Stores, homes, movie theater for old state fairground?

The old Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit could finally see life as a shopping attraction and residential development under a plan that might incorporate some of the historical buildings.

Spurred by the success of the nearby Gateway Marketplace retail center, a team of developers — including basketball star Earvin (Magic) Johnson — has submitted preliminary plans to the city to redevelop the fairgrounds with stores, hundreds of new apartments, a movie theater and possibly a specialty grocery store like Whole Foods.

The project is still in its early phases, and the developers have yet to identify future stores or disclose details about their financing.

But if the Magic Plus team can collect enough commitments from prospective tenants and gain the necessary land use approvals, the fairgrounds could again be drawing crowds as early as 2017.

"It's a mixed-use project — it's not just retail," said Craig Willian, a vice president with Southfield-based REDICO, which is part of the team planning to develop the 157-acre fairgrounds site.

Willian said they intend to save and reuse many of the historical fairgrounds structures, such as the coliseum, the Dodge Automotive Pavilion and the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse. The coliseum could become a movie theater, he said.

"We're going to save a lot of the architecture," Willian told an audience Thursday at a local development conference in Novi.

The Magic Plus team includes Lansing developer Joel Ferguson and Detroiter Marvin Beatty. They acquired the old fairgrounds in 2013 from the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority for an estimated $4.65 million. The state fair was shut down in 2009 amid state budget cuts.

Willian said the fairgrounds redevelopment effort is benefiting from the success of Gateway Marketplace, which opened in mid-2013 at 8 Mile and Woodward and is anchored by a busy Meijer superstore. REDICO was that project's main developer.

He said Gateway's Five Below store has proven to be the discount retailer's top-producing store in Michigan. Additionally, Meijer's early success helped persuade the superstore chain to begin construction last year on a second Detroit location in northwest Detroit.

"It's an interesting story because we were never quite sure whether retail would take off the way it has here," Willian said during an International Council of Shopping Centers event in the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

The Gateway plaza's shoppers are coming from "not just Detroit," he said, "it's Royal Oak and it's Ferndale."

St. Louis-based developer McCormack Baron Salazar is planning the project's apartments, with about 200 units initially, and later as many as 500 units in total. There could also be some senior housing.

"Things are progressing very, very nicely. The interest is without question there," Beatty said Thursday. "We think that in the very near future we'll be able to make a pretty significant announcement about all of the other components that will join in."

A Whole Foods executive announced last year the chain was considering a second Detroit store, prompting speculation about the location. Beatty said Thursday that Whole Foods is one of several grocers that have looked at joining the project.

"We certainly think that it has as much potential as any other site they could find in southeast Michigan, so the ball is in their court," he said.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.

Potential components of the state fairgrounds redevelopment

■ Some 500 units of residential — about 200 units in first phase.

■ Roughly 400,000 square feet of retail space.

■ Fairgrounds coliseum may become a movie theater.

■ Wayne County Community College District could build an outpost.

Who are the development players?

■ Retired NBA star Earvin (Magic) Johnson

■ Detroiter Marvin Beatty

■ Lansing developer Joel Ferguson

■ Southfield-based REDICO