Benefits package touted as biggest in city history
Henry Ford Health, the Detroit Pistons organization and Michigan State University unveiled a Community Benefits package Tuesday for their planned $3 billion collaborative development in Detroit’s New Center that they touted as the biggest proposed to date.
The benefits package would contain about $100 million in new, direct financial contributions to the community and just over $600 million in overall value and specially targeted spending out of the project’s budget, according to the development partners.
Such packages are the final product of a mandated Community Benefits process in Detroit for large development projects that seek significant tax abatements and public subsidies.
The biggest such package to date was that approved earlier this year for the $1.5 billion District Detroit development. It called for about $12 million in new direct financial contributions and just over $100 million in specially targeted spending.
“This would be the largest Community Benefits package that’s ever been delivered in the history of the ordinance, in the history of this process, in the history of Detroit,” Richard Haddad, chief operating officer for the Pistons, said Tuesday night at the development’s Community Benefits Ordinance meeting inside University Preparatory Academy.
The proposed package is still subject to a vote by a volunteer group of area residents known as the Neighborhood Advisory Council, or NAC, and eventually would need final approval by the Detroit City Council.
The package is said to include 82 of the 155 requests that the NAC made to the three organizations last month. The cost to fulfill all 155 requests would be about $2.5 billion, Haddad said.
“We put a lot of work into responding to that ask, and to delivering as much as we possibly could,” Haddad said. “Where that got us is to a place where we’re proposing to deliver a benefits package that is multiples more than any other benefits package.”
NAC Chair Lynda Jeffries said she and fellow members will now begin negotiating for the final benefits package. A vote could potentially happen as soon as the next Community Benefits Ordinance meeting Dec. 12.
Several residents who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting faulted the proposed package for not including enough NAC requests, including too many items that NAC or the community didn’t ask for, or allegedly counting as benefits things the three organizations would do anyway in the normal course of business.
“It’s a bunch of stuff that nobody asked for, no one really cares about,” area resident Nate Phillips said. “The stuff that people actually do really care about is just kind of conveniently thrown to the side.”
The planned $3 billion development includes a Henry Ford Hospital expansion with a 21-story tower, 662 units of new mixed-income rental housing and a new joint Henry Ford Health/MSU research building.
The three organizations are seeking $273 million in tax breaks and other incentives to help construct the housing and research building portions.
Henry Ford Health isn’t seeking tax breaks or incentives for the $2.2 billion hospital expansion, and that expansion isn’t contingent on the other portions of the planned development happening, hospital officials have said.
The new housing would be developed by a Pistons-related entity and ultimately owned by the Pistons organization. A full 20% of the 662 apartments would be set aside at reduced rents for those with below-median incomes.
Some items in the proposed Community Benefits package include:
Providing 5 acres of green space near the hospital, a $30 million estimated cost.
Targeting $100 million of spending in the development toward disadvantaged and Detroit-based businesses.
Setting aside 20% of the 662 apartments as “affordable” — 13 units for those making no more than 30% area median income or $19,890 a year for a single person; 107 units at 50% area median income or $33,150; 13 units at 70% area median income or $46,410.
Accepting Section 8 housing vouchers for the affordable units.
Giving 50 free tuition MSU scholarships for the length of enrollment to seniors at University Preparatory Academy and Northwestern High School.
Giving $15 million over five years to the Ruth Ellis Center to help house at-risk LGBTQ+ young people.
Prioritizing Detroit residents for jobs.
Devising a plan for potentially redeveloping the old Fairbanks Elementary School building.
Developing a plan to promote local businesses near the development.