Red Wings Arena District

lockmat · July 20, 2014

This looks like a pretty bold and cool plan. This owner is definitely leaving his mark and name on the city with this project.

excerpt:

DETROIT - Detroit's new arena and entertainment district planned by the Ilitch family for the northern edge of downtown promises to be the city's boldest and most significant development since the Renaissance Center of the 1970s — creating as many as 2,000 new residential units, dozens of shops, walkable European-style streets and perhaps the nation's most innovative multipurpose arena.

(the entire article has a lot of good details, just read the whole thing at the usa today link)

Among the new details

-Sidewalks and streetlights: Saying "you can't build a world-class district on top of broken-down infrastructure," Ilitch said his family plans to spend millions of dollars to replace aging and often broken public infrastructure in the district with new street paving, sidewalks, streetlights and other infrastructure, working with the city and utility companies to make that happen.

-Bridging I-75: Conceptual plans call for building new structures to span I-75, even on the Woodward Avenue Bridge, so that the below-ground freeway is no longer such a barrier separating downtown and Midtown.

-Trend-setting arena design: The arena itself, still unnamed, will be built in a "deconstructed" fashion with the souvenir shops, team offices, restaurants, ticket offices and similar spaces being built outside the arena but linked by a glass-topped interior street that will serve as a year-round venue for events (see sidebar).

-Home-grown labor: The Ilitches plan has committed to a goal of buying 80% of construction materials from Michigan suppliers when possible. This is in addition to their previously announced goals of hiring 51% of all construction workers from among Detroit residents and getting 30% of all subcontractors from among Detroit-based firms.

-New neighborhoods: Ilitch outlined a plan to create five distinct "neighborhoods" in the district, each with its own special character. Those neighborhoods will be walkable, intimate and, in some cases, modeled after European streets.

-Internships: To help the broader community, the Ilitches have committed to starting an internship program for Cass Tech High School students to work in the family's business network, and to lend its development expertise to groups working elsewhere in Detroit's neighborhoods.