A plan to reshape Detroit’s skyline and East Riverfront is heading to the Detroit City Council for a final vote after being cleared by the city's Planning and Economic Development Committee. The redevelopment project would demolish two towers of the Renaissance Center to make way for new housing and a riverfront park.
The City of Detroit, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, Bedrock and GM are planning on investing $2.2 billion dollars to the project that will occur in 3 phases and is projected to be completed by 2026. $548 million of that investment will be from tax subsidies.
For many residents and local advocacy groups, the allocation of public funds to private developers is a misuse of city wealth, even though developers are pledging to give a total of $133 million dollars back to the city in exchange for the tax subsidies.
$43.5 million of the money will go towards actual cash spent on community programs, affordable housing, and neighborhood initiatives:
- $15M in housing for neighborhoods outside of downtown and towards the city's trust fund that supports affordable housing.
- $10M towards small businesses and to provide business relief.
- $8M to fund a community hub including $1.5 million for youth programs.
- $6M towards job training programs for skilled trades and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) careers.
- $4.5M for resident parking that'll allow Detroit residents to park for free for 1.5 hours at the site.
Theo Pride, an organizer with the Detroit People’s Platform, condemned the proposed subsidy as "corporate welfare" and a "land grab" by the state's wealthiest interests.
"That's a half a billion dollars of our public wealth that should be going to our babies, that should be going to our seniors," Pride said. "Yet it's going to someone worth more, actually double than the yearly income of every single Detroiter combined."
Pride emphasized that this massive financial commitment ignores the realities of Detroit's neighborhoods such as gentrification. He says that over 100,000 Black residents have been pushed out of the city over the last decade.
He argued that working-class Detroiters are continually asked to pay the heavy price of displacement for downtown progress while seeing little return on public investments.
"Give them the land, give them the public money, they'll build some stuff and create a couple of construction jobs," Pride said, imitating past rhetoric. "But we don't get the housing, we don't get the jobs. All we do is get pushed out and displaced."
Pride also demanded a structural change.
"We don't need an amusement park on the riverfront to be managed by some C4 nonprofit. What we need is public ownership in this deal," he stated. "We will not be made invisible in the city that we love, no matter how Bedrock wants to see Detroit and no matter how indecent they say we are".
The Detroit City Council is expected to cast the deciding vote this month.
