Stalled DuCharme Place Project in Lafayette Park to Reemerge as 185-Unit Residential Community

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

DuCharme Place – Lafayette Park

Ten years since architects came up with design plans for a town home community in Lafayette Park, the DuCharme Place residential project is ready to take off—this time with a scaled-down design and backed by a $5 million tax increment awarded by the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

The vacant parcel located at 1544 E. Lafayette between Rivard and Orleans streets, directly across from the Lafateyye Foods grocery store, will be replaced by a three-building apartment complex that will be built by local developer Walter Cohen through his development company DuCharme Place LLC, under plans designed by McIntosh Poris Associates. Model D reports that construction at the long-stalled DuCharme Place will start this fall.

Scheduled for completion in late 2015, DuCharme Place will have 185 market-rate apartments in a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. The contemporary amenities

DuCharme Place – Lafayette Park

include a common courtyard and pool, green roof and ground level parking with nearly 270 spaces. According to the news source, the parking spaces will be incorporated underneath three platforms that will raise one story above the ground to support the residential buildings.

According to MLive.com, the cost per unit hasn’t been determined yet, but the development team estimates that it will be slightly less than other residential units located in the Downtown and Midtown areas. Estimated to cost around $30 million, the DuCharme Place project is partly financed under the HUD 221 (d) program that allows up to 40-year mortgage loans to encourage the new construction or substantial rehabilitation of multifamily rental or co-op housing for moderate-income families, elderly and the handicapped. Earlier this month the residential project received $5 million in tax incentives from the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, Model D reported.

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Renderings via McIntosh Poris Associates