Wendy Lewis Jackson and Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation speak to reporters Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: Samuel Robinson
The Kresge Foundation is moving its headquarters from Troy to Detroit and will invest $180 million to improve the Livernois-McNichols corridor.
Foundation leadership told reporters during a Thursday roundtable at the foundation’s Midtown office the plans to build its headquarters at the Marygrove Conservancy campus in Northwest Detroit include a five year investment to stabilize housing, home ownership, public space enhancements and commercial corridor revitalization.
The target neighborhoods include the Fitzgerald, Bagley, University District and Martin Park.
The foundation didn’t offer renderings of the proposed 70,000 sq ft headquarters at the campus, but said to expect its 130 employees to work there when it opens in 2028. The organization has tapped DS+R, Hood Design Studio, Hannah-Neumann/Smith to help design the building, according to a press release.
The foundation is advocating for an inclusive revival of Northwest Detroit through housing, education, economic development and climate resilience, it says.
Kresge CEO Rip Rapson also said it will also issue $130 million of bonds to fund the new headquarters and campus improvements. Rapson said the foundation would use bonds instead of its $4 billion endowment in order to not disrupt the foundation’s other work.
The foundation’s original headquarters was location in downtown Detroit but moved to Troy in 1970, Rapson said.
One part of the total investment is a $50 million fund to promote home ownership, home repair, wealth building, improvements in the physical environment and rental assistance, the foundation said. Kresge has also partnered with the Live6 Alliance to put vacant land to use. The Alliance is a neighborhood community planning and development group focused on improving Northwest Detroit.
The area has received a lot of attention in recent months, including a five-year pledge of hands-on expert support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to focus on revitalizing the corridor. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer held a press conference earlier this summer at Livernois and 6 Mile to celebrate the official designation of the Livernois-West McNichols area as a Michigan Main Street.
Wendy Jackson, Kresge Detroit Program managing director, said the organization is actively working to ensure displacement and gentrification is not a result of the investment. Jackson pointed to data found by the Brookings Institute that has show despite huge influxes of philanthropic resources in certain areas, there hasn’t been much displacement.
“So we want to build on that, and we’re talking with the residents and other community stakeholders, as well as the experts that we work with around the country about what some of those examples could be,” Jackson said.
Kresge’s $100 million investment in Detroit in 2014 was viewed as an instrumental piece of the city coming out of bankruptcy with funding community development and the arts. The foundation also transformed the closed Marygrove College in 2018 to a cradle-to-career education center with the University of Michigan and Detroit Public Schools Community District.
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