Henry Ford Health and Grand Rapids-based BAMF Health will build a life sciences building planned for Detroit’s former Wayne County “fail jail” site off Gratiot Avenue.
The joint venture will open a theranostics center that will focus on molecular imaging and advanced cancer treatment, radiopharmaceutical therapy and research. The goal is to provide patients with greater access and affordability to individualized diagnostics and treatment as well as continue Michigan’s history of innovation in life sciences.
The company will occupy the first 45,000-square-foot floor of the two-story, 90,000-square-foot Life Science Building that’ll cover part of the 14-acre property at Gratiot and Interstate 375 that is being developed by mortgage mogul Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm, Bedrock LLC. Construction will begin this year with completion expected in 2027.
The facility will be BAMF Health’s second comprehensive theranostics center. Its headquarters in Grand Rapids opened in 2022 focused on precision medicine that leverages an individual’s unique genetics, environment and lifestyle for health care, research and radiopharmaceutical manufacturing.
“This world-changing partnership reflects a shared commitment to transforming how complex diseases are detected, treated, and managed,” BAMF Health CEO Dr. Anthony Chang said in a statement. “Together with Henry Ford Health, we will make precision medicine affordable and accessible to all while positioning Michigan as the national and global leader in advancing healthcare delivery and innovation.”
The development at 1326 St. Antoine originally was planned to be a five-story, 211,000-square-foot project, but the anchor tenant, Michigan Innovation Headquarters, pulled out after the loss of an investor. In addition to BAMF and MO-HQ, Ferris State University, Wayne State University and TechTown Detroit were involved in the partnership’s creation.
In October, BAMF was expecting to create approximately 90 full-time jobs with an average annual salary of close to $120,000. Henry Ford Health on Thursday didn’t have an updated number of employees for the theranostics center.
The county began building a new jail at the site east of Greektown in 2011, but halted the project in 2013 amid cost overruns. The project sat dormant until 2018. Wayne County entered a deal with Bedrock, which was given the old jail site and three other nearby properties. In exchange, it agreed to build a new criminal justice facility on Warren Avenue about two miles north.
Demolition of the former Wayne County Jail is underway. Crews began razing the former jail, which opened in 1929, in October.
The property also had been floated as the potential home of a Major League Soccer stadium and later announced as an innovation center affiliated with the University of Michigan. Stephen Ross and the Ilitch family subsequently developed plans for the UM Center for Innovation in District Detroit.
Henry Ford Health also is investing $3 billion as part of a Future of Health project that is expanding its New Center campus in the city. It includes the Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University Health Science Research Center and a new hospital tower across West Grand Boulevard from Henry Ford Hospital.
bnoble@detroitnews.com
@BreanaCNoble