Motown Museum will begin restoring three historic homes adjacent to the Hitsville USA house in Detroit's New Center this fall after getting the green light from Detroit's Historic District Commission, museum CEO Robin Terry said Thursday.

The home restoration is phase one of a $50 million expansion project that will add 40,000 square feet to the museum and transform it into a 50,000-square-foot campus. MLive reported that the restoration is slated to begin in October.

The enhanced center will house interactive exhibits, The Ford Motor Company Theater, recording studios, meeting spaces, a cafe and expanded retail. The historic homes will offer educational and community-focused resources and programming, Terry said in an email.

"We are thrilled that Detroit's Historic District Commission gave the green light to the expansion. This is the first of many, many steps ahead for this exciting and ambitious Detroit project," the email read. "While we would love to open the new Museum in late 2019, those plans are contingent upon continued successful fundraising efforts and construction timelines."

The museum projects that the updated center will have "a transformative impact" on the surrounding Detroit neighborhoods, providing employment, sustainability and community pride, spurring new investment and tourism around it.

The Motown Museum has raised about a fifth of the funding thus far, Crain's reported. It has collected $6 million from Ford Motor Co. and UAW-Ford, $2 million from the William Davidson Foundation and $750,000 from Southfield-based Lear Corp. Lear President and CEO Matt Simoncini committed $250,000 at the Motown Summer Night's Dream gala last month, where attendees pooled another $400,000.

"We are working closely with a number of donors who are generously gifting of their time and resources," Terry said. "We look forward to continuing to share the stories of these supporters in a significant way alongside them in the very near future."