The Exchange, Detroit, Michigan

An exciting new development is coming to Detroit’s Greektown district. Located on the corner of Gratiot Avenue and Macomb Street, this underutilized and substantially vacant property will be the site of a 16-story mixed-use building which will include Greektown’s first residential units in over 60 years.

Over the last several decades, the property has been utilized for surface parking on land that was once occupied by former storefronts and residential dwellings dating back to 1884. The developer, LIFTbuild, engaged PM Environmental to provide environmental assessment and economic incentive services. PM completed a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) and subsequent Phase II ESA. Subsurface investigation activities included the advancement of soil borings and the collection of soil samples for laboratory analysis. Contamination was identified, associated with fill materials backfilled at the property. The unsuitable fill materials posed both environmental and geo-technical challenges requiring excavation of contaminated soils and specialized foundations to support the 16-story structure. PM successfully secured up to $2.7 million dollars in Brownfield Tax Increment Financing (TIF) with the city of Detroit, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), and the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF), to offset these and other brownfield related costs for the nearly $65 million project. 

The mixed-use building will feature approximately 6,502 square feet of private office spaces including an 800 square foot café, 165 residential units and 5,188 square feet of amenity space for residents. The residential units are anticipated to include 78 studios, 50 one-bedroom, and 25 two-bedroom apartments as well as several condos. A minimum of 20% of the rental units will be priced to meet affordably at 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). The project aligns with the Greektown Framework Vision issued in 2019 by the Greektown Neighborhood Partnership by delivering much need density and residential space to the neighborhood.

With the proprietary and unique LIFTbuild process, the project is anticipated to be completed 30% faster than conventional construction methodologies and will mark the first North American application of LIFTbuild’s process.