Signs of life at former Uniroyal Tire Co. site New consultant brought in on project in the works for 18 years

KIRK PINHO

On June 15, a land purchase and development agreement for the former Uniroyal Tire Co. factory site will become old enough to vote.

When the 2005 Kwame Kilpatrick-era deal was inked with a Detroit-born NFL star and a Pittsburgh developer, it was seen as a step forward for the 42-acre property that nestles up to the Belle Isle Bridge. But like virtually all development in Detroit, nothing comes easy.

Or quick — although this site is a rare breed when it comes to development proposals.(Donald Trump reportedly pondered it in the mid 1980s.)

Bookended to the west by Mount Elliott Park and the bridge, it still has no housing or retail. More than four decades after its most recent use as a heavy manufacturing site, even though the most serious contamination has been recti ed, some low level contaminants remain and need to be addressed, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. says. ere has been progress, however. e Detroit Riverfront Conservancy is nearing completion on the remaining $11 million, 0.42-mile leg of the Detroit RiverWalk, set to be nished in October. at project itself was a deceptively complicated uphill climb, said Mark Wallace, president and CEO of the Detroit

Riverfront Conservancy.

“You might look at it and say, ‘Oh, that’s a nice sidewalk,’ but there’s a lot that goes into a project like this,” he said.

And on the private development side, Jerome Bettis — the NFL Hallof-Famer tapped 18 years ago — has made moves of his own, bringing on a new consultant on the project, which remains the largest unrealized mixed-use development on the books.