The Detroit City Council approved $296 million in state and local tax incentives for a massive $3 billion development expected to transform Detroit's New Center neighborhood in the coming years.
The proposed development between Henry Ford Health, the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University, is being called the "Future of Health."
Council members voted 6-3 in favor of the tax incentives that will be given out over 35 years.
The proposed development would be made up of six projects, including the expansion of Henry Ford Hospital into a new 21-story hospital tower.
It will also include hundreds of new mixed-income apartments, a new medical research center and a parking deck. Five of those six developments have now been improved.
Henry Ford Health said the new hospital will be more than 1 million square feet with a patient tower, all private patient rooms, an expanded emergency department, operating suites, labs, radiology and more.
The hospital expansion is the largest of the six projects, and the $2.2 billion expansion was not seeking tax breaks. Henry Ford Health is a nonprofit health system and does not pay property taxes.
Council members debated for a few hours and heard public comment this week and last week on the proposed tax breaks. In the end, members Mary Waters, Angela Whitfield-Calloway and Gabriela Santiago-Romero voted against the project.
Developers are aiming to begin construction on the first phase of the projects some time this year.
In a joint statement, the health system, Pistons and MSU said in part, "Long-standing Michigan community stewards Henry Ford Health, Tom Gores and the Detroit Pistons, and Michigan State University have brought the Future of Health development forward as part of a historic partnership to turn Detroit’s New Center neighborhood into a vibrant, walkable community delivering the future of healthcare with an expanded state-of-the-art hospital and cutting-edge medical research combined with mixed-income residential, commercial, retail and recreational components. Today’s approvals lay the groundwork to execute the reimagination of our shared campus, creating meaningful economic opportunity and redefining what health and well-being means for the City of Detroit."
