Louis Aguilar

The Detroit News

Detroit — Investment in the city’s near east side goes beyond plans to overhaul the riverfront. A growing number of small developers are set on reviving buildings and even building anew in the long neglected area.

One such project would convert a former Catholic school in the Islandview neighborhood to a building of 25 residential units of more than 1,000 square feet each with 14-foot ceilings. The plan is to create apartments in the former classrooms of the vacant St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in the 1400 block of Townsend. A new top floor is planned and local artists will be commissioned to help decorate.

A new 10-unit apartment building will be built next to the school in the empty lots where homes used to be. Work is expected to begin on both projects by this summer.

“This offering, I believe there is very little of this kind of standard that’s on the market now,” said Aamir Farooqi, chairman and CEO of Banyan Investments, the development group behind the St. Charles project.

While some units will be reserved for lower-income residents, rents for the market-rate apartments could rival the $2-per-square-foot rental goal of developments in “greater downtown.” The development could be finished within 12 months, Farooqi said, adding that some of the units could be converted to condominiums.

Banyan Investments, founded in 2012, has focused mainly in the near east side. Farooqi, a former executive for Cargill Inc., and business partner Scott Ord have bought and renovated more than 100 properties, mainly in the area called “The Villages” — a collection of neighborhoods that includes East Village, West Village, Indian Village, Islandview, the Gold Coast and the Joseph Berry Subdivision.

The firm has purchased homes, sometimes for as little as $500, including former mansions, banks and retail storefronts, among its projects. One notable example is West Village Manor, at Agnes and Van Dyke, a mixed-use development that includes Red Hook Coffee and Detroit Vegan Soul.

“These are just good solid neighborhoods,” Farooqi said. “Of course, what is happening in the downtown area is great, but not everyone wants to live downtown. The time is now to get in on the ground floor.”

Skeptics remain

But many traditional lenders still see the area as too risky. Banyan and other developers, meanwhile, often rely on private investors and a few select lenders such as Invest Detroit, a $225 million fund that focuses on city investment.

The history of the St. Charles Borromeo school building could help explain the wariness of lenders. The church closed the school decades ago, citing dwindling enrollment. In the late ’90s, the building sold for $350,000 to the Detroit Public Schools system. Since 2000, the building has changed ownership several times in the wake of failed development projects. And in 2009, during the Great Recession, the building fell into foreclosure.

The building was sold in 2014 for $1,000. Later that year, Banyan bought the site for $50,000.

Another developer with a new project in the area is Southfield-based Woodborn Partners, who, along with Grosse Pointe Park-based Christian Hurttienne Architect and Broder & Sachse Real Estate of Birmingham, plans to open The Coe at West Village this fall. That $4 million mixed-use development, at Van Dyke and Coe, will house 12 residential units and another 1,200 square feet of retail.

The two-bedroom townhomes at the Coe will rent for $2,100 a month, while the mix of studio units and one-bedroom lofts will range from $936 to $1,479 a month. The project came as part of a block of investments by the Detroit Strategic Neighborhood Initiative, a collaboration of Invest Detroit, the Detroit Development Fund and the Opportunity Resource Fund.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” said Clifford Brown, the Coe developer. “There are so many people who have taken great care of their homes in the Villages, those are the investors we are following.”

Riverfront revival

On Wednesday night, Farooqi was among the hundreds who attended the unveiling of a vision for 400 acres of Detroit’s east riverfront, which among other things includes a new “Atwater Beach,” an expansion of Milliken State Park and the addition of new links to the RiverWalk.

The overall goal, the planners said, is to significantly expand the downtown riverfront area by preserving more public space and opening more access to the riverfront to near east side residents. It aims to also add commercial space and housing.

That proposal includes projects for upgrading two greenways to connect east side residents to the RiverWalk. The Joseph Campau Greenway, which runs from the Detroit River to Vernor, will get new lighting, furnishings, paving and landscaping. The Beltline Greenway, between Belleview and Beaufait, will run from Kercheval to the Detroit River. The Beltline runs through the Islandview neighborhood of the St. Charles project.

Another goal is to reduce East Jefferson between Rivard and East Grand Boulevard from nine to five lanes. The other lanes would be converted to bicycle lanes. That stretch of Jefferson has had 1,350 vehicle crashes and 39 pedestrian-vehicular crashes in the past five years, officials said.

“It’s great news,” Farooqi said of Wednesday’s announcement.

laguilar@detroitnews.com

(313) 222-2760

Twitter: @LouisAguilar_DN