Some of the investment is a result of tax incentives arranged through the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., which works with the city and other agencies to "land" relocations.

The non-profit entity's recent projects and municipal incentives include:

• Gateway Marketplace: a $62-million, 197,000-sq-ft retail center anchored by a Meijer supermarket, with tax increment financing and brownfield tax credits;

• Dearborn Midwest Conveyor: a $179-million investment in a former Chrysler Corp. engine plant site that has tax abatements;

•Belleview Development: a 43-acre site formerly occupied by Uniroyal Tire and other plants will become a mixed-use waterfront project; it has a $20-million grant for hazardous-waste removal;

• Cardinal Health Facility: a redeveloped 400,000-sq-ft repackaging, distribution and warehouse complex, with brownfield tax increment financing; and

• Former Federal Reserve Building: a 121,000-sq-ft Class A office-space re-development that also features brownfield tax increment financing.

Also coming this year is the start of construction on the M1-RAIL streetcar line, a 3.3-mile, $140-million project that is the result of public-private investment, according to Dan Kinkead, director of Detroit Future City, a broad-based urban planning group. The new line "provides necessary non-automotive transit for many living and working" in the downtown area, he says.

"The good news, lost amid the screaming headlines over bankruptcy, is that market momentum in Detroit's core is real and palpable and provides a strong foundation for future growth," wrote Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley, with the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, in an article last month.

Demolition City