Big plans unveiled for ex-hospital site
A comprehensive redevelopment proposal for the former Detroit’s Northville State Psychiatric Hospital calls for 1,000 single-family homes, condominiums, parks, an elementary school and a retirement community alongside a downtown-like village of offices, restaurants, retail shops and entertainment venues.
"We have put so much time and thought into this plan that we think people won't see it as controversial. They will see it as comprehensive and reflecting what they want," said Robert Schostak, president of the Southfield-based Schostak Brothers & Co., partners on the project with Real Estate Interest Group.
Although township officials won't hold their first public review of the proposal until the end of July, Schostak and Jon Weaver, a partner at REI, laid out the details last week for The Detroit News. Highwood would be on 415 acres along Seven Mile Road. The partners recently completed a $31.5 million land contract deal with the state.
Demolition of the hospital buildings could start next spring. Knocking down the eight-story main building is expected to take less time than digging up a network of concrete tunnels containing asbestos-wrapped steam pipes linked to more than 20 structures.
There are numerous other environmental hazards, including dump sites containing medical waste such as syringes, photo and X-ray chemicals and human tissue.
The developers hope to gain state approval soon for financial incentives to restore polluted industrial sites.
Construction of the first homes and commercial buildings is targeted for early 2008.
This is a much-anticipated and long-delayed project. Numerous lawsuits were filed over the bidding process used by the state to award the deal to REI/Schostak. All have been tossed out of court, but appeals are pending.
Homes, ranging in price from $400,000 to more than $1 million, would be built on lots of equal or larger size than the already existing neighborhoods south of the complex.
The central part of the land would be developed for single-family homes.
Condominiums and lofts starting in the upper-$200,000 range are to be built toward the east and above retail shops and offices in a "village" of commercial development near the intersection of Seven Mile and Haggerty roads.
Plans call for walking trails through 29 acres of preserved wetlands at the west end of the property. Another 15 acres of woods is to be set aside near Hawthorn Center on Haggerty Road. The site will have a total of 6.5 miles of trails.
Richard Haas, a resident on Maple Hill Drive at the property's south boundary, is concerned about the width of a buffer zone of trees between existing neighborhoods and new homes.
"I'm not certain they will come through on what they say as far as the size and types of homes," Haas said. "REI has not kept its promises at other projects we have researched."
And, although 18 acres is being provided for a needed new elementary school in the center of the single-family area, there is no guarantee when Northville Schools might build there.
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