Downtown Development in Ann Arbor

Last Thursday the City Planning Commission approved 3 new multi-use projects in downtown Ann Arbor. If the City Council also approves these projects, as presented, they will add 288 units to downtown. The biggest project is the William Street Station which is to be on the site of the old YMCA between Fourth and Fifth Streets. The project is to include 100 low-income housing units to replace the low-income housing of the former YMCA and another 45 units will be affordable residential designed to house low-income professionals.

Recent projects such as Kingsley Lane apartments, Loft 322 near Seva restaurant on Liberty Street and the redevelopment of the Eaton plant into Liberty Lofts have been approved in the past couple of years. The majority of these units were reserved even before work began.

Housing values rose in Ann Arbor, increasing 129 percent from 1990 through 2004, according to figures from the U.S. Census and Washtenaw County. In 1990, the median home value was $116,400. By last year, the figure rose to $266,051. Where average square foot pricing in homes throughout ann Arbor may be at $200 per square foot, in the downtown condominiums one sees more like $300-350 per square foot.