Downtown

THE D’S NEXT DECADE | EXPANDING THE RENAISSANCE

A model for turnaround beyond downtown?

$121 million in rehab projects take shape in Jeerson-Chalmers

BYCHAD LIVENGOOD

e inside of the once ornate Vanity Ballroom along East Jeerson Avenue looks like another Detroit ruin.

Very little of the Aztec-inspired Art Deco interior architecture remains intact. Chunks of mortar rubble cover the oors and sunlight pours into the second-oor ballroom from an exposed roof, where trees are growing.

A oating maple wood dance oor that once hosted jazz singers like Cab Callo way and Duke Ellington is long gone.

But behind the crumbling concrete columns is reinforced steel — the kind that has kept much larger and older iconic buildings like Michigan Central Station and the Packard plant standing all of these decades later after their abandonment.

To developer Derric Scott, that steel structure is going to give the Vanity Ball room another chance at life, nearly a century after it opened on the eve of the 1929 stock market crash.

“It’s allowed the building to be pre served a lot longer than it would have under other conditions,” said Scott, CEO of the East Jeerson Development Corp. e $14 million resurrection of the long-crumbling Vanity Ballroom and an adjacent former bicycle shop is one step away from becoming a reality, Scott said.

It’s the neighborhood cornerstone of $121 million in rehab construction proj ects that the East Jeerson Development Corp. is quietly preparing to launch over the next 18 months using a rst-of-itskind tax increment nancing mechanism that could be a model for revitalizing oth er neighborhood commercial corridors in the city. Scott led a tour of his company’s

The Vanity Ballroom at East Jeerson Avenue and Newport Street in Detroit’s Jeerson-Chalmers neighborhood is slated to get a $14 million makeover to revitalize the 91-year-old two-story building.

NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

“IT’S PATIENT EQUITY.” —Aaron Seybert, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s social investment practice

redevelopment projects Sept. 24 during Detroit Homecoming VII. e revitalization of downtown Detroit over the past decade has been dramatic. Extending that resurgence will be a chal lenge for the next decade. e Jeerson-Chalmers neighborhood has long been a priority for city planners and philanthropists to revitalize as part of a push to reverse the decades-long de cline of neighborhoods outside of greater downtown. Penske Corp. has committed $5 million to the city’s Strategic Neighbor hood Fund for a new community center at Alfred Brush Ford Park along the Detroit River.

After years of planning, groundwork and wrestling away property from specu lators, there are signs that a turnaround in Jeerson-Chalmers is starting to come together, even as Detroit still reels from a global pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 1,500 of its residents over the past six months.

East Jeerson Development Corp., or EJDevCo, is a for-prot subsidiary of the not-for-prot Jeerson East Inc. , a multi-service organization in the Jeer son-Chalmers neighborhood.

For neighborhood-level commercial redevelopment in the city, EJDevCo is a dierent kind of animal. Most of these en tities are not-for-prot community development corporations that have the capacity to revamp one building at a time. e Kresge Foundation’s investment arm bought a 30 percent interest in EJ DevCo for $2 million, giving Scott and his team cash to acquire or gain control of 87 percent of the properties along the Jeer son Avenue corridor. Separately, the Troybased Kresge Foundation has granted

The East Jeerson Development Corp. plans to build out 15,000 square feet of ground oor retail. Uses for the old ballroom include co-working space or ne arts and theater. | CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S

$1.9 million to Invest Detroit for support ing EJDevCo’s operations.

Kresge Foundation’s investment comes from the program related investments cap ital that it invests in companies or ventures that align with its philanthropic goals.

And while they ultimately want to get their money back, they’re not in a rush to do so.

“It’s patient equity,” said Aaron Seybert, managing director of e Kresge Founda tion’s social investment practice.

Traditional nonprot developers “move so slow as compared to the for-prot sec tor in rapidly changing markets,” Seybert said.

EJDevCo is tackling ve buildings at once in its $121 million project, including a new ground-up 38-unit residential and ground-oor retail mixed use building at East Jeerson and Manistique, two blocks west of the Grosse Pointe Park border. Construction for that project is slated to begin in 2022, with about 30 percent of the residential units designated aording housing, Scott said.

By investing in a for-prot entity, Sey bert said, Kresge takes the risk of being a rst-loss equity partner but sees the reward of larger and faster redevelopment projects that are less contingent upon tax credits, grants and other subsidies.

HAVE IT MADE IN MICHIGAN

UWM Isn’t Just Michigan Grown It’s Michigan Growing.

No matter where we hang our Tigers’ caps, it’s pretty easy to spot a fellow Michigander. We have Vernors in our veins, we add an “s” to just about everything (Meijer’s, Kroger’s, Kmart’s) and when you ask us where we’re from, we almost invariably point at the palms of our hands.

UWM (formerly United Shore) was born and raised in Michigan, too — growing from a small, 12-person company working out of a former grocery store in Birmingham to a much larger office in Troy, and finally to their current 1.5 million-square-foot campus in Pontiac. Even their President and CEO Mat Ishbia has a storied Michigan past. A Spartan through and through, he was a member of Tom Izzo’s 2000 Michigan State national championship basketball team. Mat worked closely with Coach Izzo, ultimately applying what he learned about hard work and dedication to turn that 12-person shop into the nation’s #1 wholesale mortgage lender and #2 overall mortgage lender with over 7,000 team members.

But their Michigan history isn’t the only reason to consider starting or elevating your career at UWM — there’s also their made-in-Michigan work ethic and sense of responsibility to their community. As a wholesale mortgage lender with a 40% market share, UWM helps support hundreds of Michigan-based independent brokers by providing the tools and technology they need to help borrowers everywhere realize the American dream of home ownership. Plus, UWM gives back to the local community in many other ways, including partnering with Michigan-based charities like Humble Design, Lighthouse, Gleaners and many, many more.

So it’s no wonder their conference rooms are named after Michigan cities and landmarks (the Silverdome and “The Joe” conference rooms each feature actual seating and other souvenirs from those bygone stadiums), but ask anyone at UWM what truly makes the company special and they won’t mention the cool conference rooms — or the gym or the basketball court or the sand volleyball court or even the Starbucks. Instead they’ll say it’s the people. Because UWM isn’t just Michigan grown, it’s Michigan growing. They’ve hired over 2,000 team members in the last 90 days alone. And although a majority of their team members are currently working from home, they’ve maintained that fast and steady growth even through the pandemic, upholding their CEO’s pledge not to lay off a single team member due to COVID and providing a much-needed lifeline to many who had lost their jobs.

So if you call Michigan home and you’re looking for an opportunity that feels like home — and a fast-growing company that feels like family — check out UWM’s job openings at uwmcareers.com. Mortgage experience is not required — but a photo of your Petoskey stone collection might help.