Dive Brief:

• The agreement under which the City of Detroit agreed to to yield 54 blocks of land to Detroit Red Wings' owner Ilitch Holdings for a new hockey arena specifies that the construction workforce will have to be made up of 51% Detroit residents at a time when getting workers is hard enough to do without such a requirement.
• Trade unions in the region have about 35,000 members, with about 2,000 of them in Detroit, but the project will need almost 2,800 city-based workers to meet the goal.
• Contractors can bypass the rule by paying a fee to the city or by providing free training, including instructors and equipment to train workers.

Dive Insight:

Detroit has more projects coming, including a bridge between the city and Windsor, Ontario, and the construction workforce is aging. Getting new blood moving into the body of workers is necessary for the city as well as for the industry, said Alex Ivanikiw, who is a senior vice president at Barton Malow Co, one of three contractors hired for the arena.