Two things being true at once is leading the Ann Arbor District Library to consider a radical new change. First: the downtown flagship of the AADL might be well used and liked, but it is getting old and will require either replacement or major refurbishment sooner or later. Second: Ann Arbor was already an extremely expensive place to live before the housing affordability crisis went national. So, if they are going to have to make a drastic change to the library anyway, they are considering making it part of a multipurpose project to bring more houses along with a library.
A new library
No firm plans have been set yet, nor has the AADL decided if they actually will or won’t do it yet. But if they do go ahead, it is likely to be highly vertical.
“This would be based on the partners the library board selects for the project, and the financing and costs at the time the project begins. We know there is strong public support for a mix of housing types, with the exception of student housing, which isn’t a part of the concept at this stage,” AADL Director Eli Neiburger said. “I’d just add that there is nothing cooking right now on this project. We’re not even shopping for ingredients. At this point, we’re just making a grocery list!”
The AADL has gotten a feasibility study published by the Boner Advisory Group, Myefski Architects and BDC Consulting. They found that the mid-century modern building would need to be rezoned from public land to D-1 to continue with one of several options.
“Ann Arbor needs a new downtown library: a sustainable facility that can meet the demanding needs of a highly-utilized organization in a busy, diverse downtown, while inspiring and delighting its visitors,” the authors wrote in the study. And since a 2012 bond proposal that would have generated funds for a new expansion failed, this is another way to achieve the expansion. “One possibility would be to leverage the library’s real estate at South Fifth Avenue and East William Street, combining a mixture of uses, potentially including housing, office space and retail in a redeveloped downtown library building. The proceeds from such a project could pay for a new downtown library facility without new tax revenue.”
The rendering they came up with calls for a relatively high rise building – over the existing library at the northeastern part of the corner of Fourth Avenue and William Street. Market rate properties are homes that are as expensive as it can be with people still being able and willing to pay for them. An affordable project is an artificially lowered or subsidized project to bring affordable options through section 8 housing or some other scheme to lower prices to keep working class families around.
A hybrid model would see a mix of upper-middle class or upper class households living alongside affordable housing families. This is fairly common in America’s largest cities like New York, but is increasingly being used to keep middle class families in communities as well.
The former YMCA property
Another project is also in the works to bring housing to downtown at the parking lot across Fifth Avenue from the library, where the YMCA once stood. This separate development is in between the library, Blake Transit Center, Fourth and William parking structure, and William Street, which is planned to bring affordable or workforce housing along with market rate apartments to downtown, according to the City of Ann Arbor, of which could bring up to two neighboring skyscrapers with hundreds of housing units, sprouting out of the same ground floor podium level, which is to include an incorporation of Blake Transit Center operations.
“The overall development program is focused on housing, including approximately 295 units composed of 95 units of affordable housing within the west tower, representing 100% of the west tower units, and 200 units of mixed-income housing in the east tower, including market-rate housing and a minimum of 20% of the units providing affordable housing,” the project description from the Ann Arbor Housing Commission reads. “Housing units include one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, with a focus on one-bedroom units in the west tower and both unit types in the east tower. Both towers include rooftop amenities accessible to tenants. The towers rest on a two-story podium which includes tenant support and community spaces on the second level, as well as resident lobbies, retail, and support spaces – including bicycle parking, mail, loading and trash/recycling – on the ground floors.”
This separate project is itself planned to be up to 18 stories tall. This surface lot currently there replaced the old YMCA building that was demolished in 2008 and used to provide 100 affordable units when it stood there.
Tricia Van Horn, a spokesperson for the developer, Related Midwest, said in a press release last summer that once the AAHC bought the property in 2023 “with the goal of bringing much-needed affordable housing to this transit-oriented site in the heart of downtown, the Housing Commission reviewed proposals from seven developers as part of a competitive RFP process. Related, the largest developer of affordable housing in the Midwest, was ultimately selected to co-develop the project. As proposed, the development will include 260 to 300 units that will be considered affordable to a broad spectrum of households. The greater of a minimum of 100 units or a minimum of 40% of the units will be for households earning up to 60% of the area median income. Lifestyle amenities and coordinated services will enhance the residential experience at the new development.”
Just how many housing units a similar building over the library would provide is a decision years in the future; as is whether the project will be market rate, affordable or hybrid.
Wealthy communities like Ann Arbor are at the forefront of this increasingly complicated nationwide housing crisis. The census estimates that Ann Arbor’s $76,207 median household income might very well be above Michigan’s $69,183 but the unevenness of wealth distribution is shown through poverty rate. No less than 23.3% of Ann Arbor’s 123,851 individual people are impoverished, much higher than Michigan’s 13.5%. In fact, Ann Arbor’s per household income is actually $2,331 less than the national median, and its poverty rate is actually more than double the 11.1% nationwide average. Ann Arbor’s median gross housing rent is $1,652 per month, $551 more than Michigan’s $1,101 gross average. How much of an impact either of these projects would have on wealth distribution, housing const stresses, and the affordability for all but the wealthiest to live here is yet to be seen both by if this project is green lit, and in what form they take and if either get final approval.
RELATED: Ann Arbor Explores Bond Funding to Increase Affordable Housing Access
The feasibility study also proposes that a floor of space be used for offices. When asked to justify adding office space to downtown in an era of remote work and hybrid offices, Neiburger said: “The office floor shown in the 2018 feasibility study was intended to be rented to other orgs, and allow for expansion of the library years into the future. However, that component of the project as shown in the study may no longer make sense. But it is still a good idea to think about what the options would be after this project was complete if the library needed more downtown space 30 [or more] years down the line.”
At 180 feet tall, the library’s 2018 feasibility study tower proposal would be 67% as tall as Ann Arbor’s tallest, Tower Plaza just a block and a half away. The separate related-run project at 350 South Fifth Avenue would be around the same height. The manhattanization of downtown tends to divide opinion across town.
When asked about this, Neiburger said, “We know not everybody will be supportive of a project like this. But we have a housing shortage in Ann Arbor, and we need more housing of all types across the city. Downtown is the place where you would expect to find taller buildings and dense housing.”
The AADL has stressed ferociously that no public money will be spent on this new project since the bond proposal failed in 2012. Various ways to fund it – the selling of air rights, the Commercial Facilities Exemption of the 1978 Commercial Redevelopment Act, the Commercial Rehabilitation Act of 2005, the State Housing Development Act of 1966, 2000’s Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act, and even an idea to use brownfield funding – have been talked about but nothing has been settled upon.
Neither project has been greenlit yet. Ann Arborites interested in the outcome can follow the AADL Board schedule and they can do the same for the YMCA lot project by following the AACH Board. Members of the public can make suggestions, voice opposition or support at the public meetings of either board.
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
