Five groups have been named to spend $52.4 million in a series of projects to redevelop and build new buildings on parking lots in the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District in downtown Detroit.
Included in the plans, conditional property purchase agreements for which were approved Wednesday morning by the Detroit Downtown Development Authority, are a new 1920s-style boutique hotel and residential and retail space in the small downtown enclave where the DDA has been buying buildings and making infrastructure improvements totaling more than $14 million since 2004.
The DDA approved four of the five agreements under consideration; the fifth was postponed for seven days because one of the board members, Jim Jenkins through his co-ownership of Queen Lillian Development LLC, has a “personal and pecuniary” interest in one of the developments.
“A decade ago, this area was 20 percent occupied and becoming run-down,” Mayor Mike Duggan said at a Wednesday morning event in the neighborhood’s Beatrice Buck Parkfollowing the DDA meeting. “It’s going to be a great thing for the community.”
Crain’s first reported four of the five developers Tuesday.
The largest of the five projects in Paradise Valley, formerly known as Harmonie Park, is calledHastings Place, led by Hiram Jackson and his Paradise Valley Real Estate Holdings II LLC, on surface lots at 1468-1498 Randolph St. It is expected to include 60 loft apartments (17 percent of which would qualify as affordable housing); 12,620 square feet of first-floor retail space; 17,800 square feet of Class A office space; and a new five-floor parking deck with 150 spaces.
Named after Hastings Street, a key street in the historic Paradise Valley neighborhood that was leveled in the 1950s and 1960s to make way for the construction of I-75, the planned development is a partnership between Jackson and Queen Lillian Development LLC, which isa development company owned by Chris Jackson and Jim Jenkins. The purchase price of the lots on which the development is expected to be built is $1 million.
Jackson is publisher of the Michigan Chronicle and co-owner of its parent company, Detroit-based Real Times Media Inc.
That project is expected to be completed in 2018.
The 25- to 30-room hotel, planned to be called the Harmonie Club Hotel at 311 E. Grand River Ave., the building currently occupied by the Carr Center, is expected to be a $13.6 million redevelopment by Patricia Cole, president and CEO of Cole Financial Services Inc., and Roger Basmajian and their 311 E. Grand River LLC. The purchase price of the former Harmonie Club is $1.6 million. It is expected to be completed in 2018.
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Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District plans
A rendering of banquet space in the planned $13.6 million Harmonie Club Hotel, which is expected to be designed in 1920s boutique style and include 25-30 rooms when completed in 2018. It’s part of the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District development being shepherded by the city. – Photo by Courtesy of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
The proposed $27 million Hastings Place development is planned to have 60 apartments, 12,600 square feet of retail space, 17,800 square feet of Class A office space and a new five-story, 150-space parking deck. It’s part of the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District development being shepherded by the city. – Photo by Courtesy of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
Hiram Jackson, publisher of the Michigan Chronicle and co-owner of its parent company, Detroit-based Real Times Media Inc., is the managing partner of a development group that plans a $27 million mixed-use project called Hastings Street on surface parking lots in the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District development being shepherded by the city. – Photo by Kirk Pinho/Crain’s Detroit Business
This map shows the areas in the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District to be redeveloped. – Photo by Detroit Downtown Development Authority
Rainy Hamilton, president and co-owner of Detroit-based architecture firm Hamilton Anderson Associates, addresses attendees during a Wednesday morning event in Beatrice Buck Park in downtown Detroit. His $7.5 million project to add another 16,000 square feet of space to the HAA office at 1435 Randolph St. is one of several announced as part of the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District development being shepherded by the city. – Photo by Kirk Pinho/Crain’s Detroit Business
Rainy Hamilton, president and co-owner of the Detroit-based architecture firm Hamilton Anderson Associates, whose office is in one of the buildings included in the RFP for the project, has been approved for a $7 million project that would involve a 16,000-square-foot expansion of the HAA office onto an adjacent surface parking lot and opening of the Paradise Valley Jazz Club. The development entity is Randolph Centre 2020 LLC.
Main photo credit: Courtesy of Detroit Economic Development Corp.The planned Harmonie Point redevelopment by Gotham Capital Partners, led by Dennis Archer Jr., is expected to redevelop about 27,000 square feet between two buildings and feature six tenants, including a restaurant. It’s part of the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District development being shepherded by the city.
