Development can take a long time in Detroit, especially when it includes affordable housing. For the Parker Durand in West Village, it's been six years in the making. Today, officials officially cut the ribbon for the new mixed-use building.
The Roxbury Group and Invest Detroit started assembling the 11 parcels at the corner of Van Dyke and Kercheval (and Parker and Durand) six years ago. If you were in the area around 2018, you might remember a house being moved from the land to make way for the development. Remediation was also important, as a gas station once stood on this block.
The financing to build the development, a few miles east of downtown, was tricky. The $22.5 million mixed-use building received support from Capital Impact Partners and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The city's Housing & Revitalization Department secured $1.5 million in HOME funding for the development.
The building brings 92 new apartments to the area, with half designated as affordable. At Parker Durand, 18 units will be offered at 50% area median income (AMI), 28 units at 80% AMI, and the remaining units are not to exceed 120% AMI. A one-bedroom apartment could cost $750 a month. Apartments have in-unit washer & dryers, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances. Residents also have access to a rooftop deck.
The development includes 6,000 square feet of retail space. The event today took place in Konnected Fitness, a Black- and woman-owned fitness studio. FAIRCLOTH Boutique, a women's clothing-and-accessories store with affordable and colorful clothing, sits in the corner retail space.
This is one of many projects completed with the Strategic Neighborhood Fund in West Village/Islandview. The Coe was the first building to open in 2017. Kercheval has undergone street-scaping, and Butzel Playfield will complete upgrades this spring, with new playgrounds, a Nature Imagination area, a walking loop, picnic and grilling areas, a sledding hill, drinking fountains, baseball diamond, and landscaping. Its picnic shelter, horseshoe pitch and basketball court were also renovated.
