The first phase of Tony Soave’s plan to build more than 400 apartments and tens of thousands of square feet of new retail space in a five-block Corktown development has received $6.9 million in state financing.
It’s the first time Soave, president and CEO of Detroit-based Soave Enterprises LLC, has tried his hand at residential development in the city where he was raised as the son of a neighborhood grocer.
“Nobody brought me anything [development opportunities] from Detroit,” Soave said in his office on East Lafayette Street last week.
“I kept on watching, thinking, ‘I ought to buy a couple of these buildings.'”
First-Phase Financing:
In addition to the $6.9 million equity investment from the state, the $44 million first phase is expected to use $21 million in first-position debt as well as $14.9 million in equity and property, according to a memo to the Michigan Strategic Fund board, which approved the state financing Tuesday morning in Lansing.
The city of Detroit is also chipping in with about $1 million in infrastructure improvements for the development, according to the memo.
The planned Elton Park development is expected to begin with the construction of more than 150 apartments in multiple buildings starting in the spring.
The project includes a rehabilitation of the historic Checker Cab building and construction of new mixed-use buildings with retail space on the first floors. The first phase is expected to be complete by December 2018.
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