DETROIT - An abandoned hospital and adjacent medical plaza will become home to a charter public school, medical offices and an assisted living facility over the next three years, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.
Midwest Creative Investments will spend $18 million to renovate the Greater Detroit Hospital complex and Carpenter Medical Plaza, the Free Press reported. Mohamad Issa, one of five brothers who own the company, told the Free Press that their firm bought the property in 2006 and will open a school on site in 2010.
The new school is an expansion of The Frontier Academy in Hamtramck and, like the Hamtramck program, will offer instruction in both English and Arabic, the Free Press reported.
"What we're doing, there's a need for it," Issa told the Free Press. The project will receive more than $2.2 million in brownfield grants for asbestos removal and other work.
In addition to the school, plans call for a senior assisted living facility to open by 2012, the report said. A pharmacy and other current occupants of the medical plaza will be moved into the hospital building.
Issa's company also recently purchased church property near Ypsilanti as a charter expansion site.
SOURCE:
The Detroit Free Press, "Medical complex 'monstrosity' to get a new life," June 1, 2009
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Digest, "Charter buys church property," May 1, 2009
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonprofit research and educational institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government. Through our research and education programs, we challenge government overreach and advocate for a free-market approach to public policy that frees people to realize their potential and dreams.
Please consider contributing to our work to advance a freer and more prosperous state.