Construction crews are rolling onto 2205 Cass Avenue as work ramps up on a 13-floor, 313-unit apartment tower that will sit next to the University of Michigan’s new Detroit Center for Innovation. The building, developed by Olympia Development of Michigan and The Related Companies, will be leased to the university to house graduate students, faculty and visiting scholars. Officials say the tower is scheduled to open in 2028 and is expected to anchor the first phase of the District Detroit expansion.
According to Crain's Detroit Business, construction is slated to begin this spring at the corner of Columbia Street and Cass Avenue. The University of Michigan describes the project as a roughly 235,000-square-foot building with 13 floors and 313 units and says it will lease the tower for an initial 40-year term. University materials and regents' briefing notes put the preliminary development budget at close to $186 million.
Part Of A Larger District Detroit Plan
The tower is the lead residential component of a roughly $1.5 billion District Detroit plan that also calls for hotels, office space and more housing. City filings show that an earlier version for the site envisioned an 18-story, 261-unit building, with 20% of the units, or 54 apartments, marked as affordable, according to a City of Detroit briefing. Axios Detroit later reported that those 54 affordable units were removed from the 2205 Cass parcel, with officials saying the commitment would be met elsewhere in the broader District Detroit portfolio.
What It Means For Students And The Neighborhood
University officials say the tower is intended to let residents "immerse themselves in an innovative community," supporting UMCI's mix of master's-level and workforce programs, according to the University of Michigan. City planners and representatives for the developers have said the concept includes ground-floor retail and strong connections to the academic campus, while reporting has detailed how public incentives factor into financing pieces of the District.
Critics and neighborhood advocates have pushed back on shifting the location of affordable units, arguing that the change highlights ongoing tensions between public subsidies, large institutional tenants and community housing needs. Coverage of those concerns has appeared in BridgeDetroit and other outlets, and the debate is likely to follow this tower as it rises.
Timeline And Next Steps
Developers told reporters that site preparation and foundation work will get underway this spring, with the above-ground structure expected to take roughly two years to complete, per Crain's Detroit Business. Next door, the UMCI academic building broke ground in December 2023 and is on track to open for the 2027-28 academic year, according to DBusiness, with the residential tower timed to follow and welcome its first residents in 2028.
City permitting and the Community Benefits Ordinance process for District Detroit will continue as the project moves ahead, and developers say more details on retail tenants and construction phasing will roll out in the coming months. As crews move in and paperwork catches up, this tower will serve as an early test of whether a large, university-driven anchor can truly align with District Detroit's broader affordable housing promises. Expect more announcements from developers and city officials as timelines firm up and the Cass Avenue corner starts to change shape.
