Mayor Duggan: Amazon To Build $400M Distribution Site At Michigan State Fair Grounds

(CBS DETROIT) - The Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit will be redeveloped into a 3.8 million-square-foot Amazon distribution center according to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

During his press conference Tuesday, Duggan said under the proposal Amazon would invest $400 million to build the distribution center that would bring at least 1,200 new jobs to the city.

It is expected to open in 2022.

The project will be privately financed, without the use of tax breaks or other financial incentives. Under the terms of the proposed deal, the development team will pay $9 million for the land based on a recent appraisal, and pay $7 million for a new DDOT transit center.

There will be 30,000 riders a week from nine separate bus routes transfer to DDOT or SMART buses on Woodward near 8 Mile. They currently wait either on the street or in a series of outdoor bus shelters. As part of this agreement, the developer will pay $7 million for the construction of a new indoor state-of-the-art transit center with an indoor waiting area for customers with heat and air conditioning, a bus operator break room, clean bathrooms and free wifi.

The new "North" transit center will provide indoor space similar to the Rosa Parks Transit Center downtown and and will service passengers along six of DDOT's most heavily traveled routes (4, 12, 17, 23, 30, 54), as well as three SMART routes.

The new transit center will also include safe, convenient pedestrian connections to the Meijer/Gateway Plaza, the new development at the State Fairgrounds, Woodward Avenue, and State Fair Avenue, a major need according to Glenn Tolbert, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26.

11 am Press Conference 08/11
*The Press Conference will begin at 11:00 am* Press conference to announce a potential land sale that would lead to the redevelopment of the vacant former State Fairgrounds property and potentially bring 1,200 new jobs to the site. WHO: * Mayor Mike Duggan * Councilman Roy McCalister * Executive Director of Workforce Development Nicole Sherard Freeman * National and Local Development Partners * State Fair Area Residents
Posted by City of Detroit Government on Tuesday, August 11, 2020

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