Detroit Region Aerotropolis Initiative

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The Detroit Aerotropolis Initiative was created as a regional collaborative economic diversification initiative to leverage the Detroit Region’s world-class airport system and transportation assets into an economic development and job creation engine. Through Wayne County’s vision and leadership, Washtenaw County, seven municipalities, the Wayne County Airport Authority, and a myriad of private sector partners have all banded together to make this initiative a reality. The project revolves around the concept of regional collaboration, instead of competition, to create a preplanned aerotropolis—or airport city—between Detroit Metropolitan and Willow Run airports, thereby attracting new businesses and thousands of jobs to the region. In 2009, after two years of intensive study and implementation planning, the Aerotropolis Initiative was transformed into a sustainable collaborative program through the creation of the Detroit Region Aerotropolis Development Corporation (ADC). ADC is designed to be the focal point for potential new businesses to obtain information and assistance on available sites, permitting and zoning and economic incentives. The potential for the initiative is clear. The collective economic development efforts have resulted in commitments in the next several years for more than 6,000 new jobs and $1 billion worth of development in the aerotropolis region. Long-term, the project has the potential to create more than 60,000 new jobs and $10 billion in annual economic impact for the state.