Dive Brief:

• The Detroit suburb of Troy, MI, is considering developing a $328 million mixed-use complex in order to create a walkable, downtown district, according to The Detroit News.   
• The 125-acre Troy Town Center would be built on the site of the town's current civic center, which would receive a minor facelift to blend in with the new structures.
• The project would include housing, retail, office buildings, a lake and a hotel. The city's investment, aside from the land, would be $53 million over 20 years, but Troy would net $12 million after Troy Town Center's expected property tax contribution.  

Dive Insight:

The development will be designed by urban planner Robert Gibbs, who told The Detroit News that the new downtown design will utilize New Urbanism which creates new cities and downtowns by planning around civic centers. The city must rezone the areas to permit residences to be built above retail stores and to allow for high-density housing.

Urban living is hot right now, and more suburban areas, like Troy, are bringing that sensibility to their own towns.

For example, the Portland, OR, suburb of Vancouver is getting underway with a $1.5 billion mixed-use development that will ultimately feature 3,300 residences, 1.3 million square feet of Class A office space, a hotel, retail and restaurants, all built along the Columbia River. Developers just secured a $42.5 million construction loan for the project.

Texas has seen more than its share of these suburban-urban developments, like the $1 billion Bayside project in Dallas-area Rowlett, TX. The 262-acre Bayside will feature an 8-acre, manmade lagoon on the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard, along with artificial beaches, a marina, a mix of 3,000 condos and apartments, 1.5 million square feet of commercial space and 700 hotel rooms.

Developer Hines also announced a 3.5-million-square-foot mixed-use complex for Allen, TX, also a suburb of Dallas. The 135-acre project will include nearly 2 million square feet of office space, 380,000 square feet of retail and 300,000 square feet of residential development. Like Troy, Hines said that Allen needs a walkable, amenity-rich central district.