The first in a planned series of groundbreakings between now and 2027 happened this week for the high-profile $3 billion development in Detroit's New Center area that is a collaboration among Henry Ford Health, the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University.
This inaugural project — the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences Research Center — broke ground Monday. It will be a seven-story research building situated at 6175 Third St., across from the new Henry Ford Health Pistons Performance Center.
The joint Henry Ford-MSU research center is expected to open in 2027 and provide more than 550 permanent jobs, paying an average of about $137,800 a year, according to project development documents.
The $335 million cost of the 335,000-square-foot research center will be jointly funded by Henry Ford Health and MSU. Specifically, the funding is to come from MSU-issued bonds, Transformational Brownfield development incentive money and philanthropy, namely from Dan and Jennifer Gilbert.
A floor within the research center will house the future Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute. The Gilberts' son, Nick Gilbert, died last year at age 26 of the genetic disease.
The research center is one of six projects in the Future of Health development, five of which won Detroit City Council approval in February for tax breaks and tax captures totaling $296 million over 35 years.
In addition to neurofibromatosis, a key focus at the research building will be on closing the gap in health care outcomes for people based on race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status.
"The research happening here will be as cutting edge as the physical building in which it’s occurring — and that is a promise," Bob Riney, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health, said at Monday's groundbreaking ceremony.
Just under 200 of the anticipated 558 jobs in the new research center would be existing jobs that relocate from an older research center inside Henry Ford's nearby One Ford Place building, 6005 Second Ave., according to development plan documents.
There also are plans to build a nearby six-story, $58 million parking deck for use by the research center's employees and future residents of the apartments buildings planned for the overall $3 billion Future of Health development.
Henry Ford Hospital expansion
The Future of Health's biggest component is the forthcoming $2.2 billion Henry Ford Hospital expansion, which will include a new 21-story hospital tower.
The 1.1-million-square-foot expansion will be built across from the existing Henry Ford Hospital along West Grand Boulevard. The health system expects to move most of its acute care services from the existing hospital to this expansion.
A groundbreaking date for the expansion has yet to be announced. However, construction of a new parking deck for the expansion is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
The hospital expansion will be built on land that was previously parking lots and an old office building. Demolition of the office building got underway in May. The building previously housed the corporate headquarters for Henry Ford Health's insurance company, Health Alliance Plan, before HAP's offices moved to Troy.
The hospital expansion did not seek tax breaks or other development incentives.
Pistons apartments to come
A Detroit Pistons-related entity is expected to break ground next year on the first of three planned apartment buildings totaling 662 apartments.
This new six-story, $79 million apartment building would have 154 mixed-income units and be built at 725 Amsterdam St., on what is now a surface parking lot. Early design plans called for 75 studio apartments, 69 one-bedrooms and 10 two-bedrooms in the building, and an anticipated completion date in the second quarter of 2027.
The other two Pistons apartments projects were approved with 2027 groundbreaking dates in mind.
One would be a new 105-unit building at675 Amsterdam. The other is redevelopment of Henry Ford Health's existing corporate headquarters building, One Ford Place, into 403 mixed-income apartments plus retail space.
Construction of both could start in the second quarter of 2027 and take two years to finish, according to project documents.
New Central Utility Plant
Henry Ford Health also plans to construct a two-story central utility plant to provide heating and cooling to the hospital expansion and new tower via a hot and chilled water system.
The 47,000-square-foot facility, or CUP, is expected to connect to the power grid and also make use of long-term purchase agreements for wind and solar power.
"With the high-efficiency condensing boilers, the CUP can operate as a fully electric (net-zero) heating and cooling facility from the first day of operations," the project's financing documents say. "Dedicated underground storage tanks provide diesel fuel to power the backup generators and dual-fuel boilers."
Earlier this spring, the Michigan Finance Authority authorized $249.3 million in tax-exempt bonds for financing the facility's construction.
A Henry Ford Health spokesperson said it has yet to break ground on the CUP. According to the financing documents, the plant is expected to be substantially completed by spring 2027.
Contact JC Reindl:313-222-6631 orjcreindl@freepress.com.Follow him on X@jcreindl.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What groundbreakings are next for $3B New Center development
