Detroit City FC has added more property to its portfolio as it works to build a new stadium in the Corktown neighborhood.

The acquisitions — documented in public records and other sources as deals became finalized the last six weeks or so — more than double the organization’s footprint around its proposed stadium site.

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Detroit City FC co-founder and CEO Sean Mann said: “DCFC has acquired the parcels necessary for the stadium site. The club looks forward to initiating a public process around the project in the coming months.”

According to county land records and title company records, a pair of entities connected to the club through an attorney working on the project paid $6 million for a total of about 8.25 additional acres of primarily vacant land in multiple transactions.

That adds to the 5.57-acre primary site at Michigan Avenue and 20th Street, bringing the team’s known total holdings in the area to 13.82 acres — plus one abandoned 250,000-square-foot hospital to be razed for the 14,000-seat stadium.

For context, that’s larger than Roosevelt Park at the north of Michigan Central Station following a redesign and reconfiguration completed last year

According to title company records, an entity called Standish Holdco LLC — which lists attorney H. William Burdett Jr., who is working with DCFC on the stadium project, on its state incorporation documents — on June 27 bought, in two separate transactions, property at 3000 Standish and 3050 W. Fisher Freeway, each for $1.5 million for a total of $3 million.

Those parcels sit in the Central Southwest neighborhood abutting Corktown and immediately south of the railroad tracks. The property, which is about 4.11 acres and takes up about half a block, is primarily vacant.

A message seeking comment was left with the selling broker Tuesday morning. The seller was We Co 1991 LLC. The sale is also reflected with CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.

Other property owners on that block are Dennis Kefallinos (2800 Standish); the Moroun family (2101 20th St.) and the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership (3052 W. Fisher Freeway).

In addition, Wayne County land records show 402310 Holdings LLC, an entity previously confirmed as connected to DCFC ownership, paid Byzantine Ventures LLC, registered to Christos Moisides, an estimated $3 million in a June 21 sale for three properties totaling 4.139 acres. Those properties are at 2201 20th St., 2301 20th St. and 2701 Michigan Ave. Moisides declined to comment Tuesday. 

The 402310 Holdings entity on March 15 also paid $6.5 million for the former Southwest Detroit Hospital property previously owned by Kefallinos. That site has been abandoned for almost two decades.

Burdett is also listed on incorporation documents for 402310 Holdings.  

Not many details have been formally released about the stadium project, although sources have said it is expected to be about 14,000 seats and go through the Community Benefits Ordinance process, which suggests that some public financing may be in play.  

The men’s team made its national TV debut on CBS on Saturday, ending with a 1-1 draw in a USL Championship league match against Rhode Island in front of a crowd of nearly 6,900 on its home pitch. The tie gives both teams a total of 29 points in the USL Eastern Conference, putting Detroit City FC in seventh place and Rhode Island in eighth. 

Mann told my Crain’s Detroit colleague Jay Davis in an email last week regarding the new stadium that the team “is moving ahead into the design and development phase … ” 

 “In the coming weeks and months, our focus groups will start at a grassroots level so we can determine what our fans and community members want to continue cultivating the most exciting soccer atmosphere in the United States,” Mann said. 

Le Rouge — DCFC’s nickname — began playing at the 7,933-seat Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck at 3201 Roosevelt St. in 2016 under a 10-year lease with Hamtramck Public Schools that expires Sept. 30, 2025. The lease is for $1 per year. In 2016, DCFC raised more than $700,000 to invest in improvements to Keyworth, including lighting, bleachers, locker rooms and restrooms.

A team spokesperson said in mid-May that a lease extension is in place that allows DCFC to continue using Keyworth until the new stadium is built.

Keyworth was opened by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 as the state’s first Works Progress Administration project during the Great Depression, Crain’s reported in 2015 when the lease received approval from the Hamtramck school board.

Prior to the 2016 season, DCFC played at Cass Technical High School’s 2,500-seat stadium for four seasons, Crain’s reported in 2015.

DCFC plays in the Tampa, Fla.-based USL Championship league, the professional soccer league ranked under Major League Soccer by the United States Soccer Federation, the sport’s governing body in the U.S. The team began playing in that league in 2022.

The team was founded in 2012, two years after Mann founded the Detroit City Futbol League — a co-ed recreational league — that began playing on Belle Isle in 2010. Mann then recruited four friends as co-founders of the team.

In addition to its use of Keyworth Stadium, DCFC also has physical footprints in downtown Detroit, with a Capitol Park merchandise store and ticket shop, as well as in the Elmwood Park neighborhood, where it has the Detroit City Fieldhouse on Lafayette west of Mount Elliott.