DETROIT — The Kresge Foundation has administered grants totaling $2 million to 17 nonprofits for projects to revitalize neighborhoods across Detroit. This final round of grants in the pilot program, known as Kresge Innovative Projects: Detroit, brings the foundation’s grant total to $5 million over the past three years.
The new grants will fund, for example, the creation of a new community hub on Grand River Avenue in the Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood and conversion of a blighted five-block stretch of the Morningside neighborhood into an agricultural greenway. The grants support renovation of an abandoned duplex into an art center in central Detroit and a southwest Detroit program to promote the conversion of vacant second floors of commercial buildings into residential spaces.
In addition to the creation of community gathering spots, green spaces and conversion of abandoned properties to new uses, the initiative seeks to make neighborhood streets and sidewalks more walkable.
Kresge’s support for these shovel-ready projects ranges from $75,000 to $150,000 each. The latest grants were chosen from nearly 70 applications.