The Dirt: GM moving from RenCen to Hudson’s

It was a week of milestones in Detroit development. The city says more than $1 billion has been invested in affordable housing projects over the last five years. The Hudson’s site project reached its final height, got an official name and secured a major tenant. In less cheery news, a state economic development agency is in the spotlight for questionable oversight of a multimillion-dollar grant to one of the governor’s political allies.

Smells like corruption

A $20 million line-item grant in the 2022 state budget is looking increasingly like rank cronyism from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC).

The grant went to the nonprofit Global Link International, run by Farmington Hills-based Fay Beydoun, a Democratic political donor and former vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. The state legislature approved the grant 10 days before the nonprofit even filed for incorporation. The Detroit News uncovered outlandish expenditures (paywalled) in just a short amount of time at Global Link International, like a $3,900 coffee maker, $11,000 for a single flight to attend a conference and $408,000 for three months of salaries when the nonprofit had only two employees, one of whom was Beydoun.

The MEDC is tasked with monitoring spending; Whitmer appointed Beydoun to the agency’s board in 2019 before she became an executive committee member. No one — not the Whitmer administration nor the Republican representative who sponsored the grant — has taken responsibility for the grant.

Beydoun is not the only member of the MEDC’s executive committee to receive a legislative grant, and some legislators are calling for oversight reform (paywalled). (Detroit News)

All about Hudson’s

Lots of news this week involving the biggest development in Detroit’s recent history. First, the building that reached its final height on Wednesday finally has an official name : Hudson’s Detroit. It’s a no-brainer for the skyscraper built on the former Hudson’s department store site, but developer Bedrock has struggled to register the trademark for the name.

We also now know who’s going to be the anchor tenant for the 400,000 square feet of office space: General Motors Co. The automaker announced Monday that it will move there from its longtime headquarters at the Renaissance Center. (Earlier claims that the project’s job creation estimates are inflated seem pretty spot-on now.)

Bedrock and GM say they’ll jointly study how to redevelop the seven-building RenCen complex, which includes Detroit’s tallest building. (Detroit Free Press, Urbanize Detroit, HistoricDetroit.org, Axios Detroit, Crain’s Detroit Business, Deadline Detroit)

It takes a village

A medley of buildings in the East Village are set to open as what the developers describe as a new cultural district in the city (paywalled).

Owners of the Library Street Collective gallery downtown bought the former Good Shepherd church and several adjacent buildings and began major renovations in 2019, costing an undisclosed amount of money. When it opens to the public next month, the so-called Little Village will have an art gallery, bar, bed-and-breakfast, restaurant, artist studios, performance spaces, a pâtisserie owned by award-winning baker Warda Bouguettaya, sculpture park with works inspired by late Detroit artist Charles McGee and skate park designed by Tony Hawk.

The owners, who also rehabbed about 10 homes nearby, say a number of artists attracted by the development have moved into the neighborhood. (Crain’s Detroit Business)

Dustup over ordinance

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero introduced an ordinance last month to curtail the amount of untreated particulate matter , also known as “fugitive dust,” produced from roads, construction sites and other facilities.

Fugitive dust is associated with an array of respiratory ailments. Residents and activists have long complained about this dust coming from factories and the trucks that transport materials to and from them, particularly in Southwest Detroit .

The ordinance would require all applicable businesses to submit a fugitive dust plan to the city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department, which could then institute fines if they fail to follow the plan or exceed certain dust thresholds.

But air quality experts worry that the ordinance wouldn’t be very effective. It would only require periodic monitoring, and any penalties for violations could easily be absorbed by a business’ operating budget. (Planet Detroit, Outlier Media)

Development news quick-hitters

The City of Detroit says it has reached a milestone in affordable housing: more than $1 billion invested over the last five years through a combination of city, state, federal and private funding. The announcement was made at the construction site for a 150-unit affordable housing development on East Jefferson Avenue — the 71st project with affordable units to start construction since 2019. (Detroit News)

Arts and culture nonprofit Garage Cultural is redeveloping a two-story building on Junction Street north of Michigan Avenue into a gathering space for artists and community organizers. The first floor will have a coffee bar and retail space, while the second floor will have meeting rooms and residential space for artists. (El Central)

Residents in Old Redford have been petitioning against the reopening of a liquor store they say attracted crime. Its owner argues the previous tenant was the problem. Liquor licenses have been in the spotlight lately as a state audit last month revealed more licenses have been issued in the city than legally allowed by the state . (WDIV, BridgeDetroit)

Outlier Media · The Dirt: GM moving from RenCen to Hudson’s