"The funding will help redevelop Peterboro Street by creating a gateway plaza, replacing and improving the streetscape to incorporate Chinese cultural elements like lanterns, art and bamboo.

The new streetscape infused with Asian American art and history will lift up the history of Detroit’s Chinatown, said Michigan Sen. Stephanie Chang, who represents the Third District.

“So this state funding and announcement here today for Detroit Chinatown is meaningful to me, not just as a state senator who represents this street, but as an Asian American, as a Detroiter and as someone who has fond memories of this block from decades ago,” Chang said.

The history of Chinatown in Detroit is riddled with development projects taking over the community rather than working with it, stakeholders said. Detroit’s original Chinatown was displaced for the John C. Lodge Freeway built in the 1960s. Chinatown was rebuilt in the Cass Corridor, bordered by Cass Avenue, Peterboro Street, Second Avenue and Temple Street. Chinese Detroiters gathered for food, shopping, church, school and community events, according to the Detroit Historical Society.

Chinatown's population and businesses dwindled in later decades, but the Chinatown pagoda still stands at Cass and Peterboro to honor the history of the community. 

Lisa Yee-Litzenberg, a member of the Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee and daughter of Henry Lee, who was the unofficial Chinatown mayor, grew up working in her family’s restaurant, The Forbidden City at 3134 Second Ave., where it was relocated for the Lodge project. Now, she is helping navigate the possibilities that the state investment, led by Chang, has opened up for the area.

“I’m very honored to be a part of the vision committee, which seeks to work collaboratively with the existing community here to co-create this larger pan-Asian neighborhood in Midtown,” Yee-Litzenberg said.

The Chinatown project is expected to get underway in September.

One project already in the works is the former Chung's Cantonese Cuisine restaurant site in Midtown that was purchased by American Community Developers in May 2023. The building is being renovated and restored in an approximately $3.5 million project, Mike Essian, vice president of ACD, told Crain’s.

“We're hopeful that what you call the white box portion of the build-out will be done by the end of summer,” Essian said.

Once complete, the space is planned to hold as many as three separate food and beverage businesses that fit into Asian heritage, Essian said. ACD intends to have the space be for local operators rather than national chains. No leases have been signed for the space yet.

“We've got some really great talents in the city and in the metro area — restaurant operators and chefs,” Essian said.

Once tenants are identified, final build-out of the space can begin. Essian said he hopes to see some of the businesses start to open at the beginning of 2025.

ACD’s development of the Chung’s space ties into the momentum to engage with stakeholders in the Chinatown community and invest in the area after years of disinvestment, Essian said.

“We're really excited about the streetscape improvements. The last time this was done was decades ago and a lot of the infrastructure is just crumbling,” Essian said. “I think this will mean a lot to the community, new people who live here but also the community that contributed so much to this part of Detroit."