By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor
One of Detroit’s most anticipated residential projects will finally break ground this summer, more than ten years since the first architectural renderings were sketched.
DuCharme Place – Exterior rendering
On June 11 local developer Walter Cohen and his development team at DuCharme Place LLC will celebrate the official start of construction of a three-building apartment complex in the historic Lafayette Park neighborhood and within walking distance to the Central Business District. Detroit-based Sachse Construction will build the residential complex.
DuCharme Place will replace a vacant site located at 1544 E. Lafayette Blvd. between Rivard and Orleans streets, east of the iconic 1300 E. Lafayette luxury co-op building. According to data provided by PropertyShark, the 3.45-acre site was acquired by Cohen’s development company for $453,923 in 2007.
Originally considered a community of town homes back in 2004, DuCharme Place suffered some alterations in design until the McIntosh Poris Associates team of architects reached the final version of the project. As previously reported on this page, DuCharme Place will have 185 rental apartments in a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with sizes ranging from 500 to over 1,000 square feet. The apartment complex will start accepting residents in the first quarter of 2016. Rents at Ducharm Place will fall between $900 to $1,800 per month, the development team announced.
The $42 million upscale project is backed by a $5 million tax increment awarded by the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, as well as other funding coming from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and state equity.
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Rendering credits to McIntosh Poris Associates