With no discussion or questions about the project, the University of Michigan Board of Regents has unanimously approved a 40-year lease for a new residential tower for students and faculty in downtown Detroit. 

The vote, taken Thursday morning during a special 9 a.m. virtual meeting, included Regent Denise Ilitch abstaining as her family is connected to the project through its Detroit-based Olympia Development of Michigan real estate company.

The residential building is being developed by Related Cos. and Olympia Development of Michigan at 2205 Cass Ave. at West Columbia St. The property is owned by ODM Parking LLC, according to city records, with is an entity affiliated with Olympia Development. 

The new building is expected to have 313 units with a budget of $186 million, both of which are increases from previously released project details, according to a board briefing memo from Tuesday afternoon. Previously, the tower had been described as having 261 units and costing $147 million.

A release from the university says the building will be 13 stories, down from 18 stories originally planned. 

“The residential component added by this tower is a critical aspect of the center, as it will give our students and faculty the opportunity to immerse themselves in an innovative community, dedicated to opportunity and economic development,” said University of Michigan Center for Innovation Director Scott Shireman in a statement. “Programming will take a mixed-model approach that includes both master’s degrees and workforce development programs focused on technology and innovation.”

The building is approved to receive millions in taxpayer subsidies. 

Southfield-based Neumann/Smith Architecture, which has a prominent Detroit office, and Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects Ltd. are working on the project, as is Lansing-based Clark Construction on pre-construction services.

The regents document says construction is expected to be complete in the fall of 2028, a year after the next-door University of Michigan Center for Innovation — a graduate school-type campus focused on things like AI, robotics, cybersecurity and tech, among other things — opens in the fall of 2027.

In an interview, Shireman said that because the program will ramp up over the course of a few years, the housing demand won’t be as high initially as it will be as the campus develops. 

“We are going to need housing for students, not all of which will be Detroit-based, they will be out of state and international students,” Shireman said. 

Previously, a Related executive had said the UMCI and the residential tower would open at about the same time. 

It’s not known where UMCI students and faculty would be housed in the interim.

The tower was originally supposed to have 54 of the 261 units designated as affordable housing, but that was scrapped at the request of the university so it could house students. The displaced affordable units are expected to be relocated elsewhere, Shireman said. 

The building would be the first of the 10 development and redevelopment projects as part of the Olympia/Related District Detroit effort that received approval for $615 million or so in transformational brownfield funding more than two years ago.

At the time the Michigan Strategic Fund signed off on the tax incentive package, the 10 projects were anticipated to cost $1.53 billion. Total public funding committed for the effort is about $800 million.

It’s again been a difficult slog for The District Detroit, the first sweeping vision for which was announced 11 years ago this month. That 45- to 50-block vision did not materialize in the way it had been presented to the public, and much of the area remains surface parking lots and previously announced projects either languishing, partially built or never starting construction at all.

Then, in late 2021, Ross, the university’s largest donor, and the Ilitch family announced they were teaming up to build the UMCI — at that point, known as the Detroit Center for Innovation — and other projects.

Those, too, have faced delays and setbacks, with the development team pivoting and pushing back construction timelines amid market pressures, including weak office space demand and high interest rates, among others.

Work has been underway on the UMCI since December 2023, and separately on a 170-unit housing redevelopment of existing buildings by Olympia and Lansing-based Cinnaire Solutions that started construction in late August. 

The $250 million UMCI is being built by UM with a $100 million donation from Ross, who personally lobbied for a $100 million state earmark, and $50 million that is to be raised from other donors. Olympia Development donated 4 acres of land to UM for the project. 

UM acquired a 1.18-acre block for $9.57 million from Olympia Development in 2023 for a parking structure for the new innovation center. It recently bought a 2.3-acre chunk of land at 2201 W. Grand River Ave. for $9.5 million from MGM Grand Detroit casino, also in connection with the UMCI project.