Construction finally begins on large Detroit upscale housing development

Construction is officially underway on an upscale 318-unit housing development in Detroit's Lafayette Park that is one of the larger pandemic-era residential developments in the city to get started.

The $133 million Lafayette West, 1401 Rivard St. near I-375, will consist of six five-story buildings with a mix of 230 rental apartments and 88 for-purchase condos. It is scheduled to open in spring 2023.

A full 20% of the apartments will be set aside at below-market rents for income-qualified residents, a requirement for the project's use of development incentives.

The market-rate rents have yet to be announced, although asking prices for the condos will start at $234,000 for a small one-bedroom, $399,000 for a large one-bedroom and $595,000 for a two-bedroom unit, according to the development's website.

Building amenities will include a swimming pool, fitness center, co-working space and enough electric vehicle charging stations for every resident.

Lafayette West's owners and developers, Mark Bennett and Norm Pappas, led an outdoor groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday afternoon near the active construction site.

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"We have over 100 investors in this project who really want Detroit to be successful," Pappas said.

The project has been in planning stages for some time.

In December 2018, there was an event to mark the start of demolition on the site of a vacant 1950s T-shaped tower, Shapero Hall, to make way for the future apartments and condos.

That eight-story tower once housed Wayne State University's pharmacy program. The university sold the empty building for $2.3 million in 2007 to local businessman Dennis Kefallinos, who went on to flip it to Lafayette West's developers in summer 2018 for $16 million.

Under the original timeline, construction work on Lafayette West was to start in 2019.

In an interview Tuesday,  Bennett said the development faced several delays, including a late redesign of the parking.

"We felt it was much more amenable to have parking under the building instead of this large, hulking parking deck," he said.

Additionally, arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 resulted in extending the timeline further, Bennett said. And during that time, one of the project's early development partners, Novi-based Ginosko Development Co., bowed out.

Speaking at the groundbreaking Tuesday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan praised the size of the development and said he believes it will make a great addition to the beautiful Lafayette Park area.

“I always wanted to be the mayor of the city where you had to build housing units hundreds at a time to accommodate the people who wanted to live in your town," Duggan said.

Lafayette West was approved last year for $17.75 million in local and state-level brownfield tax captures ($5 million state, $12.7 million local) over about 30 years. The project also was approved for a 15-year Neighborhood Enterprise Zone tax break.

 Bennett and Pappas also are development partners in The Exchange, a 16-story residential tower with 165 apartments and condos that is under construction in Greektown.

ContactJC Reindl at313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.