The ambitious plan to transform the old Fisher Body complex in Detroit into an apartment and mixed-use development received a $1 million boost from the state.

The project, which began last month at the derelict factory near the I-75 and I-94 interchange, is being supported with grant funding from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, according to a Thursday news release.

The funding is intended to help clean up the site, which is contaminated with petroleum, metals, chlorinated solvents, asbestos and lead paint. EGLE removed a leaking underground storage tank in 2010 and remediated PCB-contaminated soil in 2008.

Construction on the $153 million development is expected to start in September, Richard Hosey, one of the developers along with Gregory Jackson, told Crain’s last month.

The project — believed to be one of the largest, if not the largest, Black developer-led projects in Detroit’s history — is expected to create 433 new residential units and 44,000 square feet of commercial space.

“EGLE has long been a critical partner to the city for the cleanup and redevelopment of many of Detroit’s most environmentally challenged properties,” Brian Vosburg, senior director of brownfield redevelopment at the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said in the release.

The 600,000-square-foot Fisher Body No. 21 plant was built in 1919 as the Fisher brothers’ 21st plant, producing auto bodies for Cadillac and Buick before the brothers were bought out by General Motors. The property closed in 1984. Carter Color Coat Co. bought it in 1990, but the company went out of business in 1993 and shuttered it. The city took ownership in 2000.