Overpass would be expanded by 60 feet for new retail

Project would cost $10 million to $15 million

Federal transportation funding sought

More details have been revealed about the effort to install new retail along Woodward Avenue on its I-75 overpass in downtown Detroit.

The Ilitch family's Olympia Development of Michigan is eying widening the Woodward bridge over the freeway by 60 feet to accommodate another approximately 9,000 square feet of retail.

Details are spelled out in a proposal Olympia submitted to the Michigan Department of Transportation that Crain's obtained Tuesday through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In 2016, MDOT put out a request for proposals for what it calls the Fisher Freeway Downtown Crossings project, which in the proposal Olympia estimates to cost $10 million to $15 million.

The Detroit-based development company, which did not respond to emailed questions, says in the proposal that two retail buildings — a 6,150-square-foot building on the west and a 3,000-square-foot building on the east side of the bridge — would be built on 40-foot and 20-foot expansions, respectively.

Olympia is seeking funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, program for 80 percent of the costs for the first phase, which is the bridge expansion.

If Olympia does not receive the TIGER grant, or if it doesn't cover 80 percent of the project cost, the company says it would seek funding from the state's Transportation Economic Development Fund, the Transportation Alternatives Program and/or the federal FAST Act. Olympia would pay the remaining 20 percent of the first-phase cost.

The second phase, which is the ground-up retail construction, would be financed through a construction loan and Olympia equity of about 30 percent to 40 percent. Local tax breaks would also be sought, including perhaps Neighborhood Enterprise Zone funding, the proposal says.

Crain's reported Sunday on some details of the overpass widening effort based on an aerial map obtained last week.

The map shows nearly 200,000 square feet of new retail and other space, including over the bridge, plus a pair of new towers on Adams Street on what is now an Ilitch-owned surface parking lot and on Montcalm Street at Woodward overlooking Comerica Park.