The City Council on Tuesday unanimously authorized brownfield tax breaks for a development team bringing the WNBA to Detroit, but the project won’t trigger community benefits negotiations.
Richard Haddad, chief operating officer for Pistons Sports and Entertainment, said investors are planning a state of the art practice facility and headquarters for a new WNBA franchise that would activate a long blighted corridor along the Detroit River. The former Uniroyal site was described as “severely contaminated” in city meetings. A brownfield plan that still requires state approval would reimburse $34.5 million in cleanup costs.
The brownfield plan describes one project with two components: A $50 million, 75,000-square-foot WNBA headquarters and a 100,000-square-foot youth development academy owned and operated by an yet-to-be named nonprofit. A cost for the youth development academy isn’t included in the documents.
The investment total has implications for Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance. Developments valued at $75 million must negotiate additional investments with adjacent neighborhoods. Tier 2 projects representing an investment of at least $3 million are subject to a much less intense process.
Detroit’s Planning and Development Department confirmed the WNBA facility qualifies as a Tier 2 project so it won’t be required to draft a benefits contract. Instead, developers are required to partner with the city’s workforce development agency to promote the hiring of residents and work with the Planning Department to mitigate negative impacts.
Haddad said the youth academy is “a separate project” on a “later phase” of the development plan, despite being described as one in the same in city documents.
“They share a site and they share an overall vision to develop this Uniroyal site in a way that’s going to benefit the community and in a way that’s going to be a hub for youth sports and for women’s sports,” Haddad said outside Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s two separate projects.”
Haddad participated in a 2023 community benefits process for the Future of Health project in New Center, which included new medical facilities by Henry Ford Health, research facilities by Michigan State University and apartment buildings by the Pistons.
Haddad said considering the WNBA facility and youth sports complex as separate wasn’t an intentional effort to avoid a Tier 1 community benefits process. He declined to share additional details about the youth academy.
A few residents called into Tuesday’s meeting to voice support for the project, particularly the youth sports aspect. Summer Crawford said she looks forward to canceling drives into the suburbs for sports activities, while Dominique Abner said Detroit needs safe, positive spaces for youth to gather.
Deanna Nolan, three-time WNBA champion with the former Detroit Shock, voiced her support for bringing women’s basketball back to the city and the border effort to impact youth sports and public amenities on the river.
Former Detroit Piston Rick Mahorn said the vacant riverfront site has “been killing me every time I drive by.”
The Uniroyal site has housed multiple manufacturing facilities dating back to 1860. Operations at the site stopped in 1980 and it’s been underused since.