Development has given the Michigan city momentum outside the typical media narrative It?s a common refrain: Flint still doesn?t have clean drinking water. This outcry, a reference to the long-standing crisis over tainted water, has become shorthand for the Michigan city. After being caricatured as suffering by decades of economic fallout from a shrinking auto industry, Flint has found itself uncomfortably lodged in the national news cycle, stuck on repeat.
But in a real estate and development market assumed to be on the ropes, there are unmistakeable signs of life. A landmark theater is buzzing with workers rehabbing its facade. Down the block, tech firms are scouting out locations in new co-working spaces and innovation hubs carved from nearby Art Deco warehouses and former department stores. A relocated farmers market had more than doubled its annual attendance in just a few years.
Capitol Theater
Capitol Theater in 1926

Capitol Theater
The theater this year, in the midst of a multimillion-dollar restoration

Similar stories of urban regeneration have been replayed dozens of times across the Rust Belt. Slowly, it?s becoming the narrative of Flint. For the last few years, as the water crisis dominated headlines, development along and near the city?s main drag, Saginaw Street, has picked up momentum. New loft apartments, office spaces, and other commercial projects have reenergized downtown.
The potential cen...