Here are a few of the stories we've been reading this week.
An influx of rehabbed homes in Detroit
9,000 Detroit homes that were vacant in early 2020 are now occupied. Also in 2020, the Detroit Land Bank sold more homes than it had any other year. The pandemic could be a factor - with more time and more flexibility in work schedules. And as one home is rehabbed on a street, more renovations in the neighborhood often follow. It's too early to say what this will mean for the demographics of the city, but less blight and more people in the neighborhoods is a positive for the city. Crain's
Building industrial space in Detroit
NorthPoint Development has been a big name in Detroit recently. But instead of mixed-use, office, or residential, they're building up more industrial sites for businesses to lease. They'll finish a new manufacturing center for Lear Corp. at the site of the old Cadillac Stamping Plant this summer, and they'll soon start demo on the AMC Building on the west side for another manufacturing site. They're also start demo on the Eastland Center soon. They've built more industrial sites across the country than any other developer since late 2016. The Free Press digs into the tax incentives needed and how building in Detroit is different than other cities. Detroit Free Press (paywalled)
Bedrock lands a new tenant in Delray
Speaking of industrial sites, Bedrock announced last week that auto supplier Magna International has partnered with LAN Manufacturing, and plan to lease nearly 300,000 square feet in the Sakthi Industrial Campus in Delray. LM Manufacturing, the new venture, plans to move in this May, creating nearly 400 new jobs. The site is on Fort Street, not too far from Historic Fort Wayne and the new Gordie Howe International Bridge. DBusiness
