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WATCH: Mayor Duggan announces start of $120M in construction projects

Posted at 12:44 PM, May 07, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-07 16:21:06-04

DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan held his daily briefing on Thursday and announced the restart of $120 million in construction projects for the city.

Duggan discussed construction projects that will pick up, as well as where the city stands in relation to the COVID-19 crisis.

As of Thursday, there are zero patients at the TCF Center temporary hospital, and it is effectively shut down until further notice. Duggan added that the facility will be on standby if it's needed.

Mayor Duggan announced that the city recently took a large donation from China's Tencent for masks, which will be provided to local funeral homes and grocery stores.

During the mayor's daily press conference, it was also announced that there have been 253 deaths at local nursing homes, with no new reports of deaths as of Thursday afternoon.

Duggan was joined by two developers, along with representatives of the TCF Center Field Hospital.

Those present at the briefing included:

  • Chief Public Health Officer Denise Fair
  • David DiRita, Principal/Owner, The Roxbury Group
  • Linda Little, Executive Director, Neighborhood Services Organization
  • Dr. David Strong, Chief Medical Officer at TCF Regional Care Center

We will be blogging what is said below:

2:09 p.m.

Duggan says they are restarting construction on six housing projects in Detroit, totally $120 million.

"We are going to build a city where there’s affordable housing," Duggan said. "Where people who work at the hospitals can live there too

Some of the projects include the Parker Durand project, the Gratiot project for permanent supportive housing and the Hudson's project.

2:02 p.m

Duggan says there are no patients at the TCF Center and it has been "closed down." The facility will remain in place for the time being, in case it is needed again.

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