Ypsilanti : Development News

Large sculptures of tigers will begin appearing across Metro Detroit en masse after opening day.

The fiberglass Tigers are a fundraiser and public-art project for the Children’s Charities Coalition, which is made up of four Oakland County-based charities. At least 80 tigers will appear throughout Metro Detroit, although most of them will be in Birmingham and Bloomfield. The tigers are approximately 4 feet tall and 100 pounds and will be displayed in front of businesses between April and June.

“Our inspiration was the Detroit Tigers, but we have all sorts of tigers,” said Gigi Nichols, public relations director for The Community House, which is part of the Children’s Charities Coalition. “They’re not necessarily tigers that have something to do with baseball, although some of them do.”

Money raised from the sculptures will go toward the four charities that make up the Children’s Charities Coalition: Child Abuse and Neglect Council of Oakland County, The Community House, Orchards Children’s Services and Variety The Children’s Charity.

For information, call (248) 594-6403.

Source: Gigi Nichols, public relations director for The Community House

With its pilot phase complete, Wireless Washtenaw now expects to make all of Washtenaw County wireless by the end of this year.

Wireless Washtenaw and Internet-service-provider 20/20 Communications are now working with local governments across the county to see what needs to be done to establish free wireless Internet access by the end of the year. The county covers 720 square miles and is home to approximately 340,000 people. Oakland and Macomb counties are also pushing forward similar programs this year.

Parts of Ann Arbor, Manchester and Saline were successfully made wireless at the end of last month as part of the pilot phase. Ann Arbor’s section is based in its downtown core, covering parts of streets like Main, State and Liberty.

For information on Wireless Washtenaw, visit wireless.ewashtenaw.org.

Source: James McFarlane, project manager for Wireless Washtenaw

Three underutilized buildings in downtown Ypsilanti are slated to be auctioned. All have mixed-use potential.

Excerpt:

Brian Vosburg, director of the Downtown Development Authority, said auctioning property is one way to attract buyers and sell real estate.

Downtown includes 23 empty store fronts, about 12 percent of downtown commercial space, and the DDA has been trying to attract businesses to the district and redevelop downtown. The buildings have a lot of character and they can be converted into a mixed-used development of retail, office and living space, Vosburg said.

Read the entire article here.

Ypsilanti is being considered as a additional stop on the Ann Arbor-Detroit commuter rail line that official hope to have up and running by the end of the year, with initial stops in Detroit, Dearborn and Ann Arbor.

Excerpt:

Gerald Rowe, manager of transportation programs for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, confirmed Ypsilanti as a possible stop for a commuter rail system in southeast Michigan.

The project - which has been in discussion for years - is seeking additional funding from Congress and the Michigan Department of Transportation, among other sources. Rowe said officials would like to see the system incorporating stops in places like Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Detroit by the end of the calendar year. But he said that timeline is tentative and would depend on funding.

"What we're trying to do with the project is get service to start as soon as possible," he said.

Read the entire article here.

Eastern Michigan University is hosting a home-buying seminar for its alumni and students at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday (March 27) in the University’s Student Center, 900 Oakwood St., Ypsilanti.
 
The free seminar is geared toward University students and graduates of the last decade (GOLD) who are looking to buy their first home. The seminar will be focused on helping them make the best decision while taking advantage of the buyers housing market in southeast Michigan. GOLD alumni members are also invited to attend an afterglow at Sticks Pool & Pub, 39 E. Cross St., Ypsilanti, for socializing and networking following the program.
 
For information, contact Ken Ruppel at (734) 487-0250 or e-mail alumni.relations@emich.edu.
 
Source: Eastern Michigan University

More and more people are catching rides on Metro Detroit’s mass transit systems, which saw significant jumps in ridership in 2006.
 
The Detroit Department of Transportation, Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, The People Mover and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority all saw ridership increases between 5 to 50 percent.

The number of people riding the People Mover jumped 50 percent, while SMART and DDOT each registered 10.5-percent and 5-percent increases, respectively. AATA ridership jumped 13 percent.

DDOT                  2005 = 34,724,028           2006 = 36,488,952  (+5%)
SMART                 2005 = 10,176,391           2006 = 11,251,836 (+10.5%)
People Mover      2005 = 1,558,646             2006 = 2,340,511   (+50%)
AATA                    2005 = 4,856,895             2006 = 5,488,317   (+13%)

"They’re all fairly significant climbs," said Janet Foran, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Transportation.
 
Overall, people riding mass transit in Michigan jumped 8.4 percent in 2006 to 93.1 million rides. The state’s seven urban transportation systems accounted for 78 million rides. DDOT and SMART provided slightly more than half of the total number of rides in the state, or 47.9 million. 
 
"Public transportation is a critical factor in providing mobility to Michigan residents," says Kirk T. Steudle, the state’s transportation director. "We attribute the rising numbers to several factors, including the ever-present issue of higher (and fluctuating) gas prices and effective local marketing efforts in larger, urban areas such as Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor."
 
Southeast Michigan, long dependent solely on buses for mass transit, is also working on two projects to diversify mass transit options by the end of the year. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments is planning to establish a commuter train line connecting Detroit, Dearborn, Metro Airport, Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor by the end of year. Ann Arbor-area leaders are also working to get another commuter rail line up and running north from the city into Livingston County along the U.S. 23 corridor by June.
 
Source: Janet Foran, spokeswoman for MDOT

Transportation Riders United, a Metro Detroit non-profit mass transit advocacy group, is holding a design contest on what the future of mass transit in Metro Detroit could look like in 2025.
 
"Detroit in Transit: Visions of a Region on the Move" is looking for drawings and designs of what Detroit’s future transit and transit-oriented neighborhoods would look like with convenient, high-quality rapid transit.
 
"What we’re really hoping to do is launch a public conversation about what rapid transit can do to revitalize a city like Detroit," says Megan Owens, executive director of TRU.
 
TRU is looking for artists, designers, urban planners, architects, students and others to submit designs and drawings. The contest has three categories. The first is to design transit vehicles on a streetscape. The second is looking for architectural designs of transit stations incorporated into a streetscape. The third is for designing vibrant neighborhoods and intersections around transit stops.
 
Submissions are due by April 30. Finalists will be revealed and displayed during a gala event during National Transportation Week, between May 13 and 18. For information on the contest, visit detroittransit.org/design-contest.php or call (313) 963-8872.
 
Source: Megan Owens, executive director of Transportation Riders United

Michigan Suburbs Alliance will host its annual Regional Redevelopment Summit on March 23 at the Fairlane Club in Dearborn. The keynote speaker will be Paul Schutt, Issue Media Group's publisher and co-founder.

Excerpt:

In southeast Michigan’s current real estate market, many cities are struggling to get the word out about their viable redevelopment opportunities.  They need new, innovative strategies for communicating to potential investors.  At the 2007 Regional Redevelopment Summit, cities, developers, realtors and communications professionals will come together to explore innovative solutions to this region-wide barrier to redevelopment.

Find out more here.

How do we create demand for cities and regions? 

Michigan Suburbs Alliance will host its annual Regional Redevelopment Summit on March 23 at the Fairlane Club in Dearborn. The keynote speaker will be Paul Schutt, co-founder and co-CEO of Issue Media Group (IMG).

In Paul Schutt's presentation, he will discuss how media is providing "alternative narratives" for neighborhoods, cities and metropolitan areas. The discussion will focus on models that support a virtuous cycle by focusing on growth, investment, sense of place and thought leaders for the new economy.


Excerpt:

In southeast Michigan’s current real estate market, many cities are struggling to get the word out about their viable redevelopment opportunities.  They need new, innovative strategies for communicating to potential investors.  At the 2007 Regional Redevelopment Summit, cities, developers, realtors and communications professionals will come together to explore innovative solutions to this region-wide barrier to redevelopment.

Find out more here.



*IMG is a Detroit-based media company has created online magazines such as ModelD and metromode in Detroit, Pop City in Pittsburgh and Rapid Growth in Grand Rapids.

Plans to establish a commuter rail line between Detroit and Ann Arbor are still on track and a demonstration line is expected to be up and running by later this year.
 
The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) is in negotiations to establish the line that would connect Detroit and Ann Arbor to Metro Airport. Details about the line, such as the number of trains and when they’ll run, are still being determined.
 
“A lot of that is going to depend on the negotiations with the freight railroads that own the tracks,” said Carmine Palombo, director of transportation for SEMCOG.
 
The starter line would utilize existing tracks with stops at Metro Airport, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Dearborn. It’s possible it could also be expanded to connect Royal Oak, Troy/Birmingham and Pontiac.
 
Transit Riders United, a non-profit mass transit advocacy group, has been hosting informational meetings about the proposal this month. The fourth and final meeting is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Livonia Senior Center at Farmington and Five Mile roads.

For information, visit detroittransit.org or call (313) 963-8872.
 
Source: Carmine Palombo, director of transportation for Southeast Michigan Council of Governments

Eastern Michigan University administrators are putting the finishing touches on the architectural request for proposals for the university’s planned renovation and expansion of its Mark Jefferson Science Complex.

The university will issue requests for proposals for architectural renderings of the project in March. The $100-million project is expected to take 47 months to complete once an architect is selected.

The Mark Jefferson Science Complex is the largest construction project in school history. The plan calls for $26.7 million in renovations to the 180,802 square feet of the building. Another $73.3 million is slated for a 151,000-square-foot expansion.

The sale of bonds will primarily fund the project. A 4-percent tuition and fee increase approved by the university’s Board of Regents for this project in the fall of 2005 will pay off most of the bonds.

EMU spent $8.2 million to build the science five-story complex in 1969. It primarily houses facilities for the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, such as biology, chemistry, physics and psychology. The building is named for Mark Jefferson, head of the geography department at EMU from 1901-39.

EMU has invested more than $350 million in new construction in the past 10 years.

Source: Janice M. Stroh, vice president of business and finance at Eastern Michigan University.

EMU announced plans to build a $100 million 161,600 square-foot science center on campus; U-M also announced several projects including an office space and parking addition to the Thompson Street parking structure, infrastructure improvements to the Matthei Botanical Gardens Exhibition Greenhouse and improvements at Ann Arbor's Burlington Office Building, Mott Children's Hospital and University Hospital.

Excerpt:

EMU said the new regional science complex will expand opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research and strengthen K-12 teacher education.

Read the entire article here.