Still other developers — granted, the wealthiest in the city — have built new ground-up for-sale product, but not without challenges. The City Modern project by Dan Gilbert's Bedrock LLC, Farmington Hills-based Hunter Pasteur Homes and a host of investors and contractors, is rising on 8.4 acres of formerly largely vacant land in the Brush Park neighborhood.

Randy Wertheimer, CEO of Hunter Pasteur, said a lack of trades workers in Southeast Michigan has slowed the project. However, of the 102 units that have been put on the market, 84 have sold with a signed purchase agreement and a 10-percent nonrefundable deposit. Depending on when the units were purchased, the prices ranged between $230,000 and $280,000 for one-bedrooms and between $400,000 and $1 million for two-, three- and four-bedrooms, Wertheimer said.

"Our first 39 units sold for an average of $310 per square foot between almost 18 and 24 months ago," he said. "Then we released another 30 or so units and those averaged about $330 per square foot between 12 and 18 months ago, and all of the subsequent units have been in the $350 to $360 a foot range. The units we are selling now are up to $370 to $375 per foot."

And even though the project, which totals about 410 units in all, is coming out of the ground, Wertheimer echoed other developers' concerns.

"I truly believe the two biggest issues are the cost to construct and the labor," he said. "If there was a larger labor pool and more plumbers to choose from, for example, our cost would be lower. It's a circle and we need to figure out how to solve that. I'm extremely bullish on for-sale (multifamily homes) in Detroit, but that's a major issue."

Wertheimer's team is also working on more for-sale multifamily product: the $60 million Pullman Parc project on the site of the former Friends School at 1100 Saint Aubin St. in the Elmwood Park neighborhood. It's expected to have 81 units, with properties ranging from $250,000 to $1 million, but more on the lower end of that spectrum. The Friends School was torn down beginning last month, and vertical construction is expected to begin in August, Wertheimer said.