The public will get a chance to speak its mind on the Ann Arbor City Apartments development at 6 p.m. Friday in City Hall, 100 N Fifth Ave.
The developer, Farmington Hills-based Village Green Companies, wants to build a multi-use building at First and Washington streets on the west side of the city's downtown across the street from the Blind Pig and Cavern Club. The development replaces a recently demolished parking deck, replacing the parking spaces while adding more vertical residences to downtown.
The eight-story structure will feature 146 new apartments and 241 parking spaces. The parking spaces will be on four levels, two in the basement and two more on the first two floors of the building. The city will operate the parking structure section of the building as a public parking garage.
The one- and two-bedroom apartments will occupy the top six stories of the building. They will average about 700 square feet. About 10 percent of the apartments will be dedicated to affordable housing. The units will not have individual balconies or terraces, but there will be a community rooftop deck for all of the units. The apartments have access to as many as 73 spaces during the day and 146 spaces during the night.
Village Green also plans to use extensive green building techniques and technologies in the Ann Arbor City Apartments building. Among those are using recyclable materials, installing a green roof and making the building energy efficient.
"Village Green takes the environment very seriously," says Jon Frank, vice president of Village Green. "We're not named Village Green for nothing."
The company also plans to keep the building as rental apartments for the foreseeable future. The company owns similar downtown apartment buildings in Minneapolis and Chicago. Before the Ann Arbor City Apartments building can break ground, the city council must approve the project. Village Green expects that to take place by next spring and construction to begin soon after approval is given.
Friday's public meeting is the first step in that process. For information on the public meeting, call Jon Frank at (312) 335-2644.
Source: City of Ann Arbor, Village Green Companies
Writer: Jon Zemke
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