Here's the latest boost for Midtown and nearby neighborhoods along Detroit’s Woodward Avenue corridor:
Housing developers in these areas can get long-term loans from the new fund.
Efforts to add housing there get a $30-million boost from the local Kresge Foundation and a Washington nonprofiit, The Detroit News reports.
NCB Capital Impact will team with the foundation and other supporters to provide financing for new mixed-use, mixed-income housing projects focused on access to mass transit, high density and walkable neighborhoods in the city’s core. The development area along Woodward would include the Midtown neighborhood around Wayne State University, where occupancy rates exceed 95 percent.
Affordable housing is a key — and thus far lacking — component in downtown’s redevelopment, experts say. More downtown workers, some spurred by incentives from their employers, have been clamoring for apartments and lofts.
The new Woodward Corridor Investment Fund will offer fixed-rate loans to let developers move quickly, an announcement says.
“Access to capital is critical to expanding opportunity, strengthening neighborhoods and improving quality of life in our cities,” says Rip Rapson, president of The Kresge Foundation.
