put on hold, as officials say market conditions aren’t quite right.

But once completed it should be a major boost to an area that has otherwise seen widespread renewal, the so-called New Center neighborhood, just north of downtown.

What is the Future of Health development?

New Center is not a new designation but dates back a century and was once home to General Motors’ world headquarters. Some believe it was a prototype of an edge city, a sort of secondary downtown but closer to factories and residential commuters.

Besides the area’s four-tower former GM building, now called Cadillac Place, and the Detroit home of Michigan state government offices, its icons include the towering 1920s era Fisher Building – a local architectural gem – and Henry Ford Hospital, a more modern complex.

The hospital, along with Michigan State University and the Detroit Pistons NBA team, have collaborated to redevelop a site immediately south of the main thoroughfare, West Grand Boulevard.

What is Henry Ford Health building on its own campus?

The hospital is adding to its campus with $2.5 billion in new facilities, including a 20-story patient tower, still under construction but now quite visible.

And it is collaborating with Michigan State University and the Detroit Pistons on a health research facility (by MSU) and residential complexes (by the Pistons) in the so-called $3 billion Future of Health development. The overall goal is a “walkable, viable community.”

An image shows one of the three buildings delayed at least until next year that form part of a new Detroit mixed-use neighborhood known as Future of Health. Image: Detroit City Council

Why are the Pistons delaying their residential buildings?

But a new fly in the ointment is the Pistons’ contribution.

The Pistons had moved their base from suburban Auburn Hills to downtown Detroit almost 10 years ago as a show of support for the impoverished city’s redevelopment. Little Caesars Arena, where the Detroit Red Wings play, is also their game day home. And they have built a new practice facility just up the street in New Center itself.

In a Henry Ford Health (HFH) podcast Pistons vice-chairman Arn Tellem explained what’s at stake.

In moving downtown, he said, “we had to find the right partner (and) the most important was the medical partner.”

And this wasn’t “just to play games downtown. It had to be…we were going to be all-in on Detroit.”

Tellem said he had met with various stakeholders and the “one meeting that was different was the one with” HFH in a bid to “give back to the community.” Tellem called the redevelopment “one of the most important that the city has ever had” with “a campus where you can walk” and create the “density the city needs.”

However, while the HFH and MSU components continue to take shape the Pistons have now had to delay their mixed-use apartment buildings and parking deck, with construction start times moved to the second quarter 2027.

When will construction begin on the delayed buildings?

Specifically, these are a six-story 154-unit building, a six-story 105-unit building and the redevelopment of an existing building into a 403-unit apartment building, now set to begin in 2029. An 800-plus space parking garage will also now begin in late 2027.

The Pistons haven’t made anyone available for interviews. But in a statement said the changes were “updated in view of market conditions.

“Our team has made strong progress on the pre-development, planning and design work for the residential portion of the project and expects to break ground on the first planned building next year.”

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