Two acres of long-vacant land near St. Aubin Street and Mack Avenue could soon become new housing and retail space just steps from the Dequindre Cut. Eastern Market Development Corp. and Invest Detroit are seeking an experienced developer for a mixed-use project on the property, which has sat empty since 2007.
The organizations released a request for qualifications to find a development partner for the site at 3410 and 3450 Orleans, according to WXYZ Channel 7. The property previously served as a public works site and meat-processing facilities before it went dormant, and EMDC and Invest Detroit acquired it with grant funding from the Gilbert Family Foundation. Located adjacent to the Dequindre Cut, the long-vacant site is described by dbusiness.com as zoned SD2, which supports a mix of residential, retail and commercial uses.
Under the proposed arrangement, EMDC and Invest Detroit would contribute the land to the project while the selected developer retains an ownership interest in the development. Eastern Market Development Corp.'s Sarah Pavelko said the parcel sits on the Dequindre Cut, which extends all the way to the riverfront, and that the surrounding district has several thousand jobs, making it one of the city's densest employment areas, per the station's report.
Filling a Housing Gap in a Food-Focused District
Pavelko said Eastern Market has relatively little housing compared with other parts of Detroit, a gap the RFQ is meant to help close. She added that there is significant interest in adding residential options to the neighborhood, and that hospitality businesses in the market want more residents because more residents mean more customers, the same account notes.
Skylar Burns said they hope the property will be improved, and added that more housing could make the neighborhood more active beyond market and business hours. Nearby businesses expect that additional development could bring more people into the area and benefit existing establishments.
Detroit resident Nazir Coleman offered a different concern, saying rents should be lower. The planning priorities for the site, as outlined by dbusiness.com, include mixed-income housing, recreational connections to the Dequindre Cut and activation of the trail, with future development also designed to complement the surrounding area, including the adjacent Keep Growing Detroit market garden.
Deadline Looms for Developer Proposals
Developers must submit qualifications, financing plans and a vision for the property by Dec. 7, with EMDC and Invest Detroit expecting to select a developer by January. The proposed project is envisioned to include housing, retail and improved connections to the Dequindre Cut, emphasizing added density and more activity along the greenway.
The push comes amid a broader citywide housing crunch. Detroit set a goal of building 2,000 new multifamily affordable housing units by 2023, but a 2025 report found the city remained thousands of units short of what it needed, according to The Detroit News.
A Neighborhood Already in Transition
Just a short walk away, The Hive on Russell opened 78 income-restricted apartments on Oct. 2, as reported by MLive. Develop Detroit has proposed a second phase that would add 70 affordable apartments for seniors, though that phase had not yet broken ground as of the opening. If both phases are completed, the project would bring 148 affordable homes to the site, per the same account.
Eastern Market has weathered rapid change before. A 2019 account from Belt Magazine described how rising real estate values around the market drew developers buying up land and buildings, pushing rents higher and pushing artists out of the neighborhood. Eastern Market Corporation's 2016 vision had named preserving a food-focused economy as the market's first planning goal, the magazine noted.
By 2018, officials were already working on a plan to keep the market's core intact and preserve the area's identity as development sprouted up nearby, The Detroit News reported at the time. More recently, Firm Real Estate said it planned to sell 21 properties spanning 10 acres in the neighborhood, according to a 2025 report from the same paper, underscoring how much of Eastern Market's real estate remains in flux as the Orleans Street RFQ moves forward.
