April O'Neil / news@WHMI.com.

The City of Brighton and the Brighton Downtown Development Authority (DDA) announced a potential partnership with the State Land Bank Authority and DA Building, LLC (DAB) to bring necessary public improvements to the city to enhance parking, provide for increased open space, and to accomplish other upgrades to public facilities and spaces.

Privately owned properties formerly leased by the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) for public parking has been acquired by DAB, and is planned for residential and commercial development.

The recently acquired properties in DAB's development portfolio include the public parking lot adjacent to Ciao Amici's, and the site currently housing Fifth Third Bank along with its adjacent unpaved parking lot bordering Hyne Street.

The City of Brighton, DDA, and DAB are collaboratively exploring the possibility of a joint project to address the need for additional parking and working toward other improvements in the city.

According to a press release, all parties involved are in the very "early" stages of assessing the feasibility and scope of their project plan in order to accomplish the public improvements. While discussions are ongoing, a pre-development agreement has been established.

The envisioned project aims to achieve multiple objectives, including the construction of a public parking structure, new municipal buildings, increased open space, commercial storefronts, retail spaces, restaurants, and multi-family residential apartments or condominiums, without the need for the city to issue bonds or raise taxes to finance the public improvements.

DAB has taken the first step of placing the properties they own into the State Land Bank Authority, paving the way for potential future development initiatives.

The press release further explains, "The sale of the privately owned parking lots has resulted in a shift in land use from public parking to a potential mixed-use development. As the public parking lots were privately owned, neither the city nor the DDA had the option to renew the leases to continue to provide parking in these lots. DAB, however, is actively engaged with the city to assist in a potential project to increase public parking availability beyond what is currently available in the city."

If a final redevelopment plan is achieved, it will proceed in a phased manner, over the course of the next several years. The first of the projects to commence as early as Spring of 2024.

The City of Brighton went on to say that at this time, it is not anticipated that redevelopment activity would impact the main thoroughfares in the city, including Main Street.

Further updates will be provided by the City and DDA as the project progresses.

A link to the full predevelopment plan from the City of Brighton is attached.