Success Story
Preserve on Ash
With support from the MEDC’s Michigan Community Revitalization Program, The Community Builders non-profit organization is contributing to affordable housing needs in Detroit’s historic Corktown neighborhood
In June 2018, the Ford Motor Company announced it acquired the iconic Michigan Central Station in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. Following a six-year restoration, Michigan Central reopened to the public for the first time in nearly four decades, becoming a beacon of collaboration, innovation and community.
The transformative, nearly $1 billion investment also served as a catalyst for the surrounding Corktown neighborhood as well.
To prepare for this investment, the City of Detroit launched the Greater Corktown Neighborhood Framework Plan in 2019 to ensure the transformation includes existing residents in Detroit’s oldest established neighborhood and preserves the community’s heritage and integrity. The Plan involves the development of approximately 841 mixed income housing units within nine development phases in the North Corktown and Historic Corktown neighborhoods of Detroit.
The first phase is the Preserve on Ash development at the corner of Ash Street and 14th Street, which opened in December 2025. The project includes the infill of five buildings with a total of 69 units featuring deep affordability, with 22 units at 30% Area Median Income (AMI), 21 market rate units and the remaining units at 60-80% AMI across one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The building also includes 5,800 square feet of commercial space.
When the remaining development phases are complete, the projects will add critical housing to the area, while supporting a larger ecological corridor along Ash Street, with each project having storm water infrastructure that will serve the respective development.
Non-profit housing organization The Community Builders (TCB) is leading the multiphase development, with the mission to uplift the community through redevelopment, revitalization and resident success. TCB brings over 50 years of experience as a non-profit organization partnering with local communities across the country to help achieve neighborhood revitalization in housing developments which vary in scale and complexity, from small rehabilitation projects to large master-planned communities, with a diverse group of customers and partners.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) awarded TCB with a $2.3 million Michigan Community Revitalization Program (MCRP) performance-based loan in December 2023, part of a series of MCRP-supported developments in the Corktown neighborhood aimed at increasing vibrancy and promoting economic growth. The project is also supported by a $35 million Choice Neighborhoods grant that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded to the city in 2021, and leverages financial support from EGLE, MSHDA, LISC, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis and the City of Detroit.
“Detroit is just such an exciting place right now,” said George Tabit, senior vice president of real estate development for TCB Great Lakes. “There's so much development happening, and I think the administration has really paid a lot of attention to maintaining affordability everywhere as we bring Detroit back. We want to continue to have mixed-income neighborhoods and add housing across the board. Preserve on Ash is a great reflection of that and fits well with what the city is trying to do.”
In addition to creating new, affordable housing, TCB created a Community Empowerment Center in the Corktown neighborhood. According to TCB, Community Life coaches are engaging with residents to improve educational outcomes, household health and economic self-sufficiency.
The TCB Community Life team’s engagement with kids in the neighborhood is showing results: in 2021, 64% were enrolled in Early Childhood Education and 7% were involved in out-of-school activities. As of 2026, 85% are enrolled in Early Childhood Education and 51% are engaged in out-of-school activities.
“It's just one simple measure of the work they've done to improve the lives of the residents,” said Tabit. “That was part of what got this whole thing going.”
In December 2025, former Detroit mayor Mike Duggan joined TCB and other officials to welcome the first resident of Preserve on Ash in a ribbon cutting ceremony, kicking off a new era for Corktown.
Tabit said the excitement around the project is palpable.
“The buildings are gorgeous, too,” he said. “HUD financing gives us a turbo boost to be able to do some very attractive housing. In doing a neighborhood transformation, we want to set the bar high in this first wave, so that everything else must measure up. Hamilton Anderson Associates was our architect for this, and they did a fantastic job of designing a beautiful community that fits into the urban environment. It’s not yesterday’s affordable housing.”