The Transforming City is the theme of this year’s Congress—and it’s the most inspiring CNU storyline that I can remember.

Everything bad that has happened to US cities since 1950 is compounded in the Motor City. Detroit has lost more than 60 percent of its population. Its industrial economy is decimated. Houses have burned down almost nightly for years. Crime, poor schools, bankruptcy—you name it—Detroit has suffered more than most cities. And yet you don’t get the sense that the city is defeated.

Far from it—Detroit seems to be on the rise. The spirit of resilience is palpable. That’s why Detroit is an exciting location for CNU 24 in Detroit June 8-11. One big story that attendees will delve into is the downtown renaissance. Detroit’s downtown is booming. That story goes well beyond billionaire Dan Gilbert, who deserves a lot of credit. Downtown has gained more than 16,000 employees since 2010, boosted by Gilbert’s moving of Quicken Loans and his umbrella company Rock Ventures, which includes real estate development. Gilbert went on a buying spree, acquiring 90 buildings and parking facilities, according to Curbed Detroit, to refurbish properties for office and residential.

Gilbert built on a foundation of incremental development that started in the late 1990s, according to Mark Nickita of Archive DS, and architect and business owner. “There’s a definite connection between dozens of incremental developers and then huge major players who are investing billions of dollars,” he says. “Plus the foundations like Kresge who helped fund the QLine (the streetcar), and then you add in demand and interest in urban life and a major metropolitan area of five million people that can draw on incredible resources—that’s driving what is happening in Detroit now.”

Other notable players are the pizza tycoon Mike Ilitch, a big developer, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, which brought 3,600 employees downtown from 2010 to 2012.

Downtown, which often felt like a ghost town 15 years ago, now has a housing shortage, with 98 percent residential vacancy. More people are creating demand for retail, and Gilbert is moving ahead with a 225,000 square foot retail project with 250 residential units on the site where Hudson’s Department Store once stood.

The majority of the growth has been in refurbished old buildings, while the public spaces have been spiffed up and reactivated. So downtown now combines people on the street, attractive plazas and parks, restaurants and businesses, and the cultural infrastructure and architecture of a great older city.

Attendees will experience all of this firsthand because they will be constantly outside. By design, CNU 24 is taking place in numerous venues spread out over multiple blocks.

Downtown Detroit is not unique. Similar stories are playing out in other Great Lakes cities like Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. These, and many other cities, have empty buildings that can be reoccupied, and blocks and streets that are conducive to the kind of urban places in demand today. These cities could learn from Detroit.