Henry Ford Health, along with Michigan State University and the Detroit Pistons basketball team, has overcome another hurdle in the planned $2.8 billion expansion of a healthcare campus in Detroit’s New Center neighborhood with the approval of nearly $300 million in state and local tax incentives.

In late February, in a vote of 6-3, the Detroit City Council approved $296 million in tax breaks to help fund five of the six projects that will be undertaken as part of the initiatives, which the developers have named the Future of Health. This includes a medical research center shared with MSU, hundreds of new mixed-income apartments, and a parking deck, reported ABC-affiliate WXYZ Detroit/Channel 7 News.

The only one that does not require incentives is the construction of a 21-story hospital under Henry Ford, due to the health system’s nonprofit status, which exempts it from paying property taxes. The hospital is the largest component of the expansion and will be more than one million square feet and be made up of a 400-bed patient tower, all private patient rooms, an expanded emergency department, operating suites, labs, radiology, and more.

With the research building and residential properties, it will cost $2.5 billion, Henry Ford Health confirmed to HCB News. The Gilbert Family Foundation is investing an additional $375 million to add the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab to the hospital building and the Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute to the research building.

In a statement, Henry Ford, the Pistons, and MSU said that Future of Health development will turn the New Center neighborhood into a vibrant, walkable community delivering the future of healthcare with an expanded state-of-the-art hospital and cutting-edge medical research combined with mixed-income residential, commercial, retail and recreational components.”

The existing Henry Ford Hospital will remain in use and its shared patient rooms will be converted to private rooms. The health system will integrate and connect its Detroit facilities through a series of tunnels, bridges, and walkways.

The Detroit Pistons and their owner Tom Gores will buy land from Henry Ford Health and its current headquarters and will build two nearby housing developments for it that will be made up of at least 500 apartments, reported the Detroit Free Press.

The tax deductions will be distributed over 35 years, and the first phase of the projects will begin sometime this year. Officials are aiming to open the hospital in 2029. Work on the research center is scheduled to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2027.

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