La Joya Gardens opens on formerly vacant block in SW Detroit

A new 53-unit apartment complex in southwest Detroit near Clark Park had its official grand opening Monday and was praised as the right way to build mixed-income housing in the city and combat gentrification.

La Joya Gardens, 4000 W. Vernor Highway, stretches across an entire block of what had been vacant land.

The nearly $25 million project, which also features over 6,000 square feet of retail and cafe space, was codeveloped by the Southwest Detroit Business Association and the nonprofit development group Cinnaire Solutions.

They incorporated suggestions from about 200 local residents when coming up with the development’s design, amenities and even its name.

Numerous speakers at Monday’s ribbon-cutting event applauded the affordable nature of the development, saying it would help to combat “gentrification,” or the pricing out of modest-income residents and the businesses that once served them.

“What you get to see here today is what happens when government, development and community come together to build our city,” Detroit City Councilman Fred Durhal III said.

The development broke ground in 2023, although its planning began back in 2015. The project’s financing made use of numerous development programs and incentives, including low-income housing tax credits, so that deeply affordable apartments would be possible in an all-new building.

Of the 53 apartments, 42 are set aside at below-market rents, available for those earning no more than 30% to 80% of the area median income, or $20,160 to $53,760 for an individual. Asking rents for those units start at about $540 per month for a one-bedroom.

The market-rate rents are about $1,200 per month for a one-bedroom unit and $1,500 for a two-bedroom, a representative said.

Residents have begun moving in and about 19 units were still available as of Monday afternoon. More information on the apartments can be found at lajoyagardens.com.

“La Joya Gardens, which means ‘the jewel,’ is more than just a name — it symbolizes the beauty, resilience, brilliance of southwest Detroit,” Laura Chavez-Wazeerud-Din, president and CEO of the Southwest Detroit Business Association, said at the event. “This place reflects a collective commitment to ensure that everyone in the neighborhood has access to safe, affordable housing.”

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Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan noted how property values around Clark Park, which recently received major upgrades and is in the heart of southwest Detroit, have been on the upswing.

“The houses in the area have probably tripled in price in the last decade,” Duggan said. “And if you own a house in this neighborhood, that was really good news for you. But if you were renting in this neighborhood, that was not good news — because the financial pressures were very real.”

The mayor continued: “In a different city in the country, this development would have gone a lot differently. Some out-of-town developer would have put in expensive condos … and you would have sped up gentrification in the neighborhood.”

But instead, Duggan said, the developers and their financial backers opted “to do it right for the neighborhood.”

The building’s first retail tenant, the coffee shop Cafe Clark, is expected to open in a few months.

The building was designed by SITIO Architecture + Urbanism and the general contractor was O’Brien Construction.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New mixed-income apartment building opens in SW Detroit