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Wayne County Community College Eyes Old Fairgrounds Site For New Campus

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Wayne County Community College District officials say they are talking with the developers of the former state fairgrounds about creating a campus presence there.

Developers are marketing the $200 million fairgrounds construction project as creating a community that will transform the vacant 160-acre site at 8 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue.

District vice chancellor George Swan told The Detroit News the school has a "serious interest" in using the site for training and workforce development programs or classes. He says the location is easy for students to access.

Joel Ferguson, the project's lead developer, said he envisions the community college occupying between six and 10 acres of the site, probably with other university partners. He says other tenants will be announced in coming months.

Michigan native and ex-NBA star Magic Johnson is a development partner.

Other preliminary plans for the fairgrounds site call for retail shops, restaurants, entertainment venues, a multi-screen movie theater, multi-family housing, single-family housing, senior living facilities, a medical office, a transportation hub and open green spaces. It is expected to include more than 1 million square feet of new construction over multiple phases.

The Michigan State Fair was held in Detroit location from 1905 through 2009. Attendance peaked in the mid-1960s at more than one million people before declining dramatically over the next four decades; the fair attracted only 217,000 visitors in 2009. Then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm approved cutting state funding to the event.

MORE: Magic Johnson Group OK'd For Fairgrounds Development Deal

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