The city of Detroit is seeking developers to fix up more buildings in Banglatown as it tries to push forward ambitious revitalization plans in the fast-growing neighborhood north of Hamtramck.
The city's Housing and Revitalization Department and Planning and Development Department issued a request for qualifications for the redevelopment of a city-owned building at 12449 Conant St. due Aug. 30. The two-story building is 2,760 square feet with 250 square feet of parking space along a busy thoroughfare, according to a city document.
At the same time, another new development, the Carpenter Apartments, is being planned for the empty lot at the northeast corner of Charest Street and Carpenter Avenue. Bingham Farms-based MHT Housing Inc. plans to build a $16.8 million apartment complex with 50 affordable units, according to the document.
More information on that development was requested from MHT and the city Wednesday.
Additionally, the city plans to issue a request for qualifications to rehab the vacant Washington Trade School at Dequindre and Lawley streets. It would require the reactivation of a 100,000-square-foot site by this fall or winter 2020, the city said.
The development requests and plans come as the city targets Banglatown for streetscape improvements, fixed-up storefronts and stabilized single-family housing. A $5 million grant from American Axle & Manufacturing. is being funneled to the neighborhood, and several projects — including rehabs of a half-dozen parks — are in the works.