The city of Detroit has enjoyed a renaissance the last few years, helped along by events such as the NFL Draft, the resurgence of the Detroit Lions and Tigers and the Detroit Grand Prix.
But Downtown Detroit Partnership CEO Eric Larson knows it’s not just these individual events driving the city’s success. As the DDP’s 2024 Downtown Detroit Community and Development Update demonstrates, the improvements are coming in brick-and-mortar developments, population increases and other economic advancements.
“The quality of the greater downtown experience continues to improve,” Larson told an enthusiastic crowd at the DDP’s recent “Fall Forum: A Real Estate Update” at the Cambria Hotel.. “The fact is we have great venues that people are now starting to really not only identify with, but also be attracted to.”
The Development Update runs through everything that has happened in the city recently:
- It talks about 54 total projects, including 8 that were completed, 12 that are currently under construction, 14 that are “on the radar” and another 20 that are “in the pipeline.
Among projects completed are the Hotel David Whitney, Autograph Collection on Woodward and the highly anticipated renovation of Michigan Central Station, a $1 billion project expected to bring more than 5,000 new jobs to Corktown.
- Residential developments, including 188 units in Corktown and 500 in The Residences Water Square. Another 682 units (including 272 in the Downtown Business Improvement Zone) are under construction.
- Nearly 1,300 new hotel rooms are also under construction.
Detroit is again becoming a popular destination for visitors. Consider:
- Detroit’s visitors hovered right around 100,000 per month in 2019.
- In February 2020, right before the Covid pandemic struck, Detroit saw some 80,000 visitors. Those numbers plummeted after Covid hit in March 2020.
- By contrast, through July 2024, visitors stayed between 65,000 and about 90,000 per month.
The city’s population has continued to grow, something Larson pointed out as an important piece of the city’s success.
Since 2010, according to the report, the downtown’s population has grown 28%. It also points out that the overall city population grew for the first time.
Downtown population reached 6,759 in 2022, after sitting at 5,287 in 2010.
“We are continuing to talk about the importance of continued growth in our population,” Larson said. “We are continuing to grow population … A lot of that is because additional units are coming online, residential units are coming online.”
The city’s success has been remarkable enough, Larson said, that other cities are starting to emulate some of the things Detroit is doing.
“What we’ve been able to do is leverage the downtown as a platform to try lots of new things, to really test some things that ultimately are replicated in other parts of the city,” Larson said. “And what we’re finding now is these successes … are now being replicated around the country. We are a living laboratory that people are learning from and that’s very exciting.”
