A $15 million urban agriculture project was announced in Detroit, Michigan on October 26, 2105.
It’s expected to transform 22 blocks of blighted land on Detroit’s lower east side into a massive swath of greenhouses and hoop houses.
The project’s 60-acre footprint — south of Interstate 94, along Chene Street to Forest Avenue — includes 35 acres of vacant land the city wants to lease to RecoveryPark, a nonprofit whose mission is to help ex-offenders and recovering addicts find employment.
Mayor Mike Duggan said “We are not just transforming property. We are going to transform lives,” Duggan said. “They are taking the hardest to employ folks in our community and putting them to work on land that had been long abandoned and forgotten.”
The property would be leased by the Detroit Land Bank Authority to RecoveryPark for $105 per acre.
Land Bank spokesman Craig Fahle said the project will beautify the neighborhood and be a huge part of the recovery of the east side of Detroit.