Leland House to be remade into 340 apartments in $120M renovation

A $120-million top-to-bottom remake of the historic Leland House residential tower at Cass and Bagley is the next project for Detroit developer Michael Higgins.

When finished, the building will offer 340 rental apartments of which 20% will be priced at “affordable” rates to comply with the city’s rule that moderate income residents be included in any project that receives city assistance.

Higgins shared the news Wednesday where he was among the roughly 1,700 attendees at this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference.

Higgins said he hopes his financing will be in place for a September construction start.

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As usual with Detroit renovation projects, that package looks to include a mix of federal historic tax credits, New Market Tax Credits, brownfield credits, some private money, bank loans and financing from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

Opened in 1927 as one of Detroit’s grand downtown hotels, the Leland has seen ups and downs over the decades. Now it appears to be on the upswing again.

“Eight years ago, people would say, ‘You’re in the Cass Corridor, it’s not a good area,” Higgins said at the Grand Hotel where the Mackinac conference is held. “Now all of a sudden with DTE’s park behind us and the District, now we’re a great area.”

Detroit-based Kraemer Design Group is serving as the architect and historic consultant for the project.

Detroit Airbnb hosts make record haul

The Detroit community hosted a record 1,700 guests through Airbnb during last weekend's Movement electronic music festival, earning a total $230,000, the global hospitality company announced Thursday.

Airbnb said the weekend saw the largest influx of guests to the city in the history of Airbnb and came at a time when hotels saw peak occupancy.

"Home sharing helps Detroit substantially expand lodging capacity and take full economic advantage of huge events like Movement,” Will Burns, Airbnb Midwest policy director, said in a news release. “Our host community stepped up in a big way to serve as ambassadors for their city this past weekend.”

Airbnb said the typical Detroit host earned $443 last weekend. There are currently 430 Detroiters who actively share their sharing their homes through Airbnb, the company said.

Airbnb also noted that senior hosts in Detroit are "benefitting disproportionally" to other hosts and represent the "fastest growing demographic of Airbnb hosts in Detroit."

Free Press Staff Writer John Gallagher contributed to this report.