Exciting things are happening in downtown Detroit, and there’s a plan to keep up the positive momentum.
That’s the scenario the Downtown Detroit Partnership laid out at its annual lunch Wednesday.
The DDP outlined its vision for a dense, vibrant downtown Detroit of 2016.
The group is made up some of Detroit’s biggest business leaders. They’re putting money behind incentive programs and other projects to draw more residents and employees downtown.
Elected leaders showed up to voice their support for the group’s efforts—including Governor Snyder, who had some encouraging words.
“You need to stay fired up, you need to keep going,” Snyder told Quick Loans CEO Dan Gilbert, one of the chief architects of the downtown plans. “We’re going to make this happen, and we’re on the path to reinventing the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan in partnership.”
Snyder says it’s a good sign that Detroit now has “buildings full of nerds” who live and work downtown.
DDP CEO Dave Blaszkiewicz says the idea is to capitalize on the area’s positive momentum.
“We want to focus on things that are now, that are today, that are happening, so that when we vision 2016, we know that we can deliver on these products.”]
The group hopes to draw 1200 new residents and 15,000 new employees to the 7.2 square mile city core in the next three years. The hope is to boost the number of residents to 7,000, and the number of downtown workers to 100,000.
Their plan includes a mix of incentive programs to attract new residents, and support local business.
