Residents are moving in while retail tenants are sought for a new mixed-use building with affordable housing on Detroit's east side.

Bingham Farms-based MHT Housing Inc. and the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance broke ground on the $9.5 million project in February. The 52,000-square-foot, four-story building at 9100 Gratiot Ave., dubbed Gratiot Central Commons, was completed about two months ahead of schedule in early April, according to John Thorne, executive director of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance.

The project, which has 36 affordable housing units, sits between two mixed-use buildings at 8900 Gratiot Ave. and 9200 Gratiot Ave., also owned the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance. A total of 28 housing units have been filled and the remaining eight units have been set aside for tenants awaiting approval through the Detroit Housing Commission's Project Based Voucher Program.

The new building is along a commercial corridor challenged by decades of disinvestment and blight, but outside the city's targeted areas for revitalization.