New Detroit apartments open near Michigan Central Station

For those eager to live near the rehabbed Michigan Central Station in Detroit, a new option just arrived.

A newly constructed four-story and 78-unit apartment building, The Brooke on Bagley, situated behind the redeveloped train station at 2420 Bagley St., near the intersection of the Corktown and Mexicantown neighborhoods, celebrated its grand opening Monday.

The dark brick building contains mostly market-rate apartments, although 20% are set aside at below-market rents for those with qualifying incomes.

The $23 million development was done by Detroit-based Woodborn Partners, designed by Gensler architects and built on a formerly vacant lot that is across from Honey Bee Market and near the new Southwest Greenway recreation trail.

The development has 37 studio units, 38 one-bedrooms and three two-bedrooms. Asking rents for the market-rate studios start at $1,600 per month and the one-bedrooms start at $1,950 per month. There is also about 2,500 square feet of available ground-floor retail space.

The Brooke was named for the 16-year-old daughter of Woodborn Partners President and CEO Clifford Brown.

“Let’s give a big hand to Cliff Brown,” Mayor Mike Duggan said during Monday’s ribbon-cutting event for the building. “Didn’t this turn out beautifully?”

Brown said the first residents have already started moving in and hail from a variety of backgrounds, including Ford Motor Co. employees and local business owners.

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While the city’s Corktown and downtown areas have seen several large and high-profile new upscale apartment buildings open in recent months, including the 188-unit Perennial Corktown and 496-unit Residences at Water Square, Brown said he believes there is still plenty of room in the market for more housing — and noted how tighter financing has lately made it tough for new projects to break ground.

“I think there is a lot of unmet demand,” Brown said, “and with the tightening of credit, I think there’s going to be a lot less product on the ground. So there is going to be much more opportunity for those who have supply to service the people who need it.”

Brown said The Brooke at Bagley required 15 different layers of financing to pull off, including from the Ebiara fund, which was launched in 2022 to support Detroit’s Black- and brown-owned development firms.

Outside of Corktown, Brown said he still intends to build a second phase of apartments for The Coe at West Village development. That plan, which generated controversy in spring 2022 among some West Village residents, was placed on hold while he finished The Brooke at Bagley.

The Brooke at Bagley

• Size: 78 units
• Affordability: 80% market rate, 20% “affordable” for those earning no more than 80% of area median income, or $53,760 for one person or $61,440 for a two-person household.
• Developer: Detroit-based Woodborn Partners
• Architect: Gensler
• General contractor: Sasche Construction

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl