On June 18, 2026, the Detroit City Council Committee of the Whole convened to hold two public hearings on the same development project—the conversion of the 600 tower (east tower) from office space to hotel and apartments—and to address several unfinished business items. The meeting included public testimony, detailed responses from project representatives, and votes on incentive approvals and procedural motions.
Thank you. We are now back in session. And we are back at the 1020 public hearing. And we were at the moment where public comment had just concluded and giving everyone who is before us an opportunity to respond to the questions. Who would like to begin? If if I may, I'd like to address a couple of the questions. Did accurately talk about the net fiscal benefit to the city, um, or the general fund, and no, I didn't misspeak. Um we do uh a fair amount of analysis and coming up with projections uh based on um you know property value today, what we anticipate the value of the property uh going to after the improvements, uh the taxes that will be paid, the uh number of uh projected jobs and the incomes uh associated with the permanent jobs as well as the construction jobs, um, and then the utility uh users taxes and the revenue sharing and all of the revenue sources uh that uh uh are derived as a result of the development, we net out uh, and well I think one caller uh mentioned city services, we net out the cost of additional city services uh because of the development, like the the additional strain to the uh uh water and sewer uh systems, the uh necessity for uh more police and fire. And so we net out the cost of city services and then we project the the net benefit to the city. So uh no, I did not misspeak, and then there was a question uh with respect to the 30 percent. Um I think uh a very conservative estimate with respect to uh new residents into the city that will occupy uh units as well as uh that will um you know uh um be recipients of jobs is a prudent thing to just protect the integrity of our estimates. I I anticipate uh and would love to see a hundred percent of the new residents uh coming from the city and a hundred percent of the of the jobs uh uh from Detroiters, but I think uh it's just prudent to be conservative, so that's why we use uh uh uh 30 percent and um I think the rest were uh mainly comments, and so that is uh the our answers or my answers uh to the questions that that I gather. Mr. Howe, there was a question regarding the return on investment. I know you indicated during the presentation, but can you just speak on that very briefly? Oh yeah, sure. Uh you're absolutely correct. Um let me just pull this up. Well, in the essence of time, while Mr. Howe pulls that up, if there is anyone else who'd like to respond to questions, please do so. Oh here, I got it. Uh uh. Um the uh rate of return without the incentives uh is three percent, three point uh one percent. Uh the rate of return with the incentives is seven point two seven percent. And so with the amount of equity the developers committed committing to the project, as well as the risk associated with uh owning uh and operating uh a hotel and just the overall risk of the project and three percent is not adequate. Uh so the uh incentives not only make the project feasible, but uh by the same token allow for a reasonable rate of return, or seven percent is a reasonable rate of return. Uh we would start to see uh or or have some issues with the length of the abatement if we were uh north of 10%, but you know, we we've got quite a bit of ways to go before they get to 10%. So that's the rate of return with or without the incentives. Thank you. Anyone else? I believe there was a question in regards to the expectations of um how the building would proceed once the abatement has expired. Um the uh Mr. Howell, I'm not sure that that's a question for you. Okay, ma'am. Yeah, I'll be I'll be happy to answer. Uh hopefully by the time the abitment has expired with uh inflation with hopefully we achieve 100% capacity, and hopefully our loan burden will be significantly less in in about 15 years. So the project will be able to sustain itself with the then assessed value. It will definitely survive because a lot is happening there. Right now we are alone in this battle. We're turning a vacant zombie building to a thriving building. Hopefully, in 12 years, that whole area will be thriving, and the whole city would be thriving again. It is thriving now. So we anticipate that we would be able to survive after 15 years. Thank you. All right. Pro Tim Young, anything further, noting that we do have the second half of this project in the next public hearing and a fully uh lengthy agenda. If not, uh is there a motion on line item six motion to approve line of six. There's a motion to send line item six to formal with a recommendation to approve. Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken. All right, and that now closes out the 1020 public hearing.