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Will Downtown Detroit Have Too Many Condos and Apartments?

May 14, 2018, 7:50 AM

Housing construction in downtown Detroit is booming. But will developers fill all those spots?

Many people in the businesses don't seem too worried about that, at least for now, writes John Gallagher of the Detroit Free Press. Some places have waiting lists.

"We’re still not at the numbers down here that a metropolitan area of our size can support," David DiRita, a partner in the Roxbury Group, which has completed several projects including a renovation of the David Whitney Building, tells the Freep. "I think we’ve got a lot of room to run still."

Walter Cohen, a Southfield-based developer who last year opened the DuCharme Place project, strikes a somewhat more cautionary tone, Gallagher reports:

"It's a lot easier to announce a development than to actually get it built," said Cohen, a veteran of 40 years building in Detroit. "If you listen to all the announcements, then (downtown) would temporarily be a little bit overbuilt. But I'm not sure all of the announcements will actually get built. So it may well be about balance." . . .

So fears of overbuilding the downtown area may be premature, at least for now. The next recession might chill things, sharply rising prices could dent demand, and marginal projects with dicey financing can always go bust.

But even citing those possibilities feels like a silver lining looking for a cloud. For now, the end of the downtown residential boom still looks a long way off.


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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