you, everyone for joining us. For for folks on Zoom, if you can also hear me, just give me a thumbs up or wave. I got a thumbs up from this. Thank you. Appreciate that for the folks, because we are definitely doing this in hybrid. So folks are here in the room. There's a lot of folks here in the room for this meeting, and there's also folks joining us online via zoom and imagine technology. So thank you, everyone. Welcome this evening to the 2024 district Detroit annual update meeting. This is as many of you may recall, this as a part of the community benefit ordinance process to the city of Detroit, and where projects that meet insert a threshold to go through this process. And so having annual update needs, maybe you may recall when we went through a lot of meetings about two years ago, back at CAST, back several weeks ago, right around the holidays and into the new year. So this is the follow up to kind of check in on the progress of how things are going with this project. My name is Aaron Goodman. I am with the city Detroit Planning and Development Department, and I do facilitate this process of public events ordinance on behalf of State Detroit. I am joined by many colleagues. I want to particularly recognize my colleagues from the planning development department, Director Antoine Bryant, who is here right Associate Director of Legislative Affairs and equitable development. And Jose Lumos is in the back, and you also meet some of my colleagues from the Civil Rights inclusion opportunity department. So we have time for other introductions from folks in the development team and the neighborhood advisory council. So that is all to come and just get us started, just so folks are oriented to what we're gonna be talking about tonight. We're already doing the welcome and introductions. We're gonna do a very brief kind of recap of the CDO process, community benefits, or this process that took place almost two years ago. I'm gonna have my colleagues with civil rights, inclusion and opportunity to talk about what the monitoring, enforcement, community benefits agreement looks like here in the city, Detroit. I love this panel that we've kept people walking through. We can invite them right in because, you know, this is an open and public meeting, and everyone is welcome. And at that point, I'm going to hand it off to the related and Olympia development team to talk about the community benefits provision, the agreement that they specifically agreed to, and also construction project update. And then we're going to have time for some Q and A with our neighborhood advisory council members who are here with us, and general public comment as well. And if we do all that, and we can get out of here at a reasonable time, we're doing pretty well. So thank you again, and before I go even a step further, I really do need to thank our neighborhood advisory council members who are here seated, if you want to raise your hand, they're kind of here in the front critical role in all this process. They really are representing the voice the community. You can see them all listed here, but I know that we're joined online, including by one that member, as well as Miss Logan, but we have TR read Mr. Williams. Miss Logan, as I mentioned, Deirdre Jackson is here, Commissioner Kinloch, Mike best in I think he should be coming. Christopher Jackson, who is the chair with the vice chair, and then we have an alternate number, Stephen, Harry. So again, thank you to you all for you know, you just see them at this meeting, but they were very much engaged during the process, and continue to be engaged in really with the project next, volunteering their time and capacity. So thank you again. So I'm going to kind of take us back in time to about a couple years ago for the end of 2022 meeting of 2023 we did have a community benefits process, and we had all those meetings at Cass tech to discuss the district Detroit and what that was going to mean, and what does that look like working with development committee standpoint, we assembled the neighborhood Advisory Council, who was just all introduced nine members who lived in the impact area. We held a series of meetings with the neighbor Advisory Council, the planning and development department and developer and the community to draw public meetings to identify project impacts. The neighborhood Advisory Council worked very hard to develop suggestions to how to mitigate those identified impacts, and then when we came out of the developer generating an agreement with the city in order in response to those that input and those impacts, that's kind of like the process. In a nutshell, as I mentioned, you know, those needs to. Place from November 2022, through February 2023, we had nine public meetings in total that are hosted at the city at Cass tech and our host over at Detroit Public Schools community district. We're very grateful for that. We over 400 community members attend either in person or via zoom, just like tonight, we did this as a hybrid meeting format, so folks who are with us in the auditorium at Cass tech and joined us via zoom as well, also what we heard, we kind of broke it down into eight buckets, and the team from Olympiad will get more into that. But affordable housing, employment and local hiring, retail and local business incubation, traffic, transit, parking, culture and arts, green space and accessibility, education, workforce training and construction impacts. And so you know how it happened during that time is, you know, community had a lot of time to get input and submit public comment during meetings and even in between meetings and get an email. And that took all that input in generating impacts. And then that was the start of, really the conversation between the community, the NAC and the developer, about what this was going to look like going forward, and what that results in is a community benefits agreement, or community benefits provision, is maybe the more technical legal term, and that contains some several very specific items within that community benefits agreement, including enforcement, negative enforcement negative mechanisms for also the list of the benefits of developers agree to provide the requirements for the developer to submit compliance reports and future community engagement requirements, of which this annual public update is one of those requirements, and that community benefits agreement or provision remains in effect throughout the duration of the project. So while projects are being built, of all of those, all those provisions and commitments are being fulfilled and made progress once those CEO meetings back in 2023 were completed, a few more kind of procedural steps took place. As you know, the neighborhood Advisory Council signaled their support for the agreement by signing a letter and submitting it to city council and planning development department, planning development department where I worked, we created a report, really the whole process and the agreement, and submit that, along with the development package and the incentives and city council and the city council gets to review and look at all this, and Look at the work that's been done, look at the development and the agreements, and then they will, if they so choose, will approve that agreement and development, development that's attached to it. And so that did happen in March of 2023 if I remember correctly, I'm trying to remember right now. So then at that point, we then enter the monitoring enforcement period as it contains the community benefits agreement, and that is what we are in now, which includes annual meetings and also bi annual compliance reports. Just one final note before I hand it over to my colleagues from creo, all the documents are posted from the process and even tonight's presentation, and we're recording the presentation, all that is going to be posted on our city Detroit website, Detroit, MIT, gov, forward slash district, Detroit, you can finally record the agreement. Any supplements, updated pretty regularly to make sure folks can find the information that they're looking for in regards to this. And we host these annual update meetings for at least two years prior or post agreement. And so with that, I am going to call on Jacob Jones civil rights inclusion and opportunity party talking about their role in this process. So thank you so much. You Yes.
Thanks. Aaron, hi, everyone.
Good to be here.
So yeah, my name is Jacob Jones as Eric, instead, I am the incentives compliance manager with creo, and Creo handles monitoring and enforcement for community benefits agreements. Now I know most folks in the room are familiar with how community benefits agreement projects come about, but just as a reminder, it combines $75 million or more in construction costs plus $1 million or more in city tax abatements In the city of Detroit, or 1 million or more in value city property sale or transfer for below market value and without open bidding. So I want to break down my department's role in this project, or is it nice process a little bit. I know Aaron touched on a little some of this already, but creos has a developer, a biannual CBO request letter and a reporting form with targeted questions, and this form requires the developer to provide specific updates on all commitments that targeted questions lines want to make an extra note on that you know, essentially, when we we are asking the developer to report on their commitments for sure, but we're also following up with what we already know, what we meant to. In the past for projects that have come underway a little bit longer than this, so that we are getting as much information as possible, we review this information, we do project walk through site visits, go out to the construction sites, we ask for documented proofs and any other additional clarification, and we meet with the various departments who are tied to the different commitments, to verify things we're hearing from the developer, and also verify any city commitments that happen to be a part of the agreement. And then finally, we generate reports, which can be found on the Creo website. Now, we were hoping to have the district Detroit report out to everybody prior to today's meeting, but the CBO reports all get released at once. And as everyone in this room knows, there are a lot of different projects around the town, and we did have some final steps to take on a few of the other projects involved in the CBO reports. But we do have the, I guess findings isn't quite the right word. Those will be in the actual report, but the status updates for the district provisions, which we split into 100 total commitments. 37 of those are on track. We do have quite a bit listed as not started. Most of those are tied to actual construction of the sites involved with development, as well as things that sort of come down the road after construction is complete, we are aiming to have the reports out within this week. And with that being said, once the reports are complete, I know my office would love to meet with the NAC answer any questions might have about the information that is actually within the Creo report. It's about this or about any CBO development now, sort of related to that sort of meeting part in reviewing sort of findings on the CBO, we do take complaints, inquiries and really just general public comment as well. We do that in a few different ways. The first one are citizens submitted complaints or public comments. Essentially, what that means is a resident can submit an inquiry to us or a complaint about the CBO project, whether it's abroad, about the whole project itself for about a specific provision. We review these complaints. We share them with the neighborhood Advisory Council. We review them with city staff to try to get the best answer for the general public, so that they're as involved in this as well. We do some responses to to the person who submit the comment. We would also CC the NAC on that as well. The NAC also in those situations, which I'll talk about next, if you would like to request a formal investigation by the city's Enforcement Committee, that is in stage two here. So if there is anything from the members of the NAC that they want formally investigated by the Enforcement Committee, whether that's something to do with the deadline, or really anything involved with the CEO we, we can accept that from you, accept the complaint the Enforcement Committee, which includes PPD, creo, of course, LPD and a NAC representative, will investigate, talk to the generals or The city departments associated with whatever the commitment was. And then we are bound by the CDO to get that information back to you within 21 days and submit the findings to you to the original complaint as well. And then finally, if the NAC disagrees with findings and determines that the Enforcement Committee is not diligently pursuing enforcement, the NAC may send notice to the Enforcement Committee, and they have 14 days to respond. If you are not satisfied with that response, you may petition the city clerk to request the city council hearing with both the Mac and the Enforcement Committee, and then sort of the balls in city council's court, they may elect to hold a hearing to determine if the Enforcement Committee has made reasonable efforts to ensure development compliance, and based on findings, the city council can require follow up action in front of the developer or city department associated with that that finding, I know that was a heck of a lot of information, and I know once the reports come out from us, you'll probably have a few more questions. Here's my contact information at the top. We also have the great aerial Hughes, who has started helping out with CBOs as well, who's doing a really great job. If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, whether it's about general CEO processes or individual things that you see in the eventual report or any Creole at City Hall.
So thank you guys.
I'll pass it back to Aaron, and I'll be here later if you have any questions.
All right, thank you so much. David. But thank you Arielle, I think the Deputy Director Caro, I think I saw her around here too. So thank you for being here and your constant support. I also want to acknowledge that we're joined by city council member representing District Six, Gabriella, Santiago Romero, thank you for being here. I didn't see any other city council members in the audience, but possibly, virtually they may be here. Council President Sheffield has joined us online as well. So thank you so much for being here and for supporting and with that you further do, I would like to call up Brian English Barnell from ultimately development and I believe Ryan Friedrichs, who related, who you all, I think know very well, particularly if you were part of the baby two years ago, so that I'll hand it over to them.
Alright, good evening. Everyone. Oh, come on. Good evening. Everyone, good evening. That's
my favorite part of the
map. I am Ryan English Barnhill. I serve as Vice President of Government community affairs for Olympia development, and I'm delighted to be here with you this evening, with my partner, Mr. Ryan Friedrichs evening. Everybody.
Ryan friders, vice president, William company. It's good to see everybody again coming up.
Truly does feel like a family reunion here. We are joined with five folks from the city of Detroit, MDOT, DPD. It really is lovely to have everyone here tonight, particularly in the opportunities there. So I will go through sort of what we've been up to for the last year and some change, and I'll get right into our day. So we'll talk about a year in review, and we've worked very closely with our map members. And I'll talk about how we've approached our CBA, really breaking it into those work streams, and how we've sort of run those those milestones to ground over the last year, and how we're living beyond those commitments as well. So as noted, these are our local anniversary area with chair Jackson leading the way, and these are the work streams and how we've organized our map members on these particular areas work. It's accessibility, traffic, parking and transit, cultural. Our neighborhood advisor, I'm sorry, our neighborhood history study, our green space, our housing, retail, local business, incubation, construction and employment and education, and each work stream has a need, and then a partnership tag team to take care of this work. So just at a high level, these are some of the commitments that we have made. In particular, really want to thank our folks who have worked very, very hard in the arts and culture and culture and green space. We met very frequently on that. Ryan is going to share, in particular about our I 75 cap project that we work in partnership with DDP, again, the alphabet soup here, and I'll go more into some of our other aspects of our CPA here. So just to start out, a really big milestone is the place that we're actually sitting in this evening, the Opportunity Center. This is truly an accomplishment from our next please give yourselves a round of applause, because this has truly helped our community here. Since its opening, we have interviewed 190 people and extended employment to 158 of them under the leadership of history assembly. And I'm proud to say we've had over 860 visitors here, and that's for our community partnerships, direct hiring and our career affairs here as well. And so this site truly has been a success story, just by having a retail location for Detroiters to walk through the door truly does allow them to be connected with opportunity. So we're very excited about the success of this physical space. As we go into year two, we expect to see many other partnerships flourish here, going forward into this bucket, another huge compliment is our CO developer program launch. This was launched in July of 2024, and a major, major thank you to the Real Estate Association developers, Reid, they were very influential in shaping this. RFP, they spent many hours working side by side. We have launched three prime fights within the district Detroit, again. Thank you. To chair Jackson, I remember you saying, make sure that these are projects 1112, and 13, that they are truly in the heart of the district. And this initiative is very important, because this is our way of building generational wealth and extending opportunity to other developers in the ecosystem. I am proud to say we just released our second property, 81 Columbia Street. That's the Blenheim building, the red one there and the 475, Peterborough. We're in the final stages of selecting the booth for that one. Again, this is directly coming from our conversations over at Cass tech, and really living into our promise behind building generational wealth. So. Next is our in our retail and local business support bucket here, I am proud to say, since we were all together, we have opened two local businesses right on Columbia Street. And that's good cakes and bakes. This is an expansion story for April. This is our second location. And then Detroit versus everybody, the iconic brand. It has been truly a pleasure of mine to see these two businesses take advantage of all the foot traffic on Columbia Street with our winning teams the lines and the success of the tire season going into the playoffs. It is truly, truly wonderful to see these businesses really bloom and blossom over there. More importantly, our fans are getting a taste of local businesses and the best of us again, two black owned businesses that are now located on Columbia Street. Since we were all together at Cass tech, another exciting series that we have that has been yielding great results for restaurant tours is our revolving restaurant series over at Comerica Park and Little Caesars arena going into its third year, believe it or not, and we continue to engage businesses across all districts in the city of Detroit. So just to name a few, cooking with Q Craig fat crabs, Detroit water ice factory. It has been truly wonderful to see these businesses over at both venues. And again, it's that push and that pull. Our fan base is getting exposed to these businesses, and then both then going to support their flagship businesses throughout the city. So again, really, really proud of this program that is just taking off. And now I'm going to have my partner from the city of Detroit, because we're going to tag team on these as far as city commitments that were made in our CBA, as well as developer commitments. So Jose, if you'd like to come up, I'll speak into the microphone and I'll pass you
this. Alright, folks,
hello. My name is Jose dems. I'm in the Johnson County team the mayor's office, and as the NAC remembers, there was developer commitments as well as city commitments. So I'll speak to the representative in the city to speak to the city commitments. So one of the big elements the next emphasized was small business incubation, incubation support within the district. One of the commitments that we did at the city was to provide funding for small businesses through our motorcycle match program using the remaining ARPA funds that we have through the cycle. As many of you know, the ARPA cycle ends this year, but we're committed to supporting small businesses, not only with financial support, but also with technical support. So I'm happy to report that there every cycle of Motor City match that has occurred since the NAC was joined, I believe there's been seven. Has been funded, has funded a Detroit based business in the district. So highlights include Greg's coffee, Anna's Cafe Enola, which is an Asian fusion restaurant in Paradise Valley. And then there's a few more that I can send you to list more. But every, every cycle has included a business, as you requested in that during the community benefits agreement, and then, similarly, there was a request for technical assistance. So met this from our technical assistance team has partnered with the district Detroit team to host quarterly workshops for Detroit based businesses to learn both the ropes of starting a business and scaling your business and Detroit, but also working with large vendors like Delaware North, which is one of the facilitators for trainings, and the Olympia Development Commission. So that's the Small Business update for now, and I'll probably be back for the other three city commitments as
well. Okay, now I'm going to try to speak into the mic a little bit more the blessing of technology, hopefully the Zoom folks can hear me a little bit better now, right? And now education, one of our bigger buckets here, a major moment of progress with the next person I get to introduce, Mr. Collins, and right over here. He has joined the U of M team. He's going to give you an update about the umci and how we're working in partnership with the University of Michigan.
Thanks, Ryan. I'm not Mike afraid at all. Hey everybody. My name is Lou Thomas. I am the director of community engagement for the University of Michigan Center for Innovation in Detroit. That was a really long name because we wanted to make sure we included in Detroit, because we have, we have a new commitment, a renewed commitment to the city. So December, last December, we broke ground. We're already making moves. I'm going to tell you they have laid the foundation. This building is moving, just to kind of give you an idea of what's going on in the space this time. Is a laser. So the first two floors, any part of the lower deck, is wholly dedicated to community, like completely. So there'll be classes, there'll be certificate opportunities, Sting programs, multi purpose space cafe that we need one of those local businesses you were just talking about, to be in the Michigan Engineering zone. We'll also have, of course, for students who want to come to the University of Michigan. We'll have admissions on site, but also clinic space. And I always talk about this portal. I think it's funny that we call it a portal. I promise we are not beating you up. To Scotty, this is an opportunity to cut through the building from one side to the other to access the park. There are four basic buckets that we have right now. Very interested in the fifth bucket, if you have one, but climate action and clean energy transition, advanced manufacturing and mobility applied artificial intelligence. With an initial focus on smart cities and urban tech and entrepreneurship and innovation, our number one constituency is Detroit residents. I cannot stress this enough. We are designing programs to help Detroit residents to upskill. Maybe you're upskilling because you're looking for a new job opportunity and you want to elevate maybe you're upskilling because you want to become an entrepreneur, and you need special skills for that entrepreneurship. Or maybe you're like me, and you say, if I have this skill, how can I help my community with it? Our focus is Detroiters first, another constituency. We're looking at our top international students. Detroit is an international city on an international border, so we have a lot to offer, and we want to make sure that we're bringing in people from all over the world who want to participate in what we have here and contribute to our community regional talent. We're defining the region as the Midwest. We're feeling like people from Arizona might not like snow, but maybe the folks from Indiana, Illinois, maybe they're interested in being here. And then finally, and this is the one that's closest to my heart, historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions and tribal sovereignty institutions. We want to create pathways for all people, and we are calling these groups out, especially because we know that Detroit is a very diverse city, and we call our HBCUs first, because we know Detroit is also 80% black, and we want to see the greatest of what HBCUs have to offer in our city. Some of the goals we've outlined, we want to help annually, 2000 careers in advance, this will primarily be through our gateway certificate programs, working to get 500 educational research jobs. So talking to industry and saying, what is it that you want, and how do we match our community to that? And this last number is a little lower than I anticipate we'll be doing, but engaging 1000 youth annually in steam programs. The building is opening fall 2027 let me be really clear about that, not the ribbon cutting classes start fall 2027 so look forward to this. It's not moving at lightning speed, but it is moving really fast, and we want to make sure we're getting that input now about this space, so that when fall 2027 comes, you feel like this is for you and not some building that's just downtown. We will have 500 graduate students on site annually. And this last number, and I'm hoping you all will help me with this, is to get 30,000 community members annually as a part of this conversation, whether they're in the building taking classes, whether they're in an event like this, whether they're learning about the umci, we want to make sure that all of your voices are being heard when we make decisions. Some of the programs, the graduate studies, are master's degrees conferred by U of M Ann Arbor. So just to be clear, this is not U of M Detroit, a campus. This is an extension of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Those degrees will be conferred from there, but they will be specific to Detroit. There won't be an Ann Arbor version of what we offer. This includes smart cities and urban tech, sustainable robotics, clean energy, applied AI and my favorite. And others, Gateway certificates for Detroiters with some or no college, or maybe some college. And you just wanted to, you just want to get a certificate on top of that, that's fine. Can be completed in six to 12 months. There's a bullet that's not on here, and I'm just going to put it in here. So just look at my little bullet, starting at age 14. So that person that you know that's in high school that is looking to take an alternative career, that wants to get a certificate at six to 12 months, they can have three or four of those before they graduate from high school and get right into a career. And then there'll be these will be certificates also from University of Michigan, project management, auditing, quality assurance, c plus plus, plus all of those technical courses that you're thinking of. And then we'll also offer additional courses like entrepreneurship and leadership, sustainability. We've been talking recently about having a course that helps with transgenerational wealth and teaching people how to pass property onto their children. So it's not always going to be career focused. Sometimes it's going to be about the person, the whole person. Some of our current programs, I promise you, in this space that you're sitting in right now, we have two Python courses that are running this semester. We have the entry level course and we have an advanced course. There's about 50 students, a little over 50 students, that are learning Python right now to take on those careers. And I'm ready to pass this back over to Ryan, because I know she wants to talk about that. That's we're doing this in partnership with the city of Detroit Saturdays. You see why I had him
address the education work stream. So a tremendous amount of work is being done laying the groundwork, and particularly this program is so exciting because we are in partnership. Before the building is even completed, we are making sure that Detroiters have access to opportunities with University of Michigan. With that, I will go to our next work stream, and that's our traffic, parking and transit. So in partnership with the city, city of Detroit parking and traffic division, WSP, our NAC members, m not as well as DPD, we had a traffic study commissioned, and that is fresh off the press in the NAC members hands. You have it to review, but this is a comprehensive parking and traffic study that was done around the arenas as well as rush Park in this particular area in the entertainment district. We have worked in collaboration. We've had many meetings to inform what that study would would actually produce. And we do have recommendations that have been provided. This has also been published to Creo as well as the planning department, and we do have members from in doc here and DPD to ask additional questions in the Q, and a portion additionally, I'm going to have Jose come up really quickly just to go just to go into some of the progress that's been made regarding brush Park and some parking amendments that have been made in that neighborhood particularly,
yeah, I'll be brief. So we worked with the nap to engage and understand the potential for residential parking around brush Park. I think one of the largest considerations was event parking, both at the arena as well as the various athletic fields that we have here. And so part of those elements, of those long term strategies were addressed and recommended in the plan that arrived just mentioned, but also one of the immediate actions that was requested was the residential park and brush apartment. So based on that feedback and engagement that was done with with neighbors, those zones were approved. For those five zones were approved at the turn of last year, and then the second zone, or the final zone, was approved this month as well. So all of those residential parking zones have been approved in brush Park, cask Park and south you
alright, in terms of one hand mobile transit, the NAC requested improvements to bus stops along Woodward corridor, so we're City's working on procuring a vendor to do that work, and I'm looking to do engagement once that vendor is selected, both with an act, but also the broader impact area, both the residents, the business owners, the youth, everyone that lives in this impact area, to make sure we're selecting both the locations, but also the design that is effective and responsive to resident and. Priorities, and so that work is looking to kick off once the vendor selected ideally.
Okay, now in the housing and accessibility work stream, very exciting news here. Just maybe two months ago, we were around on our Henry Street project. A very, very exciting, deep, affordable housing. Residents were retained throughout the entire project. This is seven individual buildings over on Henry Street, and we are going deep, deep, deep into the affordability after listening to Detroiters. So some of these units are as low as 30% am I is 170 units in total being brought to that neighborhood, and 84 of them will be devoted to affordable housing. In addition to that, we've made a contribution of $700,000 to the city's affordable housing fund, and another $350,000 will go over this coming summer. Additionally, we've hired an accessibility consultant for each project, and our NAC member Detroit Jackson has met with those consultants and will continue to stay engaged. Also, I'd like to know that we forged a partnership with continental management, as they are an affordable housing development firm in the downtown area, and we serve as an outpost here in the Opportunity Center, as a leasing center for them. And so again, looking at housing that current housing stock in the district Detroit, but also housing that needs to come, and also honoring our commitment of accepting section eight vouchers, as Miss Gardner Logan advocated for in our developments to come. So very excited about the work that's being done in this particular work stream. And then also 150 Bagley is well underway, and that is set to open later next year. So we're very excited projects and more housing coming to the district Detroit. And then our arts culture and green space works great. I love this photo. It's from a design charrette, we did last summer, so we have honored our commitment in hosting community meetings and design Charettes. We had posted three of them from the Woodward Plaza, directly across the street, and then two more, most recently at the top of October. And I see some familiar faces in here. Thank you for joining us for the m block green space. Really, really successful meetings, because the community came out and really got creative. And we have conversations around programming and activating the spaces as well as designed for all seasons. And we find that to be a really, really thought provoking conversation, because we know Detroiters offices come out in the summertime for three months, that we have folks come out all year round, and we take some of those cues from those meetings, and then we test them in real time, like over on Columbia Street. We just wrapped up Fall Fest, which has become a great amenity down here for families, and now we are rolling over to Winterfest pretty soon. So again, being thoughtful about open, activated spaces and low and low cost programming, those conversations truly are important, and we take them to heart, and we do try to roll out these sort of ideas in real time. Additionally, a huge work stream that Charmaine Anderson worked on is our arts and culture RFA, as well as Mr. TR re ace from the city the Michigan Historical Society, we really thank them for their work in creating the RFA. We are ready to award that, hopefully before the end of the year, and that is a study that is commissioned to examine the history both people and places without an impact on the city. In brush Park, Paradise Valley, Cass border, black bottom and other Caspar neighborhoods. So again, all of this is on time and underway again. This is a group done that very, very frequently, and we thank you for your volunteer service. And now we'll talk about another big, exciting green space. My partner Ryan will take that. So
those of you who are here from the NAC, remember one of the highest priorities, not only the NAC lifted up in the 300 communities that Ryan and I did over the course of a few years, one of the highest priorities was reconnecting those neighborhoods right to the north of I 75 with the Detroit greater downtown neighborhood. So in pursuit of this, we've joined with the University of Michigan when state other stakeholders to support the downtown Detroit partnership in tackling that. And so this year, you can see some of the numbers up here. There have been three large community meetings looking at areas of connectivity where caps could be made, Park caps over built on top of I 75 to help relink and reconnect all of this fabric way to downtown, to those neighborhoods, to the north. This is a data just a number of members. There's three large meetings, hundreds of people in person, over 1000 virtually filling out surveys and engaging there should be on the way out as a hashtag. You can fill out a survey. You can tell you what you'd like to see populated in here. This is some of the initial two. Back, obviously you can see natural landscapes as a highest kind of park amenities as one of the highest priorities. Again. Thank you to DDB and some of the members are here tonight for letting us use these slides for this quick update, kiosk, beverage vending, food transit, micro transit, as well as you can see the bottom even and Plaza spaces. This is sort of a snapshot of where the conversations ended up, which is Grand River. You can see a West cap, central cap, kind of in the Woodward area, and then brush park over the East camp. So major connectivity points, even overcast and Clifford and even the John R non motorized improvements to pedestrian crossings there a major priority for the community. And I would say on this, what the NAC asked us to do, for those who don't remember, is be a financial contributor as well. So we pledged $400,000 which helped the DDP win a $2 million federal grant from the reconnecting Communities project, as well as a $1.9 million earmark. And then the Kresge Foundation put in additional funds. It's about a $4.6 million have been raised to do the initial planning. We also helped submit a ten million grant, the final grant, most likely the program will be cut now for the reconnecting Communities Program, then sun setting, just on september 30. So a lot of high priority program next, and a very smart use of leveraging a small grant to lead to about $5 million so far invested in connecting and community engagement. That's happened today. Here's where the project is heading, the first two phases that we're through. So community goals, identified the capping options. We just showed some of the preferred options and data you've seen. And there's, again, there's 5060, slides here. I'm giving you four of them. I know many of you have met some of those meetings. Happy to give you the full deck, if you'd like. We're moving into now is cap public space and design and further community engagement, so trying to raise the additional funds as the project accelerates. But great project to date, and all credit really, to the town Detroit partnership, Eric clarson, his team, who's been in the lead, as well as in our stakeholder departments who are here. All
right, folks. So the third request was improvements to John R Watson part, both in terms of city commitments, the improvements that the city committed to do, as well as developer investments based on financial breaking ground or finding some financial commitments for one of the developments. So in terms of the city commitment, we've completed the improvements in july 2024 thanks to both the improvement investment of the knack of your time and feedback, as well as the brush Park residents and some of the stakeholders that utilize that space every day in terms of the developer commitment and the funds that will be unlocked once they're able to complete the financing for specific projects. And forgive me for how much specific projects developer to provide the feedback, our team is at the ready once, once those funds are committed, the residents have identified potential uses where amenities can be improved, and utilize most funds to to improve some of the amenities. So I invite you to visit the website to see the progress that we've made in terms of community engagement and design, as well as visit the site itself to see the best feedback.
Thanks, Jose, and as you can see in sort of our revolving speakers up here, this truly is a partnership. So as we work in partnership with the city of Detroit, related the University of Michigan, we could not have had such a year and a half of success without all of our partners. And so going beyond our CBA commitments, we continue to do a push and a pull. We go out into the community and serve and support organizations in all districts. In addition to that, we support arts and culture across the city, and we make sure that every nonprofit knows that the Opportunity Center is available to them at no cost. And so this space can be converted as many ways as you can think of. We've had work groups in here. We've hosted city council meetings. I'm sorry, city council members off site in here. And so again, we really want everyone to know that this space is available to every nonprofit in the city, and we continue to go above and beyond our commitment to our CPA. And with that, I will now break up our president and CEO, Mr. Keith Bradford, and also our director of construction.
You thanks Ryan, good evening everyone. It's great to see everybody, lot of familiar faces here, band back together, so to speak, right? Construction, all this is really what we came. Forth with some ideas around some new development, creating office, retail, hospitality, you name it all in the spirit of creating better opportunities for Detroiters, creating jobs for Detroiters, and so forth. And so that's that's the whole purpose of the not getting together to begin with. So we probably should talk a little bit about construction. And if you remember, about a year ago now, when I say last, this past spring, we changed direction a little bit. We had spent a ton of money and time moving forward with trying to get a an office building and residential tower built in front of American Park, if you remember that during the process, right and and there's really two phases, I'll simplify it, and really in the construction process of pre development, and then there's development, right? And you physically start building it, and you spend a ton of time and money and effort in the pre development phase figuring out how to make it work, right? Can you build it? What's it going to cost? Architecture fees, GC, construction fees, all those things. And we did that on those two buildings, but the economic conditions just didn't say, Hey, you can go forward right now. You know, from a capital market perspective, equity raise interest rates, those things. So we kind of came forward so that we're going to change direction. We're going to put all that on the shelf just for the moment, and refocus on a couple of other things. And that's what I just want to walk you through real quick and really Stephanie Calhoun, who leads the construction ever on one of these projects in particular, is going to give you a little bit deeper dive than I but one of those is this residential building you see here, what we call the m block, M for Michigan, okay, and you heard about the we've already broken ground Academic Center, and what's going on there, And how far along that's going, she's going she's going to give you a little more detail about the progress we're making on this project. It feels great, it looks good, and there's some some great things there. We're in very early preliminary discussions already with the University of Michigan. You can see the enthusiasm and all the programming that's coming forth with that project already about an incubator building there. Now it's still early, but the fact is, you know that they want this residential tower open in time for the students that you heard them talk about to be able to attend class. But then they already said, Okay, now, once we start producing these degrees, how do they start generating businesses? And that's what the incubator is about. So we're we're starting to explore what that might all look about here shortly. The other area of focus is hotels. And we all have seen over the past year and a half, the growth of hotels in Detroit and the need for hotels in Detroit, and we truly believe in that as well, and that's why we've recenter our focus here as is really our two primary commercial hospitality units. So both at little cedars arena, roughly just short of 300 hotel rooms at that at that location, and then the fox, which is next door, the fox office building right above us. We want to do a renovation there, but just short of 180 hotel rooms there. So how are we progressing with that? My background actually is pretty prior to construction, was Hotel Management. I was with Disney and high end Marriott, so this, this is a little bit of my passion from way back, and I'm having a lot of fun personally with this, because I'm getting back into my roots of hotel management, but we are in in the final stages of entering into what's called a hotel management agreement with an operator for the hotel at little cedars arena. Once we do that, and I'm sure the press is going to say, well, who is that right? Soon as we sign that thing, we'll be ready to talk about who that is and bring that forth. And that'll be an exciting milestone, because they've already started working with us on how to program the hotel, how to lay it out, how to maximize it for you know, how many suites Do you have? Any how many kings, how many double doubles Do you have? Those kind of things are being talked about. And so really progressing well with this, and we're excited to make some news on this here about who that might be here in the coming months. On the other side of just the south of 75 is the fox office building and and this building that we want to renovate and turn into a hotel, we have interviewed multiple operators. Uh, even recently this week, we interviewed another one this week about what type of brand, what type of product should go into that, and who do we feel would be a great fit for this iconic building? Right? We want to make sure we do this right? If we're going to make the fox hotel something that kind of can Detroit to match the theater. We want to make sure we have the right operator. So we're in the process of doing that. As soon as we select one, then we'll start the process of negotiation of how to run the hotel and how that happens. So we see that happening. We actually see that trading about six months behind the scenes, arena, hotel. Times of timeline as we move things forward. All right, Stephanie, I'm gonna have you come on up and give a little deeper dive on what's going on at the envelope.
I'm Stephanie, young vice president of construction for related, and I'm gonna walk you through, like, some of this you've heard, as far as milestones, and I'm going to sort of zoom us out and then zoom us back in and talk about the m block and specifically what's been happening there. So first of all, this screen is really a context plan, what's been described as a barbell approach. So you see Comerica Park and anchoring on the one side, really the m block and creating, creating this connectivity between the two through the Columbia corridor. The three projects I'm going to focus on. You heard Keith talk about the incubator. You heard them tell a little bit about the programming and just where we are high level with the umci construction status. So I'll dive a little bit deeper into that and then talk about the park as well as the resi job that was mentioned. So first of all, University of Michigan, umci, as we call it, the as we you heard, we broke ground last December, and if you drive by, you may have started to see cranes and other equipment. But a lot of the great work that's gone on thus far has honestly happened where you can't see below grade unless you're inside the study. So if you recall, this was a part surface parking lot before. So in the last almost a year now, that's been cleared. Deep foundations have been installed. The basements been excavated. The basement's been poured. The basement walls have been poured, and you're starting to see them go vertical here very soon. So they will reach a big milestone in January, February timeframe of next year, where they start setting structural steel, and you'll start to see that frame really come onto the ground. This year is intended to be a side by side of where we are now versus where it's going to be in the final library. Give you some perspective. University of Michigan is managing this project, and is Volvo just a contractor next the park. You heard about the two community meetings that we held, the dates referenced here some of those that attended. Just to give you a sense of scale there, the size of this park is roughly about half an acre. And to double down on our winning Detroit Lions, it's about half of a football field. So you know, this is where Campbell tells you Bates to set up over here the field goal, he's going to hit through the portal that little telemention. So we can obviously gather a lot of great community impact through our community input, rather from those meetings, which is in the process of being compiled, and was really an informative sign of this space going forward, and then lastly, the residential so we've made exciting progress here as well. The important step beyond what Keith described, as far as the pre development side, is selecting a design architect and an architect of record. So we have hired out this van Freddy is our design architect and Newton Smith is our architect of record. We, as recently as the last couple days, are in the final stretches of interviewing general contractors to continue that process forward. So we are deep into discussing materials technology, all those things that are appropriate at this early design phase. I'll
hand it back over to Ronnie. Thank
you. All right, not bad, okay, so thank you for that presentation from the development of related and Olympiad team. At this point, there's a lot of information, a lot of updates being shared, I think, very valuable. And at this point, we're going to get kind of kick off a discussion, any questions, specifically from the neighborhood advisory council member chair Jackson. If you have anything you want to open with, I invite that, if you like, and then we'll go to questions with our advisory council as well.
So thank you, Aaron, thank you to the team for your presentation. I think it's appropriate we just give a round of applause, because I appreciate
I just want to really thank my colleagues on the net with a lot of people for the general public, for you to know that once our work was done and we negotiated the agreement With the city council was approved, we then went and split up into committees, and all the Nag members were part of the committee, or committee leads in those six categories of those six areas that it was actually here on listed up here, and so they've been doing a lot of work throughout the year. Year, plus working with the development team Olympia related in those committees. And there's a lot of work product that has come out of that work, be it the traffic study being the accessibility work that have been done as relates to parks and a number of things, of course. So our job is not done. We're going to be here, you know, really to this is all done, and they meet all of their commitments as relates to what we had negotiated, we are excited about me, much of the progress that has been made up to this point, the CO development program is really off and running. A lot of emerging Detroit developers that are participating and going after those opportunities. You know, we are really staying steadfast in relation my colleagues are going to ask questions we are very concerned about the traffic and mobility and parking, how that impacts the neighborhoods. And so even though there is a study now really working with not only the developers, but in particular, MDOT in the city of Detroit, as we're going to do, about implementation of these recommendations. And so we just hope that that piece of paper, that report doesn't fit on a shelf we're really going to start, want to start seeing, because some of that has nothing to do with these projects, and when they start spending money on construction. And then lastly, I'll leave for questions for for my colleagues, it is, this is something really for the development team and really even to the city. It is important that you put together a report like this. We want to celebrate what's going on with the innovation center. But the Innovation Center was not necessarily part of the actual agreement. And so as you start to celebrate what is happening there, then there will be the question, as relates to, even though you are not bounded or under the NAC agreement, when people start talking about, who are those people on the construct on the construction site, at the Innovation Center, who are the companies doing the work? Who are the contractors? We did a lot of work. There's a lot of commitments made by related as relates to an Olympia as to participation and inclusion that you are not necessarily held by that same standard. And there will be, at some point those questions will come out. You're going to want to be prepared to talk about, what is that level? Because this opportunity center is a real place, and it is something that we are appreciative that they wouldn't put it in place. And but how much participation, how much is it being used for that project? And so that is something I'm not this is not admonishing anyone, but it certainly should be acknowledged and recognized, because if we're going to include it in as one of the feathers in the cap of what's happening, you gotta also take on some of the responsibility, or potentially burdens that are that come out of that, because that question will be asked, um, thank you, Aaron. I just my colleagues will sure have questions. I want to just thank them again for all their work and their participation. You.
So thank you, Chris and Eva. Thank you. District Six manager says the mic, so we're going to invite questions from the neighborhood advisory council members, and we also have the folks from the development team here, unci and Jose also ability answer questions. But I think I saw Commissioner Kinloch, if we can bring over to him. And for folks, you know, we're gonna do questions from the neighborhood Advisory Council. I see another member in this act my testing. I welcome to come up here. We're staying up here. If you have questions, please do come up so but Mr. Kinloch, please.
Thank you. First, this is an opportunity. I want to take this as an opportunity to one celebrate the accomplishment that we made over the past year. You all remember when we first sat down, there were a number of concerns about where we were going, where we were going, but also whether or not the commitments would be would be follow through on. It was a situation where we all began to understand we're aiming for the same thing. And so what I'm saying is this is absolutely the opportunity to celebrate, because we didn't know where and how this thing was going to work out, because we've seen a number of projects come online and basically fall apart. But one thing I want to say is this, like our Chair mentioned, there's a lot of conversation. Mentioned a lot of work that's taking place in between these meetings. And one thing I have to mention is I appreciate the communications that we received in between these meetings, specifically the update, because I remember I was getting phone calls when the plan had had, I guess, pivoted. And I appreciate you all being forthright and reaching out in advance of letting and clarify some some questions that we had. And so my one question, beyond what I state, my statement, is this, do you anticipate, you know, with the challenges in the economy? Do you anticipate any other pivots, or any other change, substantial changes associated with the footprint and the commitment associated to the structural, you know, structural commitment, construction associated with this project, these projects,
so again, I appreciate the question in terms of, what do we
predict in terms of construction?
And if I knew the answer to that, okay, I probably have a completely different job. It's, it's impossible to predict the future. Okay, that's not to be meant to be a defensive comment in any way. What we're trying to do is respond to the current economy right and right now we know Detroit needs hotel rooms to help support some of the economy that we're currently trying to look the visitation we have with the success of the sports teams and what the convention center is doing and those things, we think that's the right thing to do, and we think it can be supported by the current marketplace. We all see the headlines around Office, and a substantial part of the plan was office, there's no doubt about it. But I also want to comment that the catalyst for that office is the success that we're seeing with the unci academic center. Let's So, let's remember that they were connected, right? So what they're doing, the University of Michigan, is going to do with the academic center, the the students that are producing the degrees they're producing, hopefully will attract new business to Detroit. That's the whole idea. So, yeah, while it, you know, Chris, I appreciate the comments. It technically was not part of the TVP, but it is one of the major catalysts to bring new jobs and new office to this city, to create opportunity for everyone. So let's hope that all happens. That's the plan with I can tell you this, you saw the energy that the University of Michigan is bringing to this. I tell you, I am completely energized by that. The fact that we're already talking about what the possibilities are with an incubator program, to me, sends all the right messages about how successful this could be. So let's select this pebble create the ripple effect that we're opening
with. Thank you. I agree with Commissioner kenma. We got quite a bit accomplished. So my question is, it's kind of two questions. And one is, first, you have, like, an estimated date for the groundbreaking for the projects that haven't broken ground yet, and how is it with the financing for those projects?
So the financing question is one I kind of addressed in my presentation, for example, in office, it's just not something that's available today with the interest rates and where things are particularly around that that particular use time. So as part of the pre development phase, we go in. Let's use hotels as an example. We'll go through. We hire the operator before you go to the market to try to achieve financing. The first thing a bank's going to ask you, or an investor is going to ask you, is, who's your flag and who's your operator, right? They want to know the quality of product you're getting. So once we do that, then we get the market with that as the next step in the process. And so we feel great about it, but you know, we'll see how the market responds to that other hotels being built. So we hope we can do the same. You
Good evening, everyone, thanks. I'll hold and observe the right to ask more substantive questions after the full Creo report is out, Did I understand correctly? We'll have that still this week, this
week.
Aaron, that's correct. Okay, that'd be great to have that in the meantime, I'll just ask rapid fire three or four clarifying questions from on that that I saw reference to bus stops on the Woodward corridor I saw on the deck end of 2024 I think I heard, as they say, something about select making selections in 2025 those states seem to. Before I can clarify, please.
Yes, that's a DDOT commitment. So we're working through procurement right now, and the goal is to do community engagement for locations and design with the NAC and the community in early 2025
so they won't, so they won't be, so they won't be built by end of 2024 slide indicated in terms of like, like the U of M and Detroit campus, the caps. The cap project is not a part of district Detroit, but the symbiosis is obvious. And I heard a reference to Ryan that connecting communities sun setting. Does that imply that with the change in presidential administrations, that that program is likely to go away, just based on what we do know today? And I realize you don't own that project that's downtown. I did that. But what do we know about the prospects for that ever actually being completed? Therefore,
well, couple thoughts. So the references
to the program that was awarded a $2 million grant, the reconnecting communities that I referenced that was always a pilot program that was created by the current administration. So the assumption most people have now is that that will not
that pile, will not move into a permanent program. But there are other projects which are grants you can get in for grants,
mega grants, that are traditional, more traditional for those type of projects that every city is going to compete for. So again, I would defer to Eric Carson Sierra, CEO of DDP, we've been an ally and helping will continue to help in any way. Chair Jackson's been engaged. You've been engaged as well on that project, really. Oh, others. So if we want to be supportive, and I think reconnecting communities was a perfect match, but that money was all pulled forward all the way from 26 unfortunately, given out all the money of that program. That program is officially done. Our guess is that's probably not going to be reauthorized because it was a previous administration's project. There are lots of USD OC programs, we can continue to be for navigating them, for our examples. So I think the prospects are still good. That was a perfect match. There's still good prospects to go out
here for long term time. Thank
you. And finally, for me, can clarify question, Keith, you're Stephanie for the arena hotel, because that seems to be the most advanced worship assessment currently for groundbreaking there,
ideally we would, I would love to break ground and end up 25 but, you know, we'll see where, see where things go. I'm not
asking for commitment, but that's so out of your option. Thank you so much. Um,
discuss as one of the education coordinators for the NAC and a proud technician 1970
just a quick status update in terms of the commitment that was made to Cass and where we're at and
just
following that through.
So the financial commitment is tied to the financing of the second hotel. So that commitment is broken into two parts, first hotel, of the second hotel. However, we stayed very, very close to CAS tech. We just had over 45 interns again this summer, directly from that school. We will also be working in partnership with the dpscd Foundation. They are looking to host their come home event over at Cass tech. So we're working with them on parking and all sorts of things. So we stay close to that community. I talk to Lisa often, and those students are truly a priority of ours, and so we make visits over there often as well. I do career day every year, and so we care about the cast tech community, and we stay in partnership with them, but that financial commitment is tied to the two hotels, but we will keep you up to date as we stay very communicative with you regarding all of our education initiatives, but we will also stay committed when that is, of course,
as a follow up to that cast tech 1986
so everybody can see, you know, the cast is pretty heavy, but just as we are very understanding and tolerant of you having to pivot in the triggers that were for, you know, like that donation in particular. Hopefully there is, and I know you're doing a lot of work, Brian, trying to stay engaged with DPS, to be able to the extent as you're working through five. Answer and that kind of thing to be able to also some of that pivoting may need to come into consideration. And I know that's voluntary as relates to that type of commitment, only because you do have a situation where DPS and the foundation as their planning, they were looking at sort of that donation, and they were looking at your initial timeline, and they were partnering or or leveraging some of those dollars to do larger type of investments. And so just to the extent that there always can be that that could be sort of rethought as you go through that process, just to touch on that
we did make up for those touch on that, we did make $100,000 contribution to the dpsc Foundation last summer. So again, it is an organization that we truly care about, and I understand what you're saying. As the timeline changes, are we changing our where our contributions fall as well? We stay in partnership with them and stay up to keep them up to date regarding when those are triggered. And we do know that they are still in fundraising mode for that particular athletic was the I thought it complex over there, and so we stay close to them regarding that. And again, we still wrap our arms around it financially as well.
Mark, more questions from NAC members. I see two more. Okay, thank you.
I apologize. I did a wrong question. The initial draft of the traffic study, and some of my NAC colleagues posted to this that I am but keen interest. There was an initial report several months ago, and then there's a revised version dated just last week, what substantively changed between one and the other. And as you know, it's a topic that where there's high interest in the neck, probably in the community, because the Genesis, really, of district, Detroit, as I see it anyway, is Little Caesar's arena. Traffic's over here, but it's not waiting for financing or for Office demand for still more traffic, which will be delightful for our city, the people that are fortunately coming to coming to the core city right now. So between the initial report and as submitted by what's meaningful and different? Thanks.
Thanks. The question, there really isn't a substantial change between the two part of the reason for a second report, or I will even call out the label the final report was making sure that this wasn't just about construction and development, right? It was broader than that and touched more parts of the organization. So we wanted to make sure that the Sports Entertainment Group, for example, understood if they were being asked being made of them to make changes on the ingress and egress, for example, of the arena, could they accommodate those and those kind of we want to make sure that they bought into those recommendations. So once we did that, we were but no major changes. Now,
okay, so my question is about the residential building on the m block. So do you have an estimated groundbreaking for that, and how's the financing with that going
so groundbreaking there, what we want to do is sync that up with the opening of the school. That's the game plan, and we feel confident enough that financing in the works for that financially will will be fine. We hope to move forward here on that soon. What is that
estimated groundbreaking day? Will it break down while the school is under construction, or after what do you
what's your building two, two and a half years, end
of next year?
So if they're going to open in the fall of 27 we need to be ready and have that residential building open ground open they need the students there as a
follow up to that. There is also in the Nag agreement on top of my head when we all call it, but the actual it was the engagement component was a consultant working with Olympia related relative to hiring the contractors, the vendors, that kind of thing, relative to inclusion. And so the idea was always that you're going to need those entities sorted in place a bit ahead of as you get ready to start hiring, and as you're actually going after certain vendors and that kind of thing. So can you just speak to and I think Brian, sort of the status of where those are, because. Because I know you're saying they started construction in two years or year a year, and so that's not a long time. And when you start trying to build up the pipeline and started putting in place the various vendors and contractors, that's
right. So if you remember, we were chomping at the bit, so we actually interviewed 13 different firms to do exactly what you're talking about. That recruitment consultant, someone who would help us hit the ground running, getting those 51% or higher Detroiters on the construction sites, making sure that we have black owned businesses through our entire pipeline. And so we received proposals, we interviewed, and then, due to economic conditions changing, we started to hit the pause button. It's a great time for you to bring that up, because you're right. We will need somebody working alongside us as we start to gear up for that construction start. So that's definitely on my board, to get someone you know, associated with our team, you know, understand what our commitments are and get them started within 2025 so it's very predicated on construction start, but it's definitely we know someone will need a runway in order to do that work with that yes,
couple of NAC members who maybe haven't asked a question yet. Also Miss Logan moves online. If you have a question, you can raise your hand and come off mute. But like I said, Miss Jackson, Mister Williams, any of you have questions before we move on to general public comment.
My name is Henry Williams, DAG member, just to get a brief update on the parking situation, I know that there was a concern that there was a incident right outside of LCA recently where something else and the parking situation, where they got the What is this residential parking zone we have to pay to park on the street if you're a resident, and they have hours where non residents can come and park on the street, but after a certain time, they have to be gone, and you have to have a residential parking permit, which cost $65 and you're still not guaranteed a spot. Now, we had a member of municipal parking Association come down to our building located on 124 Alfred, and they just implemented, you know, their plan without any you know, they heard us, but they did what they wanted to do, and again, I say there's no enforcement of illegal parking. You know, residents at 124 Alfred are left again to, you know, have to earn three, four blocks to get home. And this is a senior citizen building. You know, we got people with, you know, handicaps, you know, limited mobility that are just, you know, impacted severely by when there's events at Little Caesars America Park, Ford Field. And I said, I don't know where this parking thing came from, but 65 bucks to park for a permit, and if you have a caregiver, you have to go online to, you know, reserve a spot. And you're still not guaranteed. In the DPD, the parking enforcement, they are not issuing tickets. And, you know, like I said, we just left in the dirt, just wondering about who can address that for me, yeah, I'm
gonna have to reduce.
Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much for sharing that perspective I remember from the conversation that the MPD had with your your building and your fellow residents, I think the issue around the scale cost of the parking passes for senior citizens, for individuals that require support, I think that was implemented in the policy given your feedback there in terms of enforcement, to connect with MPD and or APD team members to our enforcement, both during events, but also just general enforcement, to make Sure individuals that both live in the neighborhood or visiting satisfy the parking departments there, because, to your point, right? The whole reason for the parking program was to ensure residents have access to the parking that they are paying for, and also it's a safe and walkable neighborhood for All right, so making sure that we follow the rules and regulations of the road, as well as respect neighbors that give so much to the neighborhood. So just answer both your elements. I think the first one was around the cost. There's in terms of the program, and I'm happy to connect with you afterwards and talk to the cost. There's a scalable program based on your income, if you're a senior citizen or require support and the. Second one is we can definitely talk to our NPD team members and our PPD team members to up enforcement and circle the neighborhood to ensure that both during events and non event days, enforcement is parking is enforced and basically consistent following our regulations and expectations.
Thank you, Jose. Do you have any little bit of feedback? Any other questions from neighborhood advisory council members? We're going to come to general public comment in just a moment. I do also want to respond to that. I know that you, Mr. Williams, referenced the really tragic incident that happened on Woodward about a month ago or so, and I know we have someone here from MDOT who can maybe give a little bit of an update about just, you know, some of the things improvements happening on Woodward that you think he came out here. So I thought maybe just not take advantage you can provide that information before we move on to general public comment. So Justin Rose from Hello everyone.
Hello everyone. My name is Justin Rose. I am the operations manager down at the Detroit TSC. So I kind of oversee traffic operations, traffic safety, maintenance, permitting any the utility work for any of the surface roads within the city of Detroit. So obviously, the one that's most relevant here is Woodward. So just a couple updates one of the big projects that I've heard from the community, and this was a little bit before my time that it's been pushed through, but we are currently in the design process. The funding has been obligated for a new traffic signal at Woodward and temple, so just north of Little Caesars arena there, that will include a pedestrian crossing to try and help move traffic, especially north and east of any of those events. We are currently undergoing a major planning project for the entire Woodward corridor, so our section all the way from Adams right near, sorry, Park. It's actually going all the way up through Pontiac to the loop there. So we broke it down into a lot of different sections. This is probably 18 month project that's including traffic. It's including safety. It's looking to do to really read into what some of the needs and uses of the corridor are. So again, that there's no project in it with that. But as funding becomes available, the idea of having that project kind of or that plan in our back pocket means that we can move forward the proper way right now, that is. It's just been kicked off in the last couple months, so they're kind of in the fact finding, gathering of data process, but there will be a lot of public engagement as part of that. So that's something to look for in the near future.
Timing for temple.
So what's that
timing for the light of Temple?
So right now and again, things fluctuate. But the last I saw is we're looking for a letting date of June of 25 so that means that it's out today we have a contractor brought in. So most likely construction will probably be in late 25 and then by the time, you know, we get the mast arms, everything like that, because steel still has a while seen anywhere from, if we're lucky, a 24 week advance, or it could be up to 42 to 50 weeks that we have to wait to get it manufactured. So hopefully early 26 early to spring of 26 is when that should be up.
Okay, thank you. And how can people be in touch with the engagement process we talked about?
So we will be sending out a lot of information to different community groups. Of course, it's going to be online. I'm sure we'll have plenty of press releases that will be out in local media, things like that. I don't have specific dates, although, for anybody who is interested, we are having to not related to district Detroit, but we do have a public engagement meeting for the i 375 project, which is right in the area that is going to be December 3. And I believe, tentatively, we have one for the Michigan Avenue through court town scheduled for December 4. And that information can all be found on our website. Michigan.gov/mbo
team. Thank you, Justin. Really appreciate you being here and providing that update. And I think I saw it from Miss Jackson Have you had a question? Okay,
so relative to the accessibility consultant, the meeting that we had last year when we had that meeting, I. They were sharing their vision of their instruction. However, there was a slope that I really didn't agree with, and I did some big questions to this design team, which I haven't heard anything back. So are there any updates regarding the accessibility component in this project.
Really glad you brought that up because you're about to engage you for a next round of air meetings coming up fairly soon. So that particular project was for the two buildings across the street, which we de escalated in the timeline. So this coming year, once we get an architectural partner and a flag and everything that keeps them regarding the hotels, we will engage you again to meet with that firm, that other firm that you've had a conversation with, there has not been any progress made in that particular pre development works, right? But you will absolutely be engaged as always moving forward.
So that was for those design
team, for those
students. Now, accessibility is is a part of the entire development Absolutely. So my question is based on, even though you're, you know, whatever projects you're building, accessibility is a necessary component. So will there be, will I be engaged regarding those conversations, regarding the accessibility components of all of those projects? Absolutely,
and that's also why we want to make sure you're invited to every community design Shrek for public spaces as well. So whenever we have shovels in the ground, you will meet the team who is doing the design work.
Also, are we selecting individuals that are vocal to participate in any of this accessibility component, because what I recall one that firm was a New York based fund. So do we have considerations for individuals that are local? If you have
firms that you would like to recommend to us by all means, please send them along. But typically what happens is the architect of record that has an accessibility consultant that they particularly work with. But please make recommendations. You have my my phone number and I email. We chat often, but please send folks along if there's someone you believe we should talk
to. Awesome, also relative to the construction
component, we I don't mean to hammer the accessibility component. However, I would like to know if we have people that are local being considered to partner with construction as well local people and not just those same firms. I'm always hearing that have those same big projects all the time, all I see is Walgreens, Walters month, or a turner turn. I want to hear and see so I haven't been American construction companies partnering. I want to see more vocal firms involved in all of the development
speak to for the residential project that we hit on that we have hired our architect of record, who is Newman Smith, their local architecture firm. And then we also are in the process, like I mentioned, of hiring our general contractor and those firms that are in the running for that are both Detroit based or have a Detroit based partner, one of which is a minority partner, so we're very aware of that, and it is something that's very important to us, and that'll continue through the subcontractor and consultant selection process as
well. Awesome. So we are considering numerous people, because this is a huge development, so we don't have to there's plenty to spread around. Is that correct? Yeah, okay, so I would like to see a more diverse participation in the development construction of
the project. So yep, and so last year, it's been I have to plug our year in review document that was on everyone's share. I know that deck was a tremendous amount of information, but there is a take home companion that you can flip through. But in the earlier section, we did host a construction all calls. So that was to make sure that any firm in Southeast Michigan that maybe we didn't know about or they opened. A firm more recently, or people that we had worked with and maybe hadn't engaged in a lot. We did that over at the construction mill right center on the west side of the city, and so we will host more of those events to make sure we are diversifying our pipeline. But we did have a major event, and we had a great turnout, and we actually were able to connect with new firms that weren't necessarily in our pipeline already. So we are doing that work of going out and sourcing diverse firms. But again, if there's recommendations, I am extraordinarily accessible, and so is our team. So send recommendations along to the to us. We take them very seriously, and we do try to plug people into
opportunities. Awesome, awesome. Sorry, wait until but relative to education, I am a professor at Wayne County Community College District della that the University of Michigan is involved in this development. However, there was a point in time where we did have Wayne County Community College District mentioned in our earlier meetings, prior to our agreement ended, I haven't heard anything lately about the participation of Wayne County Community College or The enrollment that we initially wanted. So what happened?
I can, I can. I'm gonna compliment our partner first on that COVID program as well. To your question about highly, highly local, we can want to say a word about your engagement community colleges, because little towels joined the Ryan Ryan Show. We've heard him since a few times. They've made some progress in real terms.
Thank you for that.
I tried to keep it brief in the presentation, but I just want you to know a big part of the work that we're trying to do is we're trying to work with Michigan, state Wayne, state Wayne County, community, district, UD mercy, all of the colleges. We want to make sure that we're engaging all of them. Because if you're like me, and you watch a lot of movies for us, this is miracle on 34th Street, right? We can be Macy's UB gimbals. Let's figure out how we support the city of Detroit, because there's 600,000 residents here the University of Michigan. No matter how big we build the building, we're not going to be able to accommodate everybody. How do we make sure that they're getting those programs from WCD three? It's it's hard to Wayne County, Wayne County, community college district. How are we making sure that we're getting folks in these programs, not just at the umci, not just at WCC, CD, but also, how are we making sure that they're getting to the village school for business? How are we making sure that they're getting in programs at Michigan State, we used to have this. My philosophy is, anybody but Ohio State, let's figure out how we work together. How are we collaborating? And our presidents have been talking to each other and trying to figure out where, where can we partner? How can we figure out how we're creating programs and looking at industry and saying, Hey, industry, what is the standard that you need for a certificate? What is the standard that you need for graduate students? So that we can collaborate together? And say, Okay, can you pick up this image? And we'll pick up
that right. Because initially we we definitely remember that we discussed about the training, job training, and the pipeline from Wake Up Community College to the components of some somehow, like I said, he's falling off. I haven't forgotten just because I don't always mention anything at once, but I'm still watching, and I will keep reminding you what we discussed in our earlier conversation, so I
appreciate that. And what you're referring to is our Fast Track program. And so we will be sourcing students from Wayne County Community College District to be a part of that. And so the Fast Track program is directly related to construction starting. So that recruitment consultant piece that we were just talking about would source students and college graduates from the community college and so again, that's predicated on construction start. But as always, I truly appreciate you staying connected and reminding us, and when we start that program up to recruiting for that we will make sure that you meet the recruitment consultant as well. Bring on top of
mind, awesome, because we're supposed to be preparing them for those positions, both construction. That was the whole point. My last name, okay.
Okay, I'm sorry. I apologize. So I would also like to echo the sentiments of my colleagues that we are very impressed with your participation, your commitment. Thus far, we are hopeful that you adhere to your commitment, and that's it. That's it. I'm finished with. That's That's it, that's it. No, I guess I might be going a little bit over. So okay, that is it. Thank you guys. Thank you for
Thank you. Thank you. Miss Jackson and I. Thank all the Nag members for that. Very great questions, a great dialog we had. I do want to move on to general public comments, because I know that the audience here, and I'll get to that audience here, defines on I've been, you know, patient throughout this, and we got some answers and everything. So Antonio, who's our deputy district manager, this group, is on Zoom. You can bring up the timer. And while we're doing that, a little bit of echoes. I'm not sure why, but I do want to acknowledge that Miss Logan did have a question that she entered into the chat, and specifically was that the will the CBA be pivoted change or change if economic conditions don't improve? And so I can speak from the community benefits agreement itself is an agreement that laid out certain timelines, so I don't think you anticipate that being changed, but also knowing that there are certain metrics that can match some of the agreement provisions come into effect. So that's what is, from the city kind of standpoint. I don't know if you have any additional comment on that, okay? And she just mentioned the report as well. So the report, and I said it off Mike, just so everyone knows will be coming out, I think in a week's time from our partners at creo, and they'll be shared, and everyone be able to see it anyway. And of course, you know, questions can be brought in that way. So I'm gonna hopefully bring up the timer here. So there we go. Great. So if you have a question, Mr. She'll have the microphone, or, I'm sorry, Director, Brian, did you have something you want to say? No, no, I'll put this okay. So if you have a question or a comment, please raise your hand. We will get you in turn. You will have a minute. We're going to take notes on questions. If it's something that hasn't already been answered, We will, you will answer at the end. And so, okay, so I'm reading, will the CBA be COVID change in economic I'm sorry, she asked about the report. She has had a comment. The absence of a report today signifies a non commitment to abide by the deadlines of the construction projects. So that's a good point. I do want to make the point that the report actually just concerns the community benefits provisions. Doesn't actually concern the construction itself. It concerns the agreement city between city and developer advised by enact about those community benefits that were given. So it's not actually, doesn't actually speak the construction timeline. So I just want to call for that clarification. Miss Logan, did you want to come off mic and say anything additionally?
Okay, and it's also a city issue, but it's, I'm sorry, it's a report issued by the city, not by the developer. They respond. Okay. Miss Logan, if you do want to,
call or not.
Okay. Miss Lewi, record your comments, though, so thank you. Okay, general public comment. I saw some racing, and I think we'll go down right here.
I just want to say thank you for our community. I'm from this area, Detroit. I know Chris talked but I also want to make sure you know who Bill can I do want to say thank you. We all are because our community needs it. The Mirror, goes in the mirror, our city is growing. That was one of the things he said, if we can grow our city back, and he has done his his effort and promised what he said, he delivered that. Okay? He said that the other day I was there with him, okay? My main question is, we, during the time when we first got this, there was two points I want to make once it like Chris said, was we said we don't have community that we need Detroit as part of the process. And as you recall, we moved there on 13th floor city county building. We had a trees to stand up because they were talking about people do this because I think you need real jobs. And what you're doing providing their real jobs. I mean serious jobs, meaning they making dollars so they don't have to. They can have reasonable housing and things that they draw. My question, do I have one more question? Okay, and I just want to say you also mentioned cash tech. What you going to do at kstep? I was there at day one. Okay, so let's make sure we do those two things. Okay, make sure Detroit is part of the process. And I mean, I mean, talk about skilled trades as well. Okay? Because there's a lot of skilled trades. When you walk by a broad project, you want to see what it look like. And we walk by a project, if it don't like Detroit, then people don't have a comment or two about what's going on. So let's make sure, if I need help now I can identify that as well.
Okay, thank you. Alright. Thank you very much. Do we have another hand raised in this room here? Hi,
thanks. I am hoping that you guys can all help me. I'm trying to bring awareness to the accident that happened on October 10, my husband and I witnessed the Challenger speeding down the board, cut off another car, watched car parts go flying, heard screams and crashing sounds. It was so loud that actually covered migraine. When we got closer, we found the lifeless body of a man lining the street. The sound we heard was car hitting the pedestrian and not another car. What we thought were car parts flying in the air ended up being the man's body, his clothing, his phone. The impact were so severe it ripped off his clothes and his shoes. The man hit was standing in the median, not running in the street. The scene was so horrific, but I learned as telling some of my neighbors they witnessed something the year before, almost identical, the fact that we want to grow district Detroit. I'm so excited about it, and I'm happy for it, but we have to focus on pedestrian safety. I think Olympia has been delayed in putting up this light at Temple and Woodward. I'm happy to hear that there will be one going up, but a year and a half is too long. We need something now, temporary lighting. We need something in the medians. You see all the all of the ride share cards doing U turns on there all the time. And it's not safe to walk all the way up to Erskine and cross, because there are a lot of questionable characters that sit at the intersection, and I don't feel safe walking by them, so I'm asking for your help, because this has not been on the news. How horrific it was. Hundreds of people witnessed us, and we need to do something to save the people that are going to be attending events. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you so much. And I believe you also submitted something in writing sounds very similar, so we're working on a response to that. We also have a member from DPP here who may be helpful to connect with them talk about it, and you heard the updates just one point clarification, though. You know it is the end, not just possible, and the lights, not necessarily Olympia.
But I'm hoping, well, I've heard that Olympia was resistant to it at first, and I'm hoping that there's some temporary fix that can go in. And I know the police officers have said it's been drag racing, but it would not have occurred if there was a safe light for people to cross it. We can
connect offline. Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll go to the next person.
I was going to reiterate what she said. I mean, it blows my mind here that it takes a year and a half to procure light poles and lights those should be off the shelf items, and I'm hoping you guys can put some pressure on the government to get that light in faster. I mean, six months, to me, is a long way. Year and a half is crazy. So that's really the interest of public safety. You know, we're gonna have more events, more people running across the street. We can't have people get moved down like that because traumatizing the watch I was there too.
Thank you. You know, thank you for having a comment. And for sure, we have more hands raised here in the audience to see that, right? And then, if you're online, if you raise your hand, we will come to you every in the live audience. So go ahead,
I have a quick question about the two developments across the street here,
correct America? I
know you said those are kind of on the back burner for now, but the past news about that was the contention between current owners, which the Wayne County, Detroit saving authority and Olympia. So we update on negotiation between the parties in purchase price and where the proceeds going to go, and then follow. Question just regarding the existing half built buildings around LCA, those are part of this development, but obviously funding for all those that goes towards this, they're not going to go towards that. So what's the status on those properties?
I'll boost your second question. First, as far as the the department you're talking about, which is 111 and 120 Henry, the two podiums that are built, we were working on solutions for those in conjunction with the hotel. So we, we're trying to figure out how to, how to, how to make a complimentary offering to the hotel. So that's in the design phases, and hopefully in the near future, we can talk about what that might be, as far as the land in front of what we call the super block, the land in front of America Park, the cost those projects delayed. You know, we are not in current conversations around that, but when the time comes, we'll open that. Echo, thanks
for that. Do we have any other questions comments here in the audience? If not, I'm going to ask my co host, who is remote, Mr. Antonio Warren Mills, if he can call on the first person who has their hand raised in zoom, We can have them ask their question or comment.
I'm first before Thanksgiving, I want to thank you all for all the work you've done to help us improve the city, and secondly, to thank you again for considering cash Park as a Veterans Memorial for all of those who have served city of Detroit, the nation will be celebrating its 250th anniversary, and I understand in 2026 that we will be a middle of honor City, and we're also a front water city. So again, I want to thank you all for your support. If you the Masonic temple where the Vietnam Veterans of America and other veterans meet is currently flying the pow Mia flag, which is the prisoner of war and missing an action flag, and thank you again. And we were saying that freedom is not free, and for those who forget it, Freedom has a flavor, though, freedom as a flavor, but protected will never know. Thank you. Okay,
thank you. Mr. Sand, Rob. I think I muted that thing just to cut down on the next back and forth, but hopefully it's still coming through. Okay. Antonia, if you can hear me, let's go ahead to the next person. It says I'm muted right now, my host is muted. Said, Okay, now zoom. You should be going
to Okay, so we are going to next Antony, if you can call the next person, actually,
COVID. Platform. First, an accountability question, has the deposit that was agreed to in the CBA agreement, the deposit to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund? Has that deposit been made the
Okay, thank you for that. And I can confirm from the city side that, yes, I believe the donation has been made twice in two tranches of $350,000 the first time in the summer of 23 and the second time in summer 24 and I think that schedule can schedule will continue going forward over the period of which I think is a 10 year commitment, $350,000 each and every year. So thank you for that question. Do we have any other questions in the audience or on Zoom? If not, it is getting close to eight o'clock and. Do want to acknowledge that we went a little bit over time. And I want to take a moment to really thank everyone who participated, the folks up here, who presented, the neighborhood advisory council members, the audience, all the city staff and folks who have been here through this, you know, prior from 2022 to 2023 and to this point here, now we look forward to continuing progress. And did I have one more question coming through? I think I might have question come through. So I apologize before i Yes, and this is coming forward. Will the U of M Detroit center remain at its location at Woodward and Matt? I think it's a question about that location
there, as far as I know, it will. There are, I'm sorry, there are a couple of other projects that the University of Michigan is focused on. The project that's at Mary Grove there is the building that is just across from the DIA known as the radcom building. The university is making a huge commitment to get back into Detroit. And I kind of want to address something that was mentioned earlier, and I think it's really important that you understand, even though the university did did not agree to this process, they did this silly thing where they hired the Detroiter to sit at the table and talk to them about what the community wants to see. So we'll be rolling out next year engagement like this, and making sure that every time we come to the table, Detroit voices are being heard. So it's it's not exactly the same, but they hired somebody who grew up in the city. That's tech 92 somebody. Yeah, that's a lot of Cass tech in here. But just to be clear, we are not just invested in CAS tech. We're invested in Henry Ford High School, southwestern, Northwestern Martin Luther King. We want to catch everybody and so saying all of this to say we we won't have the exact same process, but we want to engage the exact same people so that these questions that you're asking can get to the table. If we're not asking the questions that you're asking now, we're failing. So we want to make sure that we're engaging with you. We'll be rolling that out next year. Right now, I'm just spending money. We're spending money now, but I promise you, they hire me on purpose. I told them in advance. I said, Look, I grew up in China Black Diamond. Y'all know that up front, I'm a member of the black slate committee. Y'all know that up front. So when we talk about community, this is somebody who is interested in what's happening with community. Don't play with us. It's a big deal, and a little bit Detroit is the most important part of that big, long name. So we're going to have engagement like this. Hopefully we can get the
technology figured
out. I'm observing, but we have to build out a team, and we have to get the equipment to do that kind of engagement. And I want to see the same when we start talking about programs and the building and making it in Detroit, because I don't want to get 200,000 square feet of building into a neighborhood that nobody comes into
for killing us.
We need these programs just as much, if not more, so than an ARPA does. So we'll be reaching out. I promise you, we didn't have the exact same process, but I promise you we will be in full engagement.
Thank you. Thank
you. Alright, thank you. That is a great way to wrap things up. Thank you. Thank you Ryan, Ryan Keith and Stephanie for everything and the partnership that you're exhibiting, really appreciate that. I just wanted to make one comment. There's two really important websites. One, I think, is most important city. First website where you can find this presentation and recording from this evening will all be up there in short order, but also for information about the space we're in right now, the district Detroit, oc.com, I think that's probably the best source of information from the district Detroit team about everything going on with their projects and everything like that. So two plugs there. Thank you again, everyone for being here on a kind of rainy night. And I'm very impressed everyone today warm weather. Still the ring. So with that I have nothing else. No.
