The District Detroit

World-Class, Mixed-Use Sports and Entertainment District Emerging in Detroit

The District Detroit will be 50 blocks of thriving businesses, parks, restaurants, bars and event destinations. It will be home to the young and the young at heart, families, new residents and long-time residents who want to be where the action is. Five distinct neighborhoods will make up the district, Columbia Park, Columbia Street, Woodward Square, Wildcat Corner and Cass Park Village. The District Detroit will connect Downtown and Midtown into one contiguous, walkable area, where families, sports fans, entrepreneurs, job seekers, entertainment lovers and others who crave a vibrant urban setting can connect with each other and the city they love.

Fans explore Little Caesars Arena. Photo by Rob Kohn.

The District’s main feature, nestled in the Woodward Square  neighborhood, will be the Little Caesars Arena, home to the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Pistons, other sports and entertainment events, concerts, family shows and community functions. This will not only serve as a sports arena, but will also have active community spaces including on-site practice ice for amateur hockey use and an outdoor plaza featuring areas for entertainment. There will also be a more interactive experience for fans such as enhanced video and sound capabilities for a more immersive experience and creative food-service options. The expected completion date for the Little Caesars Arena is summer 2017.

A new building along Woodward Avenue is part of The District Detroit’s Woodward Square neighborhood and one of two buildings that will hold more than 55,000 square feet of retail space and more than 160,000 square feet of office space.

Recently Olympia Development of Michigan, LLC, has announced plans for more than 200,000 square feet of privately financed retail and office development projects in The District Detroit. The structures, along with further expected private retail, office and residential development throughout The District Detroit, bring the currently expected total project investment to as much as $1.2 billion by 2020, with $900 million plus of that investment from the private sector. Original plans called for a $650 million total investment in The District Detroit by 2022 at the earliest.

Little Caesars and Olympia Development of Michigan has recently broken ground on a new $150 million, nine-story, 234,000 square foot, Little Caesars world headquarters expansion, to be built at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Columbia Street in The District Detroit.