The University of Michigan has announced plans to build a $300 million research and innovation center in Detroit that will be the anchor for a 14-acre Center for Innovation in the city's downtown.
The university says the 190,000 square-foot research and education center will be a centerpiece of the first phase of a planned multi-building development at the east edge of Detroit's downtown. The facility will offer programs that focus on high-tech research, education and innovation. The facility will eventually serve up to 1,000 graduate and senior-level undergraduate students pursuing advanced degrees in a range of high-tech innovation disciplines.
Development of the academic building will be made possible by a major gift from Stephen M. Ross, philanthropist and chairman of Related Companies, who envisioned the Detroit Center for Innovation.
The initial phase of the Center for Innovation build-out will include incubator and start up services for entrepreneurs, collaboration space for established companies, residential units, a hotel and conference center and event space. The new multi-building complex will be situated at the site of the former Wayne County Jail project.
Although the university academic center will provide instruction at the Detroit Center for Innovation, degrees and certificates will be awarded by the Ann Arbor campus. The facility is intended to serve students in the last year of their undergraduate program, as well as people seeking graduate degrees or stackable certificates.
The academic center will give faculty and students the opportunity to engage in innovative research across a number of technology-based fields. Business incubators, research and development and collaboration space for large established companies, co-working space and startup support services will also be available.
The architect for the project is Kohn Pedersen Fox.
