One of Detroit's most active development teams sees the potential in large-scale projects that will have immediate and obvious impact on the central city.

But they also recognize how, in a city the size of Detroit, targeted smaller projects deliver value in a different way: They re-create community.

And for The Platform, that is personal. Founders Dietrich Knoer and Peter Cummings are proud of their restoration of the iconic Fisher Building and projects in Midtown and the New Center.

Yet alongside each stand their neighborhood development efforts, planned with residents and business owners. Cummings feels ties to Brightmoor. For Knoer, it's the Islandview area of East Grand Boulevard and East Jefferson, at the entrance to Belle Isle.

After at least a year of planning amid many other projects, The Platform now pushing forward on outlining its plans for Islandview.

One key step: They've bought the Big Boy on East Jefferson, giving them one acre to redevelop at the entrance to the neighborhood.

The restaurant will be demolished after it closes on Easter Sunday.

Across the street, The Platform has entered into an agreement with intention to acquire five parcels from the Detroit Land Bank Authority on East Grand Boulevard between East Jefferson Avenue and Congress Street.

This development includes the renovation of a former nursing home at 130 E. Grand Blvd. that was built in 1898 and designed by Louis Kamper, architect of the Book-Cadillac Hotel, Book and Broderick towers and many other Detroit landmarks.

Three other historic properties will also see rehabilitation, and there will also be new construction. Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates is the architect on the project.

"Islandview is a beautiful neighborhood located around the important intersection of Jefferson and Grand Boulevard and surrounded by amazing public amenities, such as Belle Isle, Gabriel Richard Park, and soon the RiverWalk, when it is extended to Belle Isle," Knoer said in a news release.

"We care about the community that we work in and remain committed to celebrating Detroit neighborhoods by making them the great places to live that they deserve to be."

Knoer is a parishioner of Church of the Messiah Episcopal Church at East Grand Boulevard and Lafayette, and chairs the board of the church's neighborhood youth organization.

The neighborhood is just east of West Village, which already is seeing a resurgence of home rehabs and construction. Now, with plans announced to expand the city's Riverfront to the east, Islandview is poised for its share of investment and attention.

Knoer and The Platform's team has been talking to leaders and residents of the Islandview neighborhood since October "to figure out what it is that the neighborhood needs," said spokesman Dan Austin.

The land bank property rehab will lead to affordable housing, in part.

But the Big Boy site gives the team room for still more creativity in planning the commercially zoned property with distinct visibility along East Jefferson.

The seller of the Big Boy is Curis Enterprises, another Detroit-based real estate development and property management group. It is one of two Big Boy restaurants owned by the company, according to its website.

Curis Enterprises is offering all employees at the location a bonus as a thank you for their service. Curis is also offering employees relocation and job placement at other restaurants.

"I'd like to thank all of our customers and employees for their support and service over the 50 years that we've been in business," said Michael Curis, president of the company, in a release. "We are going to do everything we can to look out for our Big Boy family and make sure they find work elsewhere. "

Austin said the restaurant, part of the chain that has 58 restaurants in Metro Detroit, will be demolished soon after it closes in April.

"We don't want an empty building just sitting there near Belle Isle," Austin said.

In the interim, there may be some temporary uses - possibly food trucks.

Detroit's high-profile downtown and Midtown redevelopment and new construction are fueling the city's comeback. Those projects - including the District Detroit, surrounding the new Red Wings/Pistons arena - are reaching into the billions for investors.

Those changes now are reaching neighborhoods, said Maurice Cox, city planning director, who spoke recently at the Detroit Policy Conference.

"The soul of the city is in its neighborhoods," he said. "A lot of American cities forget about (that)."

Detroit is committed to having a predictable, orderly process for developers in the neighborhoods to encourage investment, from the single family rehab of the estimated 30,000 vacant homes to bigger projects, like in Islandview, Cox said.

That means, Cox said, "using assets that the neighborhood has - beautiful historic homes, acres of available land that's never been looked at as a value proposition," he said.

And, following through with the people who already live there, to make the process inclusive, is part of the goal.

The Platform embraces that part of the process. They've already shown that "they go out of their way to restore the historic property they have," Austin said, mentioning the Fisher Building.

And they're not out to gentrify a neighborhood so the existing residents feel pushed out. That's earned them support from the blocks in which they'll be working.

"We welcome all investors whose intent is to promote the city by revitalizing areas where resources for living and shopping have been diminished," said Bishop Thomas L. Johnson Sr., pastor of Immanuel House of Prayer, located about a block north of the Big Boy.

For The Platform, Austin said, "the mission is to add to a community, not redefine it."