A bold vision for downtown Detroit: 2006 is the deadline for a revitalized urban core.

Is Detroit in the fast lane on the road to becoming a "Cool City?" If you ask the people who are hard at work on a collaborative economic-development initiative called the Lower Woodward Improvement Program, the answer is a resounding "yes!"

The project's goal is to add 900 residential units and 50 new small businesses, establish attractive and safe public areas and improve the overall image of Detroit and the entire region by February 2006 when Super Bowl XL comes to Ford Field (see box on page 25).

"These initiatives are part of a larger vision to develop a complete neighborhood. We are addressing how Detroiters and our guests live, work and play," says Greg Garland, executive vice president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC), the agency spear-heading the effort.

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In addition to DEGC, the Lower Woodward team includes DTE Energy and the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership, the economic-development arm of the Detroit Regional Chamber, which are lending time, talent and expertise to carry out the strategy as developed by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's office. Working collaboratively, these organizations are targeting and pursuing companies that potentially fit into the Lower Woodward profile.

Why the Super Bowl deadline? According to the DEGC, this single event is potentially capable of generating an estimated $372 million in new business to the host city, so it's being leveraged as a "forcing function" to accelerate implementation and galvanize the community and its stakeholders.

With $1.5 billion in major project investment, downtown Detroit has experienced some notable advances during the past five years. General Motors/Renaissance Center, Campus Martius, Compuware, Comerica Park and Ford Field are transforming the landscape, and the Lower Woodward Improvement Program is designed to keep the economic-development momentum in high gear, says Garland.

The Lower Woodward team has been at work for nearly a year, with several successes under its belt and more expected in the coming months. Discussions are now under way with local, regional and national retailers and restaurant chains interested in locating on the core streets of Woodward Avenue, Washington Boulevard and Broadway.

Housing development is aiding the attraction process as well. With lofts and condos coming on line quickly, residential development helps to attract restaurants, grocery stores and service-type businesses such as dry cleaners. Other investments in the area are helping to make Lower Woodward attractive to investment include the newly renovated and renamed Rose and Robert Skillman Branch of the Detroit Public Library and a new YMCA.

Developments like this attract people--and people attract investment. It's a textbook example of economic development at work.

Lower Woodward at a glance

These goals are to be achieved by Super Bowl XL in 2006:

* Add 900 additional residential units.

* Open 50 new small businesses.

* Establish attractive and safe public areas.

* Improve the overall image of the Detroit Region.

In order to transform the goals into reality, DEGC developed several integrated, coordinated initiatives including: streetscapes improvement; facade/parking lot improvement; business attraction; building renovation/demolition; residential loft conversion; and gap funding for loft conversion.

For more information, call the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. at [phone] or visit: www.degc.org.

For information on business attraction to the Lower Woodward area, contact Mary Grace Wilbert, principal account manager, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation at [phone].

Mark Denson is director of North American Marketing at the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership, the economic-development arm of the Detroit Regional Chamber.