New details, renderings out for U-M project in Detroit
New details are out on the University of Michigan Center for Innovation, a graduate school mini-campus under construction in downtown Detroit that also will offer robotics and other programs in technology-related fields for the local workforce.
Freshly released renderings show how the UMCI, once completed in time for the 202728 academic year, will have a highly unique architectural design unlike any structure in Detroit. Overall, the building will have six floors plus a basement and span 200,000 square feet.
In an interview this week the UMCI’s Director Scott Shireman said they anticipate 500 to 1,000 U-M graduate students enrolled at the UMCI by its third year of operation. While these students will be instructed by U-M faculty and earn U-M graduate degrees, they will be a distinct population apart from that at the university’s main Ann Arbor campus, and all of their classes will be held at the UMCI.
The faculty instructors at the UMCI will come from the Ann Arbor campus, and possibly U-M Dearborn and Flint, Shireman said.
It is anticipated that the graduate students would live in or near Detroit — rather than Ann Arbor — with many of them taking residence in a planned 18-story, 261-unit residential tower to be built next to the UMCI.
“We are going to be recruiting students who want to be in Detroit,” Shireman said. “These programs will be designed to be in Detroit, they will be the same quality (as those in Ann Arbor), but we are really focused on interdisciplinary programs at UMCI ... so they will be programs that will be unique or have (a) unique spin.”
The UMCI also will offer “gateway certificates” in career fields for the local workforce. About 2,000 individuals are expected to enroll in these certificate programs, Shireman said.
Additionally, as many as 30,000 Detroiters could be impacted by one of the UMCI’s community programs, which would include day programs and some K-12 instruction, accord
ing to Shireman.
While the specific courses to be offered at the UMCI are still being determined, Shireman said, there will be four primary areas of instruction:
Advanced manufacturing, mobility and robotics
Climate action/clean energy transition AI and its “practical impact” in areas such as urban technology and smart cities
Entrepreneurship and innovation.
“So we’re looking for programs interdisciplinary by nature that fit in those four themes,” Shireman said.
UMCI staff also plan to have a series of public meetings to hear from the community on the type of programming they want to see.
Those enrolled for a “gateway certificate” would typically need six months to a year to complete a course, Shireman said.
The cost for certificate courses has not been determined, he said, but the goal is to keep them affordable.
The certificate courses “will be based on the skills that employers are looking for, and then backed by the University of Michigan’s brand,” Shireman said.
“This is a gateway for somebody with some or no college,” he said. “Maybe they’re in a gig job or a retail job or something where there’s not a lot of career path. It’s a gateway for someone like that into an entry-level job in something that’s going to have a career path.”
$250 million cost breakdown
The anticipated $250 million cost for the UMCI project is to be covered by a $100 million state grant, a $100 million donation from New York developer and U-M alumnus Stephen Ross and $50 million in university fundraising.
The UMCI is being built on land behind the Fox Theatre on what was surface parking lots. In December, U-M President Santa Ono joined with Ross, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and other officials for a groundbreaking celebration at the site.
There are two other planned buildings for the site: a 18-story residential tower, and adaptive reuse of the former Moose Lodge building, 2115 Cass, as a four-story business incubator and coworking space for the UMCI.
On Thursday, the U-M Board of Regents approved a final schematic design for the UMCI building.
“The UMCI will bring together the best of the University of Michigan to catalyze economic development in the city of Detroit,” U-M
Provost Laurie McCauley said at the regents meeting. “It will house a robust portfolio of academic programs, including new interdisciplinary graduate degrees and certificate programs aligned to the skills of the future and needed to attract startups and major employers to the region.”
The other two buildings on the UMCI site — the residential tower and Moose Lodge rehab — are part of a separate development, the $1.5 billion District Detroit, and are being developed by Ross’ New York-based firm, The Related Cos., as well as the Ilitch organization’s Olympia Development of Michigan.
The developers recently adjusted the timeline and sequencing order for District Detroit, making the residential tower next to the UMCI as one of its first projects. Construction is to begin next year and finish in time for the UMCI’s opening in fall 2027.
An updated timeline for the Moose Lodge adaptive reuse was not available Friday.