Kresge deepens long-term commitment to Detroit with new investments to advance resident-led vision for the future of the neighborhoods

The Kresge Foundation today announced a dramatic $180 million investment in the neighborhoods of Detroit. The announcement includes the foundation’s decision to move its headquarters from Troy, Michigan, to the Marygrove Conservancy Campus in Northwest Detroit.

“The announcement builds on more than a decade of investments Kresge has made in improving the quality of neighborhood life in Detroit,” said Kresge CEO and President Rip Rapson. “Those investments will continue across the city. But this constellation of commitments focuses on the neighborhoods in the Livernois-McNichols corridor, bringing the foundation’s total investments in the area to nearly $400 million. The new investments are unprecedented in their magnitude, ambition and long-term potential to leverage support from others.”

Kresge will invest more than $180 million over the next five years in housing stabilization, home ownership, commercial corridor revitalization, public space enhancements and financial support to residents and businesses in the Fitzgerald, Bagley, University District and Martin Park neighborhoods. The investments will be grounded in extensive and deep community engagement that is designed to generate approaches that can be sustained over the long term and that are rooted in honoring the desire of existing residents who plan to stay in the neighborhoods.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who spoke at the announcement, lauded the foundation. “The fact that we’re able to be here today at Marygrove is possible only because of The Kresge Foundation’s vision and the commitment Rip Rapson made seven years ago to this campus and to the people of Detroit. There was never a doubt that Kresge is all-in for Detroit, and today’s announcement puts an exclamation point on it. This is where Kresge belongs, in the heart of the community it is doing so much to uplift and build.”

Neighborhood investments

During the announcement, Kresge pledged $50 million to fund initiatives that promote home ownership, home repair, wealth building, improvements in the physical environment and rental assistance. “Residents of these neighborhoods have made it clear that promises for improved quality of life have been made time and time again, but too few have been kept,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program. “These investments are about bringing long-standing community aspirations to life,” she said.

Kresge’s initial commitments include the creation, in partnership with the Live6 Alliance, of a Resident Investment and Opportunity Fund, which will prioritize:

• Vacant land stewardship, beautification and side lot activation
• Resources for home maintenance, critical repairs and accessibility improvements
• Property tax relief
• Support for renters

In addition, Kresge will invest in public spaces by completing the Ella Fitzgerald Greenway by extending it east to Livernois Avenue and by making enhancements at Ella Fitzgerald Park. The foundation will also provide support to small businesses on the McNichols commercial corridor for interior and façade improvements, and for marketing support.

Today’s investments reflect years of community input, shaped by resident priorities and further honed through the Livernois + McNichols Neighborhoods Action Agenda process. Convened by Kresge, Live6 Alliance and the Marygrove Conservancy, with the support of Urban American City and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center, more than 100 neighborhood and civic leaders have helped inform a longer-term vision and future investments. “Over the next year, we’ll invite more residents to engage in the process through community gatherings, block clubs, District 2 meetings and neighborhood association meetings,” said Live6 Alliance Executive Director Caitlin Murphy.

Residents who wish to participate in the Livernois + McNichols Neighborhoods Action Agenda process are encouraged to sign up for the Marygrove Conservancy newsletter or contact the Live6 Alliance to receive updates.

Campus investments

Kresge will partner with the Marygrove Conservancy and landscape architect Hood Design Studio to develop a campus plan that will improve pedestrian circulation among the students, families, educators and nonprofit tenants on campus. The team will also create publicly accessible spaces, upgrade building systems and spaces to make them more climate-resilient and integrate the new Kresge headquarters fully into existing activities on campus. Kresge investments will support these changes.

“In just seven short years, Marygrove has become home to a vibrant and ever-growing community of early learners, K–12 students and families who see this campus as a place of possibility,” said conservancy CEO Tom Lewand. “This is an ideal moment to reimagine the grounds as more pedestrian-friendly and environmentally sustainable so that the campus can someday serve the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of today’s students.”

Kresge headquarters

The final component of Kresge’s multifaceted announcement is to relocate its headquarters to a newly constructed facility on the northeast quadrant of the Marygrove campus, with an anticipated opening in 2028. The new home for the $4 billion national private philanthropy will serve not only as an operational base for its 130 staff, but also as a community asset shaped by and for neighborhood residents. Planning is underway to design and construct a 70,000 square foot facility that will serve as the foundation’s offices and provide spaces for community use, including generous public spaces and meeting areas for its partners and collaborators.

“Kresge’s move to Detroit is a recommitment to our hometown as the epicenter of our mission, and a launchpad for our next century of work here and in American cities,” Rapson said. “We envision our new facility to be much more than a headquarters, but rather an ‘HQ-plus’ that is intentionally designed to serve campus tenants, partners and neighbors alike, and is backed by on-the-ground investments in the people and economy of Northwest Detroit.”

Architecture & landscape team

Earlier this year, Kresge launched an international search to identify design partners. That design team will be joined by a wide array of subcontractors, consultants and advisors. The team comprises:

Design architect: Internationally acclaimed architecture studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) will design the headquarters. With a focus on cultural and civic projects, DS+R’s work addresses the changing role of institutions and the future of cities. One of the firm’s signature projects is the High Line, an adaptive reuse of an abandoned elevated railway into an urban park in New York City.

Landscape Architect: Often described as a “cultural practice,” Hood Design Studio blends everyday life into spaces that feel personal, historical and alive. Led by landscape artist Walter Hood, the firm has been charged to both reimagine the immediate headquarters site and ensure its coherence within the campus and with the adjacent neighborhood.

Architect of Record: The strategic partnership, Hannah-Neumann/Smith, led by partner Beverly Hannah Jones, will provide a comprehensive, Detroit-based design team to support the design concept.

The foundation is actively engaged in a search for a Detroit-based construction partner.

Kresge and its partners will design and construct a headquarters that is both complementary to the century-old architecture of existing campus buildings and respectful to the surrounding neighborhood. “The Kresge Foundation is defined by your generosity, and the new building will be designed to embody that ethos,” said DS+R Partner and lead architectural designer Elizabeth Diller. Led by Diller, a conceptual design phase will commence this fall to define the headquarters footprint, siting, landscape and programming.

Sustainability

Kresge’s current headquarters in Troy, Michigan, which was reconstructed in 2006, was the first building to earn LEED® Platinum certification in Southeast Michigan as recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council. Since then, the foundation has established a $19 million per year grantmaking program focused on helping U.S. cities transition to clean energy and adapt to the impacts of climate change through targeted, community-driven solutions.

The foundation will pursue the highest sustainability measures for its new headquarters while advancing innovative strategies that prioritize environmental performance, resource efficiency and long-term resilience across the campus and into surrounding neighborhoods.

“Our goal is to bring the highest standards of environmental stewardship and sustainability not just to the headquarters building, but also to the neighborhood by pursuing solar power, electrification and home upgrades that lower costs, improve comfort and prepare the community for other stressors now and in the future,” Rapson said. “Ultimately, we’d like to help the neighborhood become Energy Positive – producing more energy than it consumes – and resilient to the impacts of climate change.”

Kresge has also pledged to create a year-round resilience hub to support residents before, during and after emergencies intensified by climate change or infrastructure failures.

Marygrove learning community

During the past decade, Kresge and its partners have transformed the former Marygrove College into an educational, civic and economic hub, honoring the campus’ 92-year legacy of social justice and community leadership. Founded generously by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the college ceased academic operations in 2019 because of financial challenges.

Since 2018, Kresge has invested $196 million in grants, low-cost loans and guarantees to support the college’s transition while establishing the nonprofit Marygrove Conservancy to steward the 53-acre campus.

Strategic partnerships between Kresge, the Marygrove Conservancy, University of Michigan Marsal Family School of Education (U-M), Detroit Public Schools Community District and Starfish Family Services have led to a reinvention of the campus into a neighborhood-based educational center.

Today, more than 900 children and young adults are cared for and educated on the campus through the following institutions:

• Marygrove Early Education Center (age 0-5) – Operated by Starfish Family Services, the center provides young children and families with high-quality child development services and programming that promotes healthy and empowered families.
• The School at Marygrove (grades K-12) – Operated by Detroit Public Schools Community District in partnership with U-M, the school educates children from kindergarten through 5th grade, and grades 9-12 through a social justice-centered curriculum that embraces project and place-based learning strategies. Grades 6-8 will be added over the next 3 years.
• U-M Marsal Family School of Education – The school co-develops curriculum and provides professional development, operations support, and research and evaluation for the early education center and K-12 programs. U-M also operates an undergraduate teaching school and hosts an undergraduate degree program, Learning, Equity and Problem Solving for the Public Good (LEAPS), on the campus.

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