The new "cradle-to-career" school planned for Marygrove College's campus in northwest Detroit will include a $15 million Early Childhood Education Center expected to open in fall 2021.

Once complete, the 28,000-square-foot building on the 53-acre campus will provide integrated health and human services to about 144 children under 5 years old and their families, according to a Monday news release. Inkster-based nonprofit Starfish Family Services will operate the center.

Details of the new school, also being called a P-20 education center, come a month after Marygrove College announced it will close after 92 years. It had been suffering an enrollment decline for several years and ended undergraduate programs in 2017.

Despite the demise of the private Catholic school, the Marygrove Conservancy has forged ahead with plans, announced last September, for a $50 million investment in the campus and a commitment from the University of Michigan to help develop the curriculum and station teaching residents at a high school planned there.

The early childhood center will be developed by IFF, which is a Community Development Financial Institution that helps support projects in low-income communities. IFF has an office in downtown Detroit.

Arkansas-based Marlon Blackwell Architects is the architect and Southfield-based Barton Malow Co. is the general contractor.

"The detail, scale and presence of Marygrove within the community is remarkable," Marlon Blackwell, principal of the architecture firm, said in the news release. "The existing buildings provide a substance to the campus in which we seek to establish a condition of resonance between old and new …"

The project is expected to include a natural playscape designed around oak trees on campus, 12 classrooms, a library and health therapy rooms. The design was created during 11 months of community input facilitated by Starfish and Detroit Collaborative Design Center, the release said.

The new build will be on an existing parking lot and lawn area, and there will be no demolition. Construction is being funded by the Kresge Foundation, which provided $16 million to Marygrove College to help satisfy its most pressing debts and critical operations. The nonprofit plans to spend another $19 million to support the campus, including renovations to the Immaculata/Bates Academy building, which will house the K-8 school.

Developers expect to break ground by spring. In the meantime, renovations are being made to the school's Liberal Arts building, which will house the inaugural class of about 120 ninth-graders at the School at Marygrove. That school, opening in September, will focus on social justice and be operated by the Detroit Public Schools Community District with assistance from UM. Following the 2020-21 school year, a new grade will be added each year until the high school is filled out.

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said that 97 percent of students accepted for the inaugural ninth-grade class are Detroit residents, 50 percent are returning to the school system from suburban or charter schools and 75 percent live within 2 miles of Marygrove.

The elementary school portion of the "cradle-to-career" campus will begin with students in fall 2021, and one grade will be added each year until all K-12 classes are established.

Like the Detroit school district's other four examination schools, the K-12 school is free for students to attend. At capacity, it will serve about 1,000 students.

For the early childhood center, IFF plans to host a provider network meeting 6 p.m. July 30 on Marygrove's campus. Those interested can RSVP on IFF's website.