Midtown and Ferndale are the top two preferred destinations for an LGBTQ business district, according to feedback collected in a recent metro Detroit survey. 

The survey, conducted last summer by the Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce, showed support for the creation of a district. Separately, Palmer Park – a historically gay neighborhood off McNichols and Woodward – ranked tops in a supplemental survey as a third option.

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According to the chamber, 47% of respondents were cisgender gay men, followed by 17% of cisgender bisexual men and women and 15% identified as transgender or non-binary. When it comes to race, white people made up 61% of respondents, with Black people making up 26%, Hispanics at 5%, and Asians/Pacific Islanders at 3%. 

Respondents showed strong support for a business district, with 74% of people in the metro area believing Detroit is ready for one and 82% of Detroit residents who took the survey. Overall, 350 Detroiters, 572 people in metro Detroit and 97 people outside the metro area participated.

Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce founder Kevin Heard said that the level of interest in a district isn’t surprising.

“People within the community travel to these districts all over the country and all over the world, really,” he said. “When individuals think about districts, they think of more than just two or three places to walk to. They think about a whole neighborhood where there’s at least 20, 30, 40 businesses they can patronize and have fun and be free.” 

Once a hub for the LGBTQ community, with dozens of bars, restaurants and other businesses, Heard has noted that Detroit now has fewer than 10 queer spaces. From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, Palmer Park was the place many LGBTQ people called home before they moved off to the suburbs. 

Since Midtown and Ferndale are saturated areas and lack affordability, Heard said, the chamber conducted a supplemental survey. In that assessment, 33% of respondents picked Palmer Park or the Avenue of Fashion off of Seven Mile and Livernois as other potential options. The median listing home price in Midtown is $365,000 according to realtor.com, while the average home price in Ferndale is $240,391. 

He doesn’t believe the respondents’ median annual income of $85,000 necessarily played a part in site selections, but Heard said safety, diversity, and community were important factors, particularly for people of color, transgender, and non-binary individuals.

In addition, three-quarters of metro Detroit residents who participated in the survey expressed interest in living near the district, with proximity to public transportation, ease of parking, and green spaces ranking as priorities across both surveys. As for what people want to see in the business district, mixed-use developments combining retail and residential spaces were popular. 

“We did have a large percentage of people who took the survey who are Detroit residents,” he said. “We were pretty happy with the parity that we created when it comes to the sample size.” 

What Detroiters said

Heard said 87% of Detroit residents selected Ferndale as the most LGBTQ-friendly place in metro Detroit, followed by Royal Oak and Ann Arbor. Meanwhile, 75% of Detroiters who took the survey would want to live near the potential district, with people saying they want to see businesses like restaurants and coffee shops. 

“Ninety-nine percent of people chose safe and welcoming of LGBT individuals as one of the main social factors, followed by inclusive of all races and ethnicities, gender identities and sexual orientations,” Heard said. “As far as the region where it would be good for an LGBT business district, 49% of individuals said Midtown/Wayne State, while 32% of Detroit residents stated West Village.” 

Heard said people didn’t view downtown as the place to locate the district.

“Everyone goes downtown to go downtown,” he said. “And there’s not many LGBT businesses that are located in the downtown area.” 

Moving forward 

The chamber began seeking proposals in January from real estate companies to begin creating a master plan for an LGBTQ district and the organization is also working with economic development company Activate Detroit on the project. The deadline to submit a Request for Proposal (RFP) ended March 1. Two companies submitting a proposal, Heard said. 

In addition, the chamber will soon conduct a feasibility survey, which analyzes the practicality and viability of a project. Heard said the full district survey results will be available on the chamber’s website once the feasibility study has been completed. He did not give a specific date, but said whenever the organization selects a company to work on the master plan. 

“Those (feasibility survey) results will give us some next steps and recommendations on where we should move,” he said. “A part of the (master plan) RFP is to officially choose a site that we’re interested in and then we will be starting a capital campaign to start raising funds in order to acquire properties, continue to support resources for current LGBT- owned businesses and startups, provide some advocacy work within policies that affect business owners across the state of Michigan, as well as seeking ways to attract LGBT and other businesses to the state of Michigan.”

Heard is hoping the first parcel can be purchased by next year and he’s excited the district visioning is moving forward. 

“It’s been 10 years of conversations and laying down a foundation of a chamber that truly wants to grow and establish and make a mark in the city and in the region,” he said. “Hopefully, it will inspire more people to know that they can do things like this, that they can create and cultivate community wherever they are, whoever they are. We want to invite everyone to join us.”