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10 Detroit development projects coming along in 2026

Posted By: Detroit Free Press on January 2, 2026.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

Detroit development is set to have another busy year in 2026 under the city’s new mayor, with multiple projects scheduled to break ground while others that are currently underway are expected to finish or nearly finish.

The most expensive project on the list was also on the 2025 list — the Gordie Howe International Bridge — and it is making a reappearance because of delays to its long-awaited grand opening.

Some of the other projects have been in the news for a few years, yet are just now approaching completion or the start of their construction.

So here are 10 projects to get excited about in the new year:

COSM

Construction of a unique 70,000-square-foot venue in downtown Detroit for viewing live sports and other events on giant ultra-high-definition screens has been underway since last spring and is expected to be completed and ready to open by fall 2026.

Known as Cosm Detroit, the venue is being built next to Campus Martius, on a vacant site that previously hosted the “Monroe Street Midway” of games and attractions.

Cosm will feature high-resolution screens and an 87-foot-diameter LED dome, designed to give an immersive viewing experience. Nonsporting events could also be shown, such as Cirque du Soleil and art exhibitions. The venue’s total planned capacity is 1,100 people.

Detroit will be only the fourth city to have a Cosm location, after Los Angeles, Dallas and a future Atlanta site. The venue will be part of the initial segment of a two-phase development by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock real estate firm, to be called The Development at Cadillac Square.

UMCI residential tower

Now well underway, the $250 million University of Michigan Center for Innovation, or UMCI, will be a six-story, 200,000-square-foot downtown building and U-M graduate school campus for 500 to 1,000 students. Construction is on pace to finish in time for the 2027-28 school year.

But before then, a groundbreaking is to happen this March on a new tower to house many of those UMCI students and some of their instructors.

That 13-floor and 313-unit residential building is being developed by New York-based the Related Companies and the Ilitch organization’s Olympia Development of Michigan as the first of 10 projects in their $1.5 billion District Detroit megadevelopment.

The residential tower would be built at 2205 Cass — next door to the UMCI — with a fall 2028 opening as the goal.

Gratiot Life Science Building

Bedrock anticipates a 2026 groundbreaking for its future Life Science Innovation Building, on the site of the former failed Wayne County jail project along Gratiot.

This two-story, 90,000-square-foot building at 1326 St. Antoine would house an outpost of Grand Rapids-based BAMF Health on the first floor and offer spec space for future tenants on its second floor.

Bedrock downsized its plans for the building earlier this year after a large tenant pulled out of the project. The Free Press previously reported that construction was underway on the project, although that work was for site preparation.

Corktown pro soccer stadium

The Detroit City FC pro soccer club is aiming to start construction in the spring on its new forever home: a 15,000-capacity stadium in Corktown, to be called AlumniFi Field.

However, the $198 million development has been officially underway since Dec. 19, when demolition crews began ripping down the long-abandoned Southwest Detroit Hospital, 2401 20th St. off Michigan Avenue near Corktown, to make way for the new stadium.

Along with the stadium, the club will also be developing 76 new apartments, a 421-space parking deck and 16,000 square feet of commercial space — all of it nearby. Club officials have said they hope the stadium can be ready in time for the 2027 soccer season, which ordinarily begins in March. Detroit City FC currently plays at the much smaller Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck.

GM opens new headquarters

On Jan. 12, General Motors is to begin moving out of the Renaissance Center and into its new global headquarters within the $1.5 billion Hudson’s Detroit development at 1240 Woodward in downtown.

GM will be the anchor tenant for the newly constructed 12-story and 600,000-square-foot building. (The 45-floor Hudson’s residential and hotel skyscraper that is next door doesn’t open until 2027.)

Other tenants in the new 12-story building will include JP Morgan Chase, Ven Johnson Law and, reportedly, the Gilbert Family Foundation. The building also features events and retail space, including stores for Alo Yoga and Western wear brand Tecovas.

GM is partnering with Bedrock — the Hudson’s site’s developer — to redevelop the 1970s Renaissance Center, which the automaker has called home since the late 1990s when it bought the iconic riverfront office complex.

Two new and high-profile hotel developments in the city will continue to take shape this year in anticipation of big 2027 grand openings.

New hotel construction continues

The biggest is the 25-story and 600-room JW Marriott hotel, which is under construction on the downtown riverfront next to Huntington Place convention center and the former site of Joe Louis Arena.

The nearly $400 million project is being developed by Detroit-based Sterling Group, which also built the recently opened 25-story luxury apartment complex next door, known as The Residences at Water Square. The JW Marriott is expected to be ready in January 2027.

Outside of downtown, work continues on an approximately 180-room hotel on the top floors of Michigan Central Station in Corktown. That property will be a NoMad Hotel, which is an upscale boutique brand affiliated with Hilton, featuring a bourgeois-bohemian flair.

The NoMad Hotel was announced last spring with a goal of opening in the first half of 2027.

Residences @ 150 Bagley

This year may be the year that an office-to-housing conversion project at 150 Bagley St. in downtown finally welcomes residents.

The 148-unit development, known as the Residences @ 150 Bagley, is a redevelopment of the long-empty 18-story United Artists Theater office tower into mixed-income apartments with ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

The project got started in spring 2022, but work came to a halt a year ago amid rising costs and construction change orders.

The development’s website and social media accounts now say that an early 2026 opening is planned. However, a representative for the developers couldn’t be reached for comment this week.

The United Artists Theater building dates to 1928 and was an office building that was attached to an old United Artists movie theater. The movie theater itself, designed by architect C. Howard Crane was in poor condition when it was demolished early on in the redevelopment.

While the property is owned by the Ilitch organization’s Olympia, its redevelopment is headed up by an unaffiliated local redevelopment team that includes developers Richard Hosey and Emmett Moten Jr.

1133 Griswold

A seven-story former office building at 1133 Griswold near Capitol Park and the Prime + Proper restaurant has been undergoing conversion into 25 apartments and is set to begin renting in January.

The project, by developer Richard Karp of RKP Group, has added four additional floors to the original building, bringing the total to 11 floors. The ground floor is being prepared for future food and beverage businesses.

The Albert Kahn-designed building dates to the early 1920s and originally housed the United Savings Bank of Detroit. The building’s early limestone cladding was taken down in 1971 and a pink granite exterior — since removed — was installed.

Brush + Watson Midblock Building

Just north of downtown, Brush Park has lately been one of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods. Multiple new apartment buildings and townhome developments have opened there since the late 2010s and at a wide range of price points, from $1 million-plus multistory townhomes to affordable housing at below-market rents.

Construction will continue in 2026 on a future large addition to the neighborhood: the 184-unit Brush Watson Midblock Building. The 10-story building is the third building in the Brush Watson development that is a mix of affordable and market-rate apartments. It is sandwiched between the two earlier buildings and is expected to open by the first quarter of 2027.

The developer, American Community Developers, broke ground on the project in 2021.

“It’s been exciting to see the project come to fruition,” said Mike Essian, vice president of American Community Developers and who also lives in the neighborhood. “It’s a really great thing, I think, for Brush Park, for Midtown and for the city.”

Gordie Howe Bridge

The new Gordie Howe International Bridge between southwest Detroit and Windsor was expected to open this past fall. But its debut has been pushed back to sometime in “early” 2026. Precisely when that is, the project’s public relations team isn’t saying.

Also still to come is the price of tolls for the new bridge.

Back in September, a truck nearly did inaugurate the Gordie Howe by accident when its confused driver maneuvered onto the bridge from the U.S. side, only to be stopped by Canadian border guards before the truck made it fully across.