{"id":396482,"date":"2026-01-09T03:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/396482\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:39:17","slug":"detroit-city-council-approves-tax-breaks-for-wnba-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/396482\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit City Council approves tax breaks for WNBA headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously authorized brownfield tax breaks for a development team bringing the WNBA to Detroit, but the project won\u2019t trigger community benefits negotiations.<\/p>\n

Richard Haddad, chief operating officer for Pistons Sports and Entertainment, said investors are planning a state of the art practice facility and headquarters for a new WNBA franchise that would activate a long blighted corridor along the Detroit River. The former Uniroyal site was described as \u201cseverely contaminated\u201d in city meetings. A brownfield plan that still requires state approval would reimburse $34.5 million in cleanup costs.<\/p>\n

The brownfield plan describes one project with two components: A $50 million, 75,000-square-foot WNBA headquarters and a 100,000-square-foot youth development academy owned and operated by an yet-to-be named nonprofit. A cost for the youth development academy isn\u2019t included in the documents.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Source: Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority)<\/p>\n

The investment total has implications for Detroit\u2019s Community Benefits Ordinance. Developments valued at $75 million must negotiate additional investments with adjacent neighborhoods. Tier 2 projects representing an investment of at least $3 million are subject to a much less intense process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detroit\u2019s Planning and Development Department confirmed the WNBA facility qualifies as a Tier 2 project so it won\u2019t be required to draft a benefits contract. Instead, developers are required to partner with the city\u2019s workforce development agency to promote the hiring of residents and work with the Planning Department to mitigate negative impacts.<\/p>\n

Haddad said the youth academy is \u201ca separate project\u201d on a \u201clater phase\u201d of the development plan, despite being described as one in the same in city documents.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Source: Rossetti)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey share a site and they share an overall vision to develop this Uniroyal site in a way that\u2019s going to benefit the community and in a way that\u2019s going to be a hub for youth sports and for women\u2019s sports,\u201d Haddad said outside Tuesday\u2019s meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s two separate projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haddad participated in a 2023\u00a0community benefits process<\/a>\u00a0for the Future of Health project in New Center, which included new medical facilities by Henry Ford Health, research facilities by Michigan State University and apartment buildings by the Pistons.<\/p>\n

Haddad said considering the WNBA facility and youth sports complex as separate wasn\u2019t an intentional effort to avoid a Tier 1 community benefits process. He declined to share additional details about the youth academy.<\/p>\n

A few residents called into Tuesday\u2019s meeting to voice support for the project, particularly the youth sports aspect. Summer Crawford said she looks forward to canceling drives into the suburbs for sports activities, while Dominique Abner said Detroit needs safe, positive spaces for youth to gather.<\/p>\n

Deanna Nolan, three-time WNBA champion with the former Detroit Shock, voiced her support for bringing women\u2019s basketball back to the city and the border effort to impact youth sports and public amenities on the river.<\/p>\n

Former Detroit Piston Rick Mahorn said the vacant riverfront site has \u201cbeen killing me every time I drive by.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Uniroyal site has housed multiple manufacturing facilities dating back to 1860. Operations at the site stopped in 1980 and it\u2019s been underused since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council on Tuesday unanimously authorized brownfield tax breaks for a development team bringing the WNBA to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-396482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}