New Mental Health Center Opens at Former Saratoga Hospital; Developer to Use Shipping Containers for Eastern Market Hotel

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Behavioral Centers of America (BCA), a mental health chain based in Nashville, has selected a formerly bankrupt Detroit hospital for a multi-million dollar master campus investment that would balance out the need for mental health services in Metro Detroit and Michigan. The newly renovated StoneCrest Center is the only acute mental health hospital in the city of Detroit.

The $20 million investment that would transform the former Saratoga Hospital into an inpatient mental health center is about halfway through, said BCA CEO Buddy Turner in an official statement. Located at 15000 Gratiot Avenue on Detroit’s east side, the StoneCrest Center currently provides psychiatric programs for adults, adolescents, seniors and the developmentally delayed. A substance abuse and addiction program is under construction with an estimated completion date set for early 2013.

In November 2008 BCA acquired the license of Circle of Life, a mental health care facility that used to operate at the Saratoga Hospital. The building and land were purchased in January 2012 for an undisclosed amount and BCA began renovating and expanding the facility right after closing the transaction.

In further commercial real estate news, developer Shel Kimen plans to build a 36-room boutique hotel in the Eastern Market district, on an unnamed piece of land currently owned by the City of Detroit. Construction is expected to begin as soon as the developer purchases the land and the hotel could open in fall 2013, according to Hotel News Resource.

What’s new about this hotel is that it will be constructed from shipping containers, which are about 30 percent faster to build, are more sustainable and cost less than standard building materials. Shel Kimen, who was born in Detroit and is the founder of an organization called Collision Works—which promotes co-working space and event venues in the Eastern Market district—hopes to acquire the containers locally or from Chicago. The developer is working with architects at KOOP Architecture & Media for the design and construction

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Rendering of StoneCrest Healthcare Center courtesy of PRNewsFoto/StoneCrest Center

Rendering of Eastern Market Hotel courtesy of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center for Collision Works via Curbed Detroi