Weston Hall opened in Virginia Park this spring with 47 affordable units and a workforce record embedded in the renovation itself.
The building was constructed in 1924. It sat vacant for more than two decades before Detroit Landmark Development Corporation purchased it. By the time work began, the disrepair was severe. What came back is something the city had not had before.
Ed Fowler, a partner at Detroit Landmark Development Corporation, describes Weston Hall as Detroit's first all-affordable smart apartment building. The 47 units are affordable by design, not by accident. The workforce component was not appended to the project. It was the project.
More than 200 Detroit residents trained on-site through a coalition of programs: Emerging Industries Training Institute, Center for Employment Opportunities, Detroit Training Center, Flip The Script by Goodwill, and Detroit At Work. Construction moved forward while routing wages and credentials to city residents who needed both. Crain's Detroit Business reported the full scope of the training coalition earlier this month.
Olen Womble and Amber Simpson are among the dozens of Detroiters who worked the full duration. Simpson came on in September 2020. Womble followed shortly after. When Weston Hall was finished, the two used what they had built — literally and credentially — to launch Day Rose Holdings LLC, a general construction company. The building produced its own contractors.
The units are one-bedrooms and studios. Residents control building systems from their phones. On-time rent payments feed into credit-building through a partnership with the Rocket Community Fund. That combination makes the building something beyond a roof. It is a structured entry point into financial stability for people earning in the lower and middle bands of area median income.
Virginia Park was among the neighborhoods most reshaped by the 1967 Detroit uprising. Weston Hall is a rare survivor of that era. The redevelopment did not paper over the history.
The building is open. The workers who built it are running their own firm. Virginia Park has one fewer vacant structure and a few hundred more people with trade credentials.
