DETROIT (WXYZ) — A recreation site is being planned for the Detroit Riverfront, Mayor Mike Duggan announced during his final State of the City address on Tuesday night.
The development, located at the former Uniroyal site, is expected to house an outdoor complex for flag football, soccer and lacrosse, as well as an indoor youth sports academy for basketball, volleyball and dance.
A group led by Arn Tellem and Tom Gores is working “to make this Detroit’s finest recreation site,” Duggan said.
“And since Sheila (Ford) Hamp and Steve Hamp are involved, I’m pretty sure this is going to be the center of the flag football leagues in the state of Michigan,” Duggan said.
The Hamps, Tellem and Gores are involved in an investor group that is bidding to bring a WNBA team back to Detroit. It's unclear if they are looking at the recreation site as a potential location if Detroit is awarded a WNBA franchise.
“I’ve been focusing for 12 years on what I think is the greatest legacy gift we can give our children, and that’s return the Detroit Riverfront to the public,” Duggan said. “Twelve years ago, the city had planned to build public condos on the best riverfront property next to Milliken Park. And my first month in office, I took that condo plan and I scrapped it and pushed it back to open up the riverfront to the people of this community.”
Watch Mike Duggan's full speech below:
Detroit City Council canceled the contract for the luxury condos a couple weeks ago, Duggan said.
“We retook the property and canceled the luxury condo plan. Because I believe the riverfront belongs to the people,” he said.
Duggan applauded the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy for their work on the growing riverfront.
“They did a good job and they hit a goal of renovating from bridge to bridge. But I wanted to go beyond that. I wanted to make the riverfront available from border to border — I want to go to the far southwest and the far east where they think they’ve been forgotten.”
