Target will return to Detroit with small-format store in Midtown

After a nearly 20-year absence, Target will return to Detroit as an anchor tenant at City Club Apartments in Midtown, City Club and Detroit officials announced Monday. 

The 32,000-square-foot store will be at the southeast corner of Mack and Woodward, officials said. The layout will follow the format of similar-sized stores around the country, with about a fourth of the space of Target's typical stores, which average 130,000 square feet, according to its website.

“I would like to thank Target for choosing Detroit, Midtown and our next new mixed-use apartment hotel community in the city,” City Club Apartments CEO Jonathan Holtzman said in a statement. “This important announcement is a testament to Detroit’s strong leadership and continued momentum.”

Joining Holtzman in the announcement were Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Midtown Detroit Inc. President Sue Mosey.

“It has been a major and coordinated effort to secure approvals on our initial plans from the planning and zoning departments, attract Target as an anchor tenant and complete our agreement with the landowner,” Holtzman said.

The Target store will be housed in City Club Apartments, a 350-unit mixed-use apartment hotel community.

"We’re excited to bring an easy, safe and convenient shopping experience to new guests in the Detroit community with this new Target store ..." the retailer said in a statement Monday. "As we get closer to opening the store, we’ll have more specific details to share — including how the shopping experience will be tailored to serve local guests."

The retailer operated a store in the Bel Air shopping center on Eight Mile from October 1987 to August 2003, according to the company. 

“Any day we get to announce that a respected national retailer like Target is choosing to locate in our city is a great day," Duggan said. "Over the past decade we have seen Midtown develop into a vibrant, diverse, mixed-income neighborhood. Adding this Target store will provide an anchor retail presence to serve residents in the area and across the city.  I'm deeply grateful to Target, City Club Apartments, Midtown Detroit, Inc., and the dedicated City of Detroit staff that helped make this happen."    

The store will offer groceries, general merchandise and other amenities for the city's growing downtown and Midtown population, Mosey said, adding that the area has more than 25,000 residents and 30,000 college students.  

"We anticipate residents from other Detroit neighborhoods will also find this store a convenient shopping option," she said.

The next step is to receive approval for architectural plans and specifications, Holtzman said. His company will seek brownfield tax increment financing and to be included in the surrounding New & Rehabilitation Neighborhood Enterprise Zone.

“We are actively in the process of meeting with general contractors,” he said. “This is a highly complex mixed-use residential and retail development, and we are interviewing companies with the depth, experience and expertise commensurate with the development. We continue to be in an environment with significant labor and material shortages.”

cwilliams@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @CWilliams_DN